Often associated with idyllic summers spent on beaches, sampling farm-to-table eateries, and perusing upscale lifestyle boutiques, the Hamptons are the retreat of choice for a fair portion of the well-to-do in the northeastern US.
Despite the region’s quaint, bucolic nature, there’s plenty of action here – certainly enough to attract movers and shakers from the city to these tony villages, whether seasonally or full-time.
In the case of home accessory designer and erstwhile lifestyle journalist Blue Carreon, serendipity and purpose played equal parts. He and his husband, Bruce Bromberg, had been looking to purchase a country home for years, even while in Hong Kong. “But we couldn’t commit because it would have been very difficult to maintain from overseas,” explains Blue. The search resumed once they decided to relocate permanently to New York City: “We came upon a new construction that was nearing completion, and it ticked all the boxes we were looking for.”
What constituted the “right” property from Blue’s perspective was a spacious retreat from urban living, ideally replete with a manicured garden. While they had envisioned the house as a vacation home, Blue eventually chose to live in the Hamptons full-time. “It was supposed to be a weekend home, but I found myself falling very much in love with the house, the Hamptons and the lifestyle,” he says.
Blue’s lingua franca as a designer – deeply detailed and vibrant, though short of being overly flamboyant, with loads of layers and depth complemented by personally collected objects – is communicated as deftly in his Hamptons residence as it is in his other homes in New York and his native Manila. “I wanted a grown-up aesthetic with lots of blue and white, but not in a clichéd nautical-seaside style,” he explains. “I chose a mix of an English country house style with a contemporary bent.”
As in the neighbouring homes, the abode is built as a shingle-style cottage, albeit with higher ceilings and larger spaces that lend the house well to a spectrum of styles. As the founder of his eponymous lifestyle line, Blue Carreon Home – which also has a brick-and-mortar space in the Hamptons – Blue took on the styling of the home himself, designing a majority of the furniture with factories he had previously worked with in the Philippines.
“We’ve always had apartments prior to this house, so the challenge was decorating on a large scale with multiple rooms and making sure that the rooms were distinct yet cohesive,” he says. Fabrics and textiles, all lushly printed and vividly coloured, immediately feel like the highlight of each space — but it’s the pieces collected over the years that tell the compelling story of a stylish life lived between Manila, Hong Kong, New York and now, East Hampton.
Of note is how much attention was showered on designing every nook – even those that typically receive less love. “I went all-out to transform the compact spaces into jewel box rooms,” Blue admits. For the mudroom, a wallpaper in a grisaille finish was selected specifically for its transportive quality. In the laundrette, a refreshingly blue space that’s also pure Blue, botanical prints adorn the walls – “as it is also where I do floral arrangements,” he explains.
One area that warranted professional help was the garden, which presented the biggest challenge for Blue. “I had never had a garden before, and didn’t know what to do with the space – what to plant, how to create privacy, which plants wouldn’t be touched by deer,” he shares. But as anyone who knows Blue and his tasteful eye will attest, no goal is too lofty or ambitious, as there isn’t much he can’t learn to do well. After working closely with landscape architect Mario Nievera, who planned the home’s flourishing garden, Blue’s seemingly boundless talent manifests in yet another pursuit: “I can honestly say that I planted everything in the garden – and everything is thriving.”
Photography by Doug Young
A version of this article originally appears in our April 2019 issue.
See also: The Resplendent Home of de Gournay's Successors
