When Jordan Carlyle and Mario Margelist tired of constant commuting – Marglist commuted from Switzerland to New York – and the hectic life of New York City where they have an apartment, they started looking for a house. They wanted a quieter lifestyle in a location where they could both live and work.
Eventually, they discovered a rare gem, a Georgian Colonial farmhouse in East Hampton. East Hampton, on Long Island, New York, is located about 100 miles from New York City, and famous for its long, white sandy beaches.
The outside of the farmhouse was lovely and the 1.7-acre, formerly wooded plot, was wonderful, but the interior needed a total rework and the house needed a lot of structural and other upgrades.
Luckily the two have the talent and the expertise to pull it off. Mario Margelist is founder of Swiss luxury goods consignment boutique and online store Lux. Lux sells authentic designer consignment fashion and accessories from luxury brands such as , Hermes, Chanel, Versace, Chloe, Dolce & Gabbana, Dior, Lanvin, Roberto Cavalli and Stella McCartney.
Jordan Carlyle founded Carlyle Fine Art in 2005, Carlyle Designs in 2007, and his own furniture collection, Carlyle Collective, in 2013. His businesses are based in New York and he is known for elegant, clean modernist lines and monochrome schemes, all mixed with retro and antique touches. His firm has completed villas in the Middle East, and city and country homes throughout the US.
In their East Hampton home, Carlyle and Margelist wanted to retain the charm of the farmhouse. They did this, for example, by preserving the exterior appearance completely and restoring the 18th-century front door and the pine wood floors.
More or less everything else is new to the house, although not necessarily brand new. There are reclaimed materials, retro and antique pieces and several custom-created features.
And this balance of preserved, repurposed, retro, antique and brand new is the over-arching gorgeous aspect of this project. The peaceful and unassuming white exterior and the now-modern, but compact and livable interior with relatively small rooms and absolutely magnificent details, make this a home. Not a showpiece or a pretentious display of excess, but a home with the elegance and style that the two value, not just in their work but in their personal lives.
We love, for example, the small elongated bar room with its imposing, yet compact antique limestone bar by Wood Island Bros and the cool Paysage rug by Atelier Février A.
The master bedroom, with its pair of small windows, exposed ceiling beams and the 1940s Danish arm chair and ottomans, is also strikingly beautiful.
Magnificent stone features can be found throughout as well. For example, in the small breakfast area by a whole row of windows, a custom-designed clay table by Carlyle Collective and 1940s Danish leather chairs sit on top of a Bar Gris limestone floor. The floor stone was salvaged from a 400-year-old French farmhouse.
And the stunning double sinks in the guest bathroom are hand-carved limestone blocks from Morocco. To lift them into the house through the windows, a crane was needed as the blocks are solid stone.
And, of course, we must mention the subtle colour scheme of the entire residence. It speaks of peace and tranquility and creates a feeling of solid permanency. These, of course, were exactly the feelings the pair was after. Excellent achievement. Tuija Seipell
Images: Adrian Gaut
