Southampton Turnaround

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"We pared down the existing excesses," architect Lee F. Mindel says of a Southampton, New York, house he renovated with his partner, Peter L. Shelton.

"The living area's palette belongs to the sand and the sea," notes Mindel. Two Oscar Niemeyer chairs are at left.

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In one furniture grouping, a daybed, a low table and two leather-covered stools Shelton and Mindel designed are near a Poul Kjaerholm PK 20 wicker-and-steel chair and low table. The photograph above the sofa is by Paul Schick. At right is a 1940s French drafting lamp.

"This house has an unusual, inverted layout," says Mindel. "The public spaces are on the top floor and overlook the dunes and the water. The private first-floor rooms relate to the earth and are more weighted and sepia-toned."

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The kitchen is used for informal dining.

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In the dining area, three globe light fixtures hang above a custom table and leather-covered chairs. "The table grounds the space," Shelton remarks. "We created a cohesiveness through subtraction and simplification." Pastel fiberglass shell chairs flank a Vico Magistretti floor lamp.

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"It's as if Bye Bye Birdie met Austin Powers in Scandinavia," Mindel says of a girl's bedroom on the first floor. "The space has a youthful, optimistic quality." The round bath mats the architects had sewn into a rug "provide punches of color," he points out.

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Soft shades of blue and off-white permeate the master bedroom. "We brought the feeling of the ocean inside," says Shelton. "The palette absorbs the light during the brightest days and generates warmth when it's cloudy." Alexandre Noll wood sculptures are at rear.