What is a Hamptons House doing in an Australian beachside setting? It’s the result of a 15-year dream of Melissa and Terry Willesee, begun when the couple lived in New York, spending practically every holiday in the Hamptons and loving the distinctive style associated with the area. “We said we didn’t know where or when,” Melissa recalls, “but one day we would build one of these houses.”
They finally found the perfect place, on Sydney’s northern beaches, in a cul-de-sac. A fringe of large, mature trees provides the perfect backdrop and the 80-foot-wide block allows full display of the fabled style. As they were holiday dwellings, Hamptons-style houses always had a light and airy aspect and the big block meant the Willesees’ house would get a lot of sunshine.
DRAWING UP THE PLANS
Over the years, Melissa had sketched out thirty different versions of the house but she understood her limitations and those of her design. “It was really a series of boxes on paper,” she recalls. “I had no idea about some building basics, like how wide normal eaves were.” The couple called on the services of a Swedish draftswoman, Anna Holmquist, who was vital to executing their ideas. “She understood timber and was in tune with building with wood,” Melissa stresses.
The house has a wide wraparound porch, allowing plenty of room for day beds, other seating and swings. As it’s not something merely tacked on to the body of the house, it was vital the porch was both wide and deep as befits a functional part of the design. With prominent piers, the balustrades have strong square lines rather than rounded colonial pillars. It also has big, tall windows with transoms and a tressed roof rather than boxed eaves.
The exterior paint colour took much trial and error. While grey and white is a traditional look, the grey needed depth, without too much green, blue or brown in the hue. The couple decided against hiring a builder, instead relying on Melissa to project-manage the construction because of her many years’ experience styling houses not only for their family but for other clients. Before his stellar media career, Terry trained as a bricklayer and worked in construction. He carried out much of the work himself, taking demolition material to the tip, providing labouring and spending two hours each day cleaning up the site.
ELEGANT BEACH LIVING
Pale colours characterise the interior scheme; in homes in the Hamptons, there was a deliberate move away from the strong colonial colours of earlier eras. Melissa believes in using the same tones throughout the house, rather than throwing in feature walls in disparate colours. Because the ceilings are so high, she chose Smoky Silhouette grey from Haymes Paints for most of the walls. In rooms with lower ceilings, the same effect was achieved with Porter’s Paints Haloumi.
It's not just the architectural design that sets this house apart, it's also the Willesees’ keen eye for detail and their strong sense of personal and family style. A part of this is the inventive way they found to use Melissa’s collection of vintage fabrics – displaying them through old-style sunhats, pillows and lampshades.
Other clever ideas included retaining old concrete tubs from the demolished house and turning them into a remarkable feature in the laundry. They also sought out specially milled beadboard to use as wall cladding to closely imitate the American type of tongue-and-groove panelling. They scoured demolition yards for extraordinary finds like the amazing front doors and occasionally splurged on touches such as the stunning freestanding bath, made from English cast iron. All these things came together under Melissa and Terry's watchful and skilful eyes, with the intention of creating something else that starts with ‘H’ – not just Hamptons, but also Home.
Story by Jebby Phillips
Photography by Tony Potter
Styling by Amy Frost