December is here, which means it’s time to start figuring out where you will be summering in 2022. We’re assuming that, like us, this means you are currently stressed about which new Hamptons property you will be acquiring. (Oh, the life we live in our dreams…) If that’s the case, may we introduce you to The Up Studio-designed Harbor Hideaway, the architectural Helen that is sure to start the next Hamptons bidding war. (After all, winning the new love of your real estate portfolio’s life tastes so much sweeter when there’s competition.)

Alan Tansey

Always remember the key word that will protect from being slapped with a label that is the horror of all horrors (nouveau riche, of course): tasteful. In this home, you have a very tasteful floor plan (just over 2,600 square feet) but in a very decadent design package. Just look at how she glows at dusk…

Alan Tansey

From the materials chosen to the interior decor, this home embraces the very controversial color scheme known as “rainbow of neutrals.” If you want a pop of color here, you’re going to have to step outside. (At least in the summer. In the snow white of winter, you’re plain out of luck.)

Alan Tansey

Sag Harbor was originally a whaling village. Though the industry has been banned in the U.S. and the original whalers probably wouldn’t recognize their old neighborhood, we won’t judge if, like us and the fair lad pictured here, you are trying to catch yourself a whale of a more modern species in order to afford this $4.5 mil Long Island prize.

Alan Tansey

This is what is known as a statement staircase and it is very valuable. Any old millionaire can buy a statement work of art for their home, but a statement stair is much harder to come by given that it is entangled in the structural integrity. Function meets fashion = priceless.

Alan Tansey

The home is located on a residential street (oh, the Hamptons horrors!), but it was designed in a way that still preserves the precious privacy for all occupants who consider themselves A-listers. To shield the inhabitants from any lurking paps, the home points towards the back corner of the lot, with the ground level wall of windows facing the natural oasis at the rear.

Alan Tansey

Harbor Hideaway no doubt makes a dramatic visual statement clad in black cedar, but the design team chose this material to also provide a dramatic experience. Just imagine walking through this dark carport and entering the vivid greens and bright natural lights of the backyard.

Alan Tansey

New Yorkers, eat your hearts out. The extensive white walls downstairs aren’t just smooth canvases for whatever museum-worthy collection you happen to bring to your new home. Instead, they are entirely comprised of storage. That’s right, your household’s one-in, one-out rule of acquisition can fly right out your very expensive new windows.

Alan Tansey

This house has four bedrooms, all with en suite bathrooms. But the fun doesn’t stop there. There are five additional bathrooms, four of which are half-baths, a ratio of beds-to-baths that you don’t see every day. This means you can comfortably host the whole family for a pool party, but will feel no guilt when you kick most of them out at the end of day due to “no room at the inn.”

Alan Tansey

To mix things up but still keep them oh so tasteful, terrazzo stone, back en vogue after its heyday in the 1920s, graces the walls of the master bathroom.

Alan Tansey

This is what is known as a Covid house. It was completed in 2020, won all the awards in 2021 (you’re looking at an AIA Archi Award winner), and now it’s ready to be launched out into the world of socialization…or at least the social world of a single new family.

Alan Tansey

Like almost every aspect of life, the real estate world has been upending by the pandemic. For instance, according to Trulia, this house was originally listed for $4 million, but that price has gone up, not down. You might want to jump on this deal fast because the word “negotiation” seems to have lost all meaning.

Alan Tansey

The home is located in the middle of a peninsula on an island bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. So, it may seem slightly inconceivable that there’s no water other than the pool to be seen from it’s ground floor. But descendants of those whalers shouldn’t despair. Thanks to a little architectural magic and a generous roof deck, the house acts like a lighthouse, giving you views of Sag Harbor Cove and Noyack Bay from on high.

Alan Tansey

The designers took their assignment for a Covid house very seriously. If this isn’t the peaceful pandemic paradise—the antithesis of big city living—that we’ve all been dreaming of, we don’t know what is.

Alan Tansey

Contemporary, but right at home in the local landscape. The Harbor House is sure to be the 2022 summer envy of all your very tasteful neighbors.