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HC&G HAMPTONS GARDENS AND COTTAGES May 2006 Hamptons Classic Interior Designer Scott Sanders Searches for the Best in Local Style By Alejandro Saralegui A Polo/Ralph Lauren background doesn't exactly come to mind when you first meet interior designer Scott Sanders, but his thorough understanding of the retail experience and great American style inform you otherwise. Sanders, who graduated with a degree in interior design from Parson, founded the Polo Ralph Lauren Interior Design Department.  While there he designed, among other projects, the Beach House Hotel in Bal Harbour for the Rubell family, who have continued as clients.  "Most of my projects have very specific and different styles, Sanders says, "so often it is easiest to go to a show where I know the inventory will match the client.  I'm out shopping a lot and don't buy much from the Web, so I have a good sense of what I'll find at every place." During an afternoon shopping expedition, we covered the gamut of shops, from traditional to modern to funky, and as Sanders said, each had an owner with a clear vision and a style worth exploring. With a packed-to-the-rafters aesthetic, English Country Antiques in Bridgehampton, tucked away off Montauk Highway in and old barn, and its sister shop in Southampton are the epicenters of classic Hamptons style. "I always walk out with at least five things," Sanders says.  "It's the go-to-place for sconces and lamps or antique chests for a guest bedroom. You've got to edit, but there are lots of finds."  These include a great selection of to-the-trade fabrics anyone can order without hiring a decorator.  Manuel Canovas, Nina Campbell, Scalamandre and more are displayed alongside traditional upholstery pieces just waiting to get the decorator treatment.  If you're looking for Pratesi sheets, the collection is here, among other rarities.  "This is probably the only place you can get that eight-foot-tall iron chandelier in stock for your double-height foyer and just tie it to the top of the car!" Sanders says. "This is really one-stop shopping for the house  that has to be done by Memorial Day." (26 Snake Hollow Rd., Bridgehampton 631-537-0606) Chic is the best way to describe Homenature in Southampton.  Here you will find cheap tabletop items to make your dinners or luncheons the talk of the town and a substantial selection of pillows to perk up a drab rental. (Don't miss the pastel cashmere pillows with chocolate suede piping.)  But it's shop owner John Heilmann's mix of mid-century antiques that's the real draw.  When we visited, love seats designed by Florida architect Morris Lapidus, made of white lacquer frames and upholstered with mouse-colored fabric, were displayed in the windows.  "These drew me into the shop," Sanders notes.  "You could easily pair them with these parchment covered chairs.  Throw in the Dorothy Draper chests and you've got yourself a room. It's fun, mod furniture." And who wouldn't want  the Karl Springer-on-steroids, six-foot-square lacquered walnut coffee table? Or the 1950's club chairs with walnut bases and cocoa suede? (4 N. Main Street, Southampton, 631-287-6277) In a completely different mood, Bloom in Sag Harbor delivers the south of France right to your doorstep. With every more regular trips to France, Italy, Belgium and England, shop owner Mona Nerenberg is filling up shipping containers as fast as she can.  This current haul includes a stack of herring baskets. "They would be perfect for umbrellas in the front hall, castoffs in the mud room or kindling by the fireplace," Sanders says.  "The blue paint on the handles that identify the fisherman these belonged to is perfect for a client I have in country where I am using tons of blue.  This oversized blue ceramic bottle would also do the trick for them."  On a scrubbed oak farm table Nerenberg has arranged a group of large, wooden geometric forms, originally sued in an art school to teach basic drawing, that now recall the work of Italian painter Georgio Morandi. (43 Madison St., Sag Harbor, 631-775-5940) Our last stop is Liza Sherman in Sag Harbor, an eccentric shop Sanders loves.  "This is an example of a shop where you'll always be surprised--in a good way!"  As we walk into the shop through the back garden, Sanders examines cobalt blue fishing buoys from Nova Scotia.  Sherman jokes that they're scattered about because she's a lazy gardener and they keep the weeds down. Inside it's a sort of worldly folk are emporium, with round Portuguese eel traps, zinc, and copper-covered tables, and the delicate metal remains of a car tire from the days before radials.  Little factory trolleys further the theme.  Explains Sanders, "Those trolleys would make a perfect night stand in a city loft or a modern house out here."  (112 Hampton Street, Sag Harbor  631-725-1437)

 

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