After buying a 1950s house in the small East Hampton hamlet of Amagansett, fashion stylist Tiina Laakkonen and husband Jon Rosen built a compound of barn-like structures designed to pay homage to the land’s rural traditions.
Laakkonen, who owns the nearby shop Tiina the Store, grew up in southeastern Finland. Rosen and Laakkonen wanted a summer retreat furnished in a palette of black, white, and indigo that she describes as a “tightly curated version of all things Finnish.” (For more of Laakkonen and Rosen’s summer house, see Rhapsody in Blue: A Finnish Stylist at Home in the Hamptons.)
Blue is a color that predominates both indoors and out, where the water in the swimming pool competes against a riotous sky-colored hedge of hydrangeas for the title “Most Blue.”
Photography by Matthew Williams.
Above: Irregularly shaped stone pavers add a note of informality to undercut the symmetry of the hydrangeas in blue pots that flank the gate of the zinc-roofed pool house. Above: A rustic split-rail fence encloses the swimming pool. Above: A swath of green lawn connects the two blue elements in the landsacpe. Above: A pitch pine, a North American native tree, provides a dramatic focal point in the gently sloped lawn. Above: Laakkonen and Rosen worked with Bagchee Architects, with a goal of building new structures on the four-acre property without disrupting the surrounding natural scenery or surrounding woodlands. Above: Indoors are polished concrete floors and sliding doors that open up the living room to the outdoors. Above: The compound of barn-like structures includes a guest barn, living barn, and master bedroom barn. A permeable gravel driveway softens the effect of the hardscape around the garage. Above: A ribbon driveway with a mown grass strip curves gently, following the contours of the land. For more on Laakkonen, see Finnish Modernism Comes to the Hamptons on Remodelista.
Finally, get more ideas on how to integrate a swimming pool into your landscape or exterior home project with our Hardscaping 101: Swimming Pools guide.
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