Five tips on how to create Hamptons style in your home

1. Take inspiration from your own experiences

The ultimate goal of Hamptons styling is to elicit a relaxed, comfortable, easy way of living. Simply put, this isn’t going to be achieved by replicating a furniture showroom. 

Instead, draw on your own interests, passions and experiences to create an individual aesthetic that pays homage to the Hamptons while incorporating your own personality. There are a few ways you can experiment with this.

Consider your past travels and introduce a sense of your favourite countries and their cultures – for example, chandelier pendants and fleur de lis patterns offer a subtle French flavour that maintains Hamptons glamour. 

2. Experiment with the Hamptons colour palette

Hamptons homes have always drawn colour inspiration from their surroundings, namely in the form of nautical whites and blues. However, these days today that palette has shifted to incorporate soft blues and greens, stone greys, sandy beiges and warm whites. 

Consider the overall feel you’d like to achieve in your home and stick to colours in the same temperature family. 

For a more classic and sophisticated Hamptons style, opt for crisper white bases contrasted with marbled greys, darker woods and pops of black. If pared-back comfort is more your scene, try creamy white walls complemented by oak timbers, jute rugs and beige furnishings. 

A more moody Hamptons vibe can be achieved by building your colour palette around charcoal-coloured carpets, stormy-grey feature walls and navy décor. Lastly, for a subtle sense of playfulness, bring in muted coastal colours in the form of seagrass green fabrics, silky blue walls and clay-coloured bases. 

while Hamptons style certainly centres upon coastal themes, be careful not to enter beach-house territory, which typically incorporates much bolder and brighter colour schemes (think vivid ocean blues, golden sunset yellows and coral pinks). 

3. Echo shapes throughout your spaces

Classic Hamptons homes feature beautiful gabled roofs and horizontal weatherboard cladding that inspire pattern play throughout each space. Hence, it pays to take note of the natural lines and angles in the architecture of your home, and find ways to repeat these shapes in your furnishings. 

This can be achieved in a range of ways: elegant arc legs of occasional chairs or side tables; bold line patterns in scatter cushions; sharp-angled balustrades; horizontal plantation shutters – even the most minor details such as the shape of a candlestick or the ornate features of a framed mirror.  

4. Work Hamptons design elements around your lifestyle

While the idyllic Hamptons home emphasises relaxed entertainment, you needn’t compromise your lifestyle to fit with this theme. Instead, find ways to make the design meet your needs.

For instance, if you’re creating a family-friendly Hamptons home, you might forego a traditional long dining table in favour of a round shape. Simply stick to similar colours and surfaces (such as a whitewashed timber) to evoke that Hamptons style that still maintains functionality. 

Alternatively, if you prefer to keep your home more intimate when it comes to socialising, replace a single oversized sofa with a couple of two-seaters or sumptuous occasional chairs. Lighting becomes even more paramount here: statement floor lamps are a great way to merge function with style by simultaneously occupying space where seating would be.

5. Go with the flow – literally

Lastly – and perhaps most importantly – look for ways to induce a sense of calm serenity and easy living. Hamptons style is not about contrived sophistication, but understated elegance that evokes equal parts class, equal parts comfort. 

This means creating as much flow between your spaces as possible. Keep rooms open and airy, using rugs and furniture to subtly zone off your areas. 

When choosing elements such as flooring, patterns, textures and paint colours, maintain a sense of consistency and cohesion throughout your home while allowing each room to feature its own distinctive traits. To achieve this, stick to two or three paint colours in order to visually connect each room, but incorporate a different design motif according to the use of the space (such as softer patterns in the bedroom versus bold lines and sharp angles in the bathroom).