A Hamptons Beach House Gets a Minimalist Makeover With Midcentury Vibes

Architectural designer Sarah Reilly of Studio Rozu draws inspiration from Charlotte Perriand’s 1934 beach house to make her surf shack dreams come true.

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Marni Elyse Katz

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They say the third time’s a charm. That is certainly true for architectural designer Sarah Reilly, founder of Studio Rozu, who sought a more modern house to remake in the Hamptons after buying, renovating, and flipping traditional ones in Sag Harbor and Shelter Island.

The house is essentially an upscale surf shack. The design outdoors facilitates easy showering, cleanup, and board storage.

A huge Moroccan rug sourced from a dealer on Etsy anchors the living area. The Afra & Tobias Scarpa Soriana lounge chairs for Cassina were designed in 1969, but fully embody 1970s style. The Donald Judd Single Daybed 32 fits a twin mattress.

Materials were key from start. Sarah drew inspiration, both for materials and the project’s allegiance to indoor/outdoor living, from the beach house that French architect Charlotte Perriand conceived in 1934. Fashion house Louis Vuitton constructed the unrealized plan for Design Miami in 2013; Sarah saw it in Paris in 2019.

A guest bedroom boasts CP1 wall lights designed by Charlotte Perriand in the 1960s. The rug is Moroccan, and the sling chair is from Homenature in Southampton.

Sarah reconfigured the layout, turning the two-bedroom with one bath into a three-bedroom with two baths. The entire interior is clad in cedar planks. "I was very committed to cladding throughout, despite the cost," the architectural designer says. "I’d rather have none than just do one wall."

Sarah cites Perriand’s clean, minimalist aesthetic as influential (Perriand oversaw interiors at Le Corbusier’s studio from 1927 to 1937), as well as its camp-like vibe. "I’m interested in the feeling you get when you’re inside a house," she says.

To achieve that feeling, Sarah lined the entire interior with cedar planks. "I was going to adhere more closely to the Louis Vuitton house—plywood interiors, stainless-steel bathrooms—but it evolved," she says. "A cedar-clad interior felt richer, and a stainless-steel bathroom is not the coziest situation." She echoed the stainless steel kitchen counters, but admits that the material isn’t the best from a functional standpoint.

A Hem Puffy lounge chair by Faye Toogood sits in a corner of the primary bedroom. Sarah draped a piece of unhemmed gauzy fabric she got on Etsy over a rod to filter the sunlight.

While Louis Vuitton’s interpretation of Perriand’s design features wood plank flooring, Sarah envisioned poured-in-place concrete floors for her beach house. However, even after she shored up the sagging foundation, the engineer advised her not to chance it. Instead, Sarah opted for a micro-topping finish: a three-millimeter-thick, very hard resin in dark gray. "It reads as concrete, but it’s not as hard on the feet," she says.

In the primary bath, the vanity countertop and integrated sink is done in the same micro-topping material as the room’s walls and floors.

The micro-topping runs throughout the house on the floor, and up the walls of the primary bath. There, the surface has a bit more variation and offers lively interplay with the reeded glass shower enclosure. "It’s troweled on, sanded, and polished," Sarah says. The effect, it turns out, is not that far from the stainless steel used in Vuitton’s Perriand bath.

Pretty drinking glasses and such are displayed on the six-inch-wide shelf above the sink. Sarah was excited to incorporate the Vola faucet she fell for years ago.

The cantilevered vanity and the minimalist cabinetry in the kitchen are crafted from white oak, which Sarah chose for its clean, straightforward appeal as well as its durability. "I used the same whitewash finish on the cedar and the oak millwork to tie it all together," she says. "That was very important to me.

Sarah identified the Santa & Cole Tekiò linear suspension light as a statement piece early in the design process; its metal frame is wrapped in Japanese washi paper. The Gaggenau induction cooktop integrated into the counter on the back wall is nearly invisible. The undercounter fridge drawer is entirely inconspicuous. "I made this as minimal and modern as I could because the last kitchen I designed was very traditional," Sarah explains. The steel column was added for support after taking down a wall.

Sarah slotted a utility room behind the kitchen to house the oven, an extra fridge, pantry cabinets, and the laundry. A Navajo rug that Sarah found at a local yard sale adds a touch of color. The countertop and backsplash are stainless steel. She found the counter stools at a local thrift shop. "I scour secondhand shops and go to as many yard sales that I can," she says. "Each piece is the result of weeks of searching."

Such inclination is no surprise; Sarah’s father is a woodworker, and she grew up in his woodshop. She based the reclaimed oak kitchen island design on workshop mainstays. "It’s an amalgamation of my favorite parts of various workbenches," she says. She also made the bench in the entry with a Japanese woodworker as an interior architecture student at Rhode Island School of Design.

The bench Sarah made when she was a student at Rhode Island School of Design sits under industrial-style hooks in the entry.

Sarah used tadelakt, a lime plaster composite, with a polished wax finish on the interior face of the chimney.

Sarah incorporated the home’s other furnishings with equal intention. For the living room, she commissioned a custom Donald Judd daybed, painted black to disappear. She specified higher arms, plus casters so she could move it around. "It’s so iconic; as an object I totally love it," she says. The low-slung Afra and Tobias Scarpa chairs, now reupholstered in black leather, hail from a friend’s grandmother’s basement.

The Charlotte Perriand cylindrical wall sconces by Nemo in the primary bedroom were a key element from the start. Sarah designed the white oak plywood side tables. The Moroccan horsehair rug has a speckled effect with neutral stripes.

Lighting is also a cornerstone of the design. The Japanese-influenced Santa & Cole pendant over the kitchen island, and the Charlotte Perriand blue linear sconces in the primary bedroom were must-haves from the start. "It’s good to be certain about a few things to set the tone—then you can play around with other stuff," she says. "Every element you bring in affects the feeling."