Not many families have the kind of dynamic in which an older sibling would be handed the keys to a recently purchased Hamptons home and entrusted to design every square foot, from kitchen and bathroom construction to bedding and bud vases, with zero homeowner input. But Cobble Hill–based AD PRO Directory designer Olivia Song found herself precisely in that position, when she suggested—nay, insisted—that she would build her brother and sister-in-law’s dream escape away from the city, at no charge. “I’ve always been in awe of Olivia’s work and never thought she would offer her services to us,” client Amy Hsieh says of the Sag Harbor project, which brings together wabi-sabi and rustic Brooklyn style in an area better known for high privets and pergolas. “My husband and I gave her carte blanche.” The dynamic, as described by Hsieh, very much spoke to a previously established sibling dynamic. And the tone was: “‘We’re going to do it the way I want to do it, and it’s going to look good, I promise you,’” the homeowner recalls.
To rein herself in, Song set careful creative parameters. Ultimately, the home, a farmhouse with a 1990s patchwork addition, had to be a functional retreat from her brother and Hsieh’s frantic borough life, while providing punctuated work-from-home options and first-floor quarters for proverbial Hamptons summer guests—including Song’s own husband and children. Designed during the height of the pandemic, everything for the 3,600-square foot renovation was either in-stock or vintage. White oil pine flooring and muted colors heighten the spectacularly mature gardens (which fortunately only required some gentle TLC), pushing the visual experience outdoors. The dining area—formerly a fusty sitting room—where Song omitted window treatments in order to let the flowering trees and plantscape frame the vista, is now Hsieh’s favorite part of the home.
“I like to talk about the squint test,” Song explains of her ethos. “If your eyes were a little watery, and you close them in a space, nothing would really stand out to you. Because I had a lot of trust from my brother and sister-in-law, I could just scoop things up when I saw them, when there was an opportunity at a sample sale or at auction.” And when she couldn’t source something fast enough, she created custom solutions—fabricating a pair of sleek American black walnut nightstands and a terrazzo marble powder room sink console.
“I’m a little bit of an interior design hoarder,” confesses Song, who at the time of this project was moving from her nearby Sag Harbor property to Bedford, New York. “I had a lot of things floating around that they were the beneficiary of…” she says. One example includes the Joseph Piccillio charcoal horse artwork above the primary bedroom fireplace.
A top priority was Song honoring her family’s cultural heritage. “You have to have some reminders of who you are,” Song asserts of her design philosophy. To wit: She hung Thomas Cameron’s oil painting Chinatown Rain next to the central staircase and placed a Chinese-red lacquer side table in her nephews’ attic loft bedroom, nearly identical to the one Song grew up with in her childhood home.
The result is a blend of off-kilter patina that feels serenely eclectic and collected over time, yet has plenty of room for evolution. “This is the next chapter of their life,” Song says. “They’re not going to get sick of anything. And they can also buy their own things, and insert them in, and have everything be part of the mix—but not out of place.”