A Renovation Simplifies Life at a Wood Beach House in the Hamptons

A 4,130-square-foot vacation home finds harmony in a cohesive design.

When a 30-something couple with a baby on the way purchased an East Hampton vacation home in need of a renovation, the challenges they faced were enough to make them wonder if they'd made a big mistake. The property sprawled across its parcel of a quiet cul-de-sac in a series of lackluster additions, and its many rooms made for a disjointed design. Principal Robert Young and his eponymous firm wanted to streamline the complicated layout—a beach house is supposed to be laid back, after all—and he opted to do so without employing major construction. “The challenge was not to tear it down just because it was ugly,” he says. Instead, his team worked “to save and enhance the good parts while removing or de-emphasizing the bad.” A dull, overpowering exterior was traded for layered cedar and six bedrooms were opened to light. All it took was a little imagination, and a clever use of new elements, to steady the owners’ nerves.

“The principal forms were there,” architect Robert Young says of the original property.

A series of “ad-hoc additions,” as Young refers to them, gave the original home a confusing layout.

“[We wanted to] discover and leverage the latent potential hidden under all the unpleasantness,” Young says.

The kitchen’s stainless-steel range by Wolf matches the Tolix counter stool, which stands beside an island topped with...

“We brought the cedar siding of the exterior inside strategically, both to blur inside and out and to give texture,”...

The master bathroom’s countertops are detailed with the same Carrara marble seen in the kitchen.

White oak flooring continues into a media room with furnishings by Knoll.

From outside, the home's Western red cedar facade harmonizes with the wooded site.

Fleetwood Windows & Doors gave the home ample access to sunlight. Matching CB2 lounge chairs face the pool.