DIY inspiration: Hampton Designer Showhouse

The 2010 Hampton Designer Showhouse proves that trendy can be attainable. Here's a sneak peek inside the Sag Harbor home, which opens this weekend.

SHADES OF WHITE

Many spaces throughout the house feature white with punches of color, like the kitchen porch by Manhattan designer Nancy Pearson. Here, there are floor-to-ceiling billowy white sheers, white lacquered chairs, two white Chinese garden stools, a mirror with a white frame and a sectional with a white slipcover. "We're in a computer age where everyone's texting; we're being bombarded with a lot of information," says Pearson, who is summering in Southampton. "When people are home, they like the simplicity of white. It's very calming."

DIYer tip: It's also great for those who like change. "When you're bored, change the pillows," she suggests.

TIME TO MODIFY

The soaring living room features a new line that HB Home, which has a store in East Hampton, has created for furniture maker Kindel. The hall table that might normally be featured in mahogany with gilt is featured here in cerused oak with plaster detail. "It's a whole new way of looking at traditional furniture," says Pat Healing, HB Home founder with fellow designer and business partner Dan Barsanti.

DIYer tip: Instead of a Chinese screen or a hand-painted mural, the room features a white lacquered screen of concentric rectangles. Adventurous and talented at-home designers might try to make their own modifications to the traditional. "You have to pick your punctuation - something that draws your eye in," Healing says.

NOT SO MELLOW

This guest room by Manhattan designer Arden Stephenson is all about yellow, from the saturated walls to the silken wool rug to the HB Home vases. "I think people need a little happy, given everything else going on in the world," she says.

DIYer tip: This Ralph Lauren paint didn't come right out of the can. Stephenson mixed two shades of yellow with white to get the right color. "You really have to play with it," she says, adding that she mixed, painted and let it dry several times before deciding on the right hue. "You just need to mix it until it's right for you."

INSIDE OUT

What's next in outdoor furniture? Something like this poolside setting provided by Southampton-based Covertech Llc. The white, high-backed love seat and chairs in widely woven wicker is the new look, says Torsten Heincke, chief executive and owner of Covertech.

DIYer tip: Heincke predicts that consumers will start seeing such outdoor settings at big-box retailers like Target and BJ's within the next two to three years. "What's problematic is you need an area for it," Heincke says.

BIG JEWELRY

The mostly white traditional kitchen is dressed up with larger-than-usual hardware designed by Sag Harbor-based Bob Bakes. The designer created the solid brass cabinet handles plated with polished nickel.

DIYer tip: "Dress things up a little," Bakes suggests, adding that items such as the lights can be a little different. "Don't be afraid to experiment." He used simulated ship lights from appropriately named shiplights.com. But, he adds, check out kitchen cabinet design websites for ideas and then shop for look-alikes for deals.

ON THE WALL

Wall coverings make a big showing this year. Check out the almost-black navy Phillip Jeffries Lacquered Strie wall covering (above) in the game room by Manhattan designer Bradley Stephens, the brown Phillip Jeffries wallpaper that contains granite and vermiculite in the butler's pantry done by Old Town Crossing in Southampton and the hand-printed wallpaper by Milan artist Idarica Gazzoni in the nearby studio. "Wallpapers are so big because they give a lot of texture and drama to flat walls in any house," says Tony Manning, showhouse producer. "An interesting way to add dimension to any room is through textured wallpaper."

DIYer tip: Take chances on the wall, urges West Hollywood designer Joe Lucas, who did the studio with partner Parrish Chilcoat featuring that rose, gray lavender and marigold orange floral wallpaper by Gazzoni. "It's going to be the star of the room," he says. "If you go with a pattern, go with something fun. It almost becomes the art."

STRAIGHT TALK

In the den, horizontal lines become a theme. Manhattan designer Patrik Lönn says he used them in the wall coverings, rugs, pillows and even the art to not only balance the high ceilings but to make the room more dramatic.

DIYer tip: Make sure to round out the lines somewhat, as Lönn has with the round welded steel sculptures by Water Mill artist Joel Perlman. "It's a nice juxtaposition," Lönn says.

GET CREATIVE

See the chandelier in this study? It's made of craft paper ($40 from Michael's) wrapped around (with staples, some string and a tiny bit of masking tape) a Home Depot light fixture ($80). "I wanted something different," says Manhattan designer Irwin Weiner, who created it. He also did the fabric wainscot of Schumacher printed linen (affixed with decorative nailheads), the asymmetrical painting (done with standard size canvasses that he later framed) and the artist's statement (obviously) inside an old cribbage board.

DIYer tip: More ideas abound in the bathroom, where Weiner has placed hotel-appropriated shampoos inside an interestingly shaped glass vase, shown framed Polaroids found at tag sales and antique shops and used an outdoor spotlight ($21) to make it all work.

WHAT The 2010 Hampton Designer Showhouse

WHERE | WHEN 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week through Sept. 5 at 129 Stoney Hill Rd., Sag Harbor

INFO $30, which includes show house journal; no strollers, infants, children under 6 or pets allowed; no tickets sold 30 minutes before closing; 631-377-3500, hamptondesignershowhouse.com/index.html

For sale

ASKING PRICE $5.25 million

SQUARE FOOTAGE 10,800, including the lower level

LOT SIZE 4.7 acres

STYLE Cedar shingled postmodern

FEATURES Seven bedrooms, 8 1/2 baths, 2,300-square-foot wraparound porch, 50-foot pool with hot tub and sun bed, built-in firepit with waterfall, movie theater

DEVELOPER Frank Bodenchak, Edge Capital Management Llc, 917-968-9020