A Hamptons Guide: From Façade to Fit-Out
- Home Designs
- Design Inspiration
The short version
- Hamptons style borrows from the holiday villages at the end of Long Island: gable roofs, weatherboard cladding, big windows, wraparound verandahs and lots of white.
- Fibre cement weatherboard gives you the cladding look, and YourHome rates it as durable and low maintenance, with products available up to BAL-FZ.
- Those deep verandahs and eaves earn their keep here. They can block up to 90 per cent of the solar heat that would come through the glass.
- Inside its white walls and timber floors is an open kitchen with an island bench and oversized pendant lights.
- A Hamptons façade usually sits above the base price of a design, so ask for a tender before you commit.
The Hamptons home design is an architectural house style inspired by a country holiday hotspot favoured by America’s rich and famous.
Hamptons style homes are all about old-world charm combined with relaxed and coastal-vibe living. Designs are spacious, open and embrace indoor-outdoor flow.
Hampton design homes often include:
- Two storeys
- Gable-style roofs
- Balconies and porches
- Large windows and doors
- Weatherboard-style cladding
- Spacious and open interior design
- Light and natural colours including white
- A colour accent on trims or window frames
Ornate mansions located in The Hamptons regularly fetch multi-million dollar prices, however the style has influenced modern home design so you can now achieve coastal-style luxury at an affordable price, even though Australia is thousands of kilometres from the villages where the style first originated.
With Australians continuing to show keen interest in the iconic home style, Rawson Homes has made it possible for Australians to create a contemporary Hamptons aesthetic, from façade to fit-out. Check out our more classic Hamptons-style Elyse design, or the Brindabella with its Light Hampton Enhanced façade (pictured further down).
For those looking to achieve the classic Hamptons style with ample space, our 5-bedroom designs offer the perfect blend of elegance and functionality.
If you’re seeking a more individual floorplan with Hamptons features, look at Rawson Homes’ Adapt and fully Tailored design options.
A word on cost while we're here. A Hamptons façade (the gable, the cladding, the verandah posts and the extra trim) usually sits above the base price of a design as an upgrade. How much depends on the design and the options you pick, so ask for a tender before you commit.
FUN FACT 1: The Hamptons are a collection of country villages located at the easternmost end of Long Island (the same island that the Brooklyn and Queens parts of New York City are on). Given that it’s only a couple of hours drive from NYC, The Hamptons sees a significant influx of holiday makers on weekends and over the summer holidays.
Exterior: First Appearances
A Hamptons façade is an elegant choice that bridges classic and coastal looks, all while offering strong street appeal. Local home buyers have an enduring love affair with the Hamptons home, and much of that comes down to the grandness it presents. The texture, colour and depth of the façade are what draw the eye.
The features that are part and parcel of a Hamptons style home are easy to spot.
A large roofline, double-hung windows and a wraparound verandah are the signatures, and a Hampton-influenced exterior manages to look sophisticated while still feeling homely.
That wraparound verandah is doing more than looking pretty. Hamptons homes have a lot of glass on the front, and in an Australian summer that glass is where the heat gets in. According to the Australian Government's YourHome guide to shading, well designed external shading such as verandahs and eaves can block up to 90 per cent of the solar heat that would otherwise come through your windows.
Weatherboard is part of the look, and fibre cement weatherboard is one way to get it. YourHome's page on cladding systems describes fibre cement weatherboard as durable, dimensionally stable and low maintenance, with products rated up to BAL-FZ for bushfire prone land.
FUN FACT 2: The villages of the Hamptons are dominated by lush trees and tall hedges which give some privacy to those living or holidaying in huge mansions all in close proximity to beautiful beaches.
Interior: Hamptons Hallmarks
Beyond the warm and welcoming façade, typical interior design features of the Hamptons look include white walls, wooden floorboards, marble benchtops and oversized accessories such as pendant lights.
Kitchens are generally open and often have a central bench that provides both a workspace and breakfast-bar style stool seating. Shell-shaped drawer and cabinet handles are common ways of bringing the coastal location of The Hamptons into the home.
The versatility and adaptability of the style make it well suited to the Australian way of life.
Australia’s relaxed, comfortable, indoor-outdoor lifestyle lends itself well to this style of home, and the style can be adapted to create more than one look, from coastal to traditional, modern and more glamorous.
To see how Hamptons exterior and interior feature ideas might enhance your dream home design, explore options in our design studio to see how they both look and feel.
FUN FACT 3: ‘The Hamptons’ is an informal name that arose from the fact that the two larger towns at the end of the island are called East Hampton and Southampton. There are also smaller villages and hamlets called Hampton Bays, Westhampton and Bridgehampton.
Furnishings: Finishing Touches
Typical Hamptons style furnishings include comfortable and oversized furniture, often in white or light shades of grey with an added accent of colour through use of cushions and throws.
Wood and rattan are commonly used materials for furniture, with the look lending itself to large lamps and pendant-style light fittings.
Hampton style homes look their best when their spaciousness is enhanced by a lack of clutter and outdoor living spaces are valued as equally as internal rooms.
FUN FACT 4: Celebrities who have called the Hamptons home (or holiday home) include Beyonce, Gwenyth Paltrow (who grew up in the region), Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Jessica Parker, The Kardashians and Jimmy Fallon.
Put it all together for an instant classic
Thankfully, you don’t need to be rich or famous to live in a Hamptons style home.
Far from being an unaffordable style enjoyed by an exclusive few, Rawson Homes has enabled more people to live their dream by putting this coveted home aesthetic within reach of buyers without New York-sized cheque books.
One positive of a Hamptons style home is that its timeless quality means it’s not going to go out of fashion anytime soon.
That makes it a good way to avoid home design fads that lose appeal quickly. Opt for a timeless style that will stay in vogue for decades to come.
Clients of all ages and lifestyles ask about this look, and one of the greatest benefits of this style of home is that you’re not going to build something that will date.
It’s no wonder that everyone from young first homebuyers to retiring downsizers show interest in a Hamptons-style home. Trends may come and go but the combination of elegance and relaxation means that a Hamptons home never goes out of style.
If you love chic-meets-coastal design, check out our Hamptons style homes at a Rawson Homes display location this weekend!
