Elevated Style

A floating staircase seems to gently fall out of the ceiling, creating a dramatic entryway in this Hamptons home.

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When the Studio 3H team took on the renovation of a traditional Gambrel-style Hamptons home, the design brief was both clear and complex: to completely transform the existing house into something contemporary.

What began as an open-ended endeavor with the clients quickly turned into "one of the projects that we are most proud of," according to Studio 3H founder and lead architect Mike Hill.

This was in large part due to the team’s collaboration with Viewrail, a one-stop shop for floating stairs. Because the tone for a home is set the minute you walk through the door, special emphasis was placed on the entryway—and, more specifically, a sleek statement staircase.

"We framed it conceptually as Tulum and Ibiza meets the Hamptons," explains Hill. The clients ultimately wanted the renovation to have a modern, awe-inspiring touch, while still maintaining the calm feel of a beach-adjacent residence.

Hill opted for Viewrail’s FLIGHT Stack system, which features two fully hidden zigzag steel stringers that follow the profile of the stairs. "What I like most about this particular system is the simple magic it seems to express," says Hill. "There is no visible structure or hardware, just elemental blocks stacked on top of one another." This creates the optical illusion that the staircase is falling out of the ceiling. There’s also the mandatory blocking of the walls and base, so even though it looks as if it’s suspended in midair, the entire construction is solidly anchored.

While the illusion might seem like a complex installation, Hill says Viewrail made the entire process virtually seamless—completely taking out the guesswork from start to finish. The stairs, delivered as prefabricated elements, were installed on-site by Viewrail’s expert team in a few days.

"As the staircase is the first thing you see upon entering the home, this was a great opportunity to set the tone for the entire property," Hill says. The carefully considered design does just that, creating a functional work of art that ties the entire home together.