By Adam
At Rosewood, we pride ourselves on identifying housing trends (and, importantly, not fads) well before our competitors and, sometimes, even our customers.
Back in 2013, Gina Krajc (Rosewood’s Creative Director and my wife) told me the architecture and styling of the Hamptons region of the USA had a great potential to attract home buyers in the Sydney housing market. She thought it was the perfect style to showcase through our business as we have always been known to have a range of American inspired homes in our stable.
The towns of Bridgehampton, East Hampton and Southampton in Long Island, New York have been long known as the playground of the rich and famous. Featured in many movies as well as popular TV shows, the Hamptons style has come to reflect a relaxed classic architectural aesthetic.
However, when it was first discussed, I wasn’t sure what the architecture and styling of the Hamptons region actually looked like (and I may have needed to check an atlas to see where the Hamptons region actually was), so Gina started showing me images and sending me photos of the homes from that area. I soon had a grasp on the look she was referring to and started to realise the style’s potential.
As a licenced builder, I looked at practicalities first. I pointed out to Gina that cedar shingled external walls and roofs were neither practical nor affordable in the Sydney market. However, she told me to look past the nuts and bolts of construction and at the design features we could incorporate into the facades and interiors of our homes.
It made sense to me – and our incorporation of design features taken from the Hamptons region into the Rosewood Homes portfolio began.
We first incorporated what has become known as the Hamptons look onto our ‘Liana’ design in 2014 when we started developing a two-storey home for our own family. The evolution of the design and completion of construction saw us move into the home in 2017. The 61-square home with its Hamptons-inspired façade featured a Palladian-arched window; grey rendered walls, weatherboard cladding, and feature stonework that really stood out as something new and different in the streetscape of the local area.
The public interest in the home and the positive feedback reinforced the potential this style had for the Sydney home market. With the Rosewood team already working on Hamptons-inspired facades for all our designs, we started to see some of the larger mainstream builders releasing Hamptons-inspired homes themselves. The look had certainly grabbed the attention of the market.
Key features of a Hamptons style home we have incorporated into the ‘Liana’ home include:
- Timber detailing – especially exterior fretwork and balconies
- Stone features on the facade
- Shaker-style cabinetry complemented by marble benchtops in the kitchen
- The colour scheme- coastal neutrals with dark accents to formalise the home.
As the Hamptons look started being incorporated into most Rosewood designs, Gina decided to take it further, proposing a research trip to Long Island New York to explore the Hamptons region ourselves – back to the design source.
And, despite me thinking that looking at photos of Hamptons homes via the magic of the internet was a better idea (at least when considering the time involved and cost of a trip to the US), it wasn’t long before Gina had booked our flights and accommodation and the idea of a Hamptons exploration trip became a reality…
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