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BRYAN GRAYBILL
@bryangraybill

27,675 followers

@historicalconcepts and I created a narrative for a house that didn’t exist on a lot in the heart of East Hampton Village. We needed to demolish a poorly built cinder-block ranch house and start from scratch. I was adamant that I didn’t want the house to feel like a new-build. Our story begins in the late 1770s (because 1770 is my favorite restaurant in East Hampton). A family settles a parcel of land and begins farming it. The original house was made of brick for fire resistance. During winter, the family often slept in the kitchen, the largest room in the house at the time, for warmth from the stove used for both cooking and heating. Over the generations, modest Shaker-style additions were made. After the marriage of the fifth-generation farmer’s son to a Sag Harbor Captain’s daughter, a dowry was used to finance a much more ambitious renovation in the mid-nineteenth century. The subsequent owners of the house fell on hard times and began renting out rooms for income. The house became known as an Inn, and the challenge to the architects was to pretend they were looking at a historic inn in need of modern renovation. This storyline guided the team in designing the kitchen. I didn’t want the kitchen to have an excessive amount of “fitted” cupboards. Rather, I wanted the kitchen to feel a bit cobbled together with an English sensibility. We intended to use the house year-round, and considering the original farmers, I imagined that we (plus the dog) would spend time in the kitchen reading by the fire and have close friends over for kitchen table suppers from time to time. Yet, I didn’t want the kitchen to feel like a living room. Beyond the footprint of the “original kitchen,” we built a larder that acts as a real workhorse. Occasionally, we hire caterers or chefs who work between the larder and a large-format grill porch, allowing the front kitchen to be reset as a buffet. The photographer @ericpiaseck, captured the room during various seasons and the images were featured in the book “Visions of Home” by @andrew.cogar.hc for @rizzolibooks #easthampton #kitchendesign #anglomania