Inside The Hedges, The Most Joyous Stay In The Hamptons

Walking into The Hedges – the 12-bedroom, white-clapboard inn in East Hampton village – is like arriving at a beloved aunt’s beautiful home, or a glamorous godparent’s, who has invited you to stay for the summer. It’s the kind of place you rigorously brush the sand off your feet before being handed a glass of rosé and sinking into a fabulously deep sofa.

‘I wanted it to feel like it belonged to a wonderful, well-connected old East Hampton family,’ says The Hedges owner Sarah Wetenhall. ‘Not straight Americana, but layered with things collected from their world travels.’ An outsider simply wouldn’t do. ‘I was looking for East Hampton’s son or daughter. David [Netto] is a New York City kid but he grew up coming out here. He got it from day one.’ Netto’s characteristic irreverence also worked for Wetenhall: ‘He’s cheeky and that’s perfect for us. We wanted joy to come through in the design.’

For Netto, the goal was to conjure something different from the typical – lazy even – Hamptons look. ‘The trend here is to create an upscale West Elm aesthetic: all white, sometimes Spartan.’ He wanted something more opulent and eclectic, to invent the patina of history. ‘London is so good at combining humility with being fancy. An English country house can be Adamsian and Georgian in scale, yet it shows what comfort really looks and feels like. I said to Sarah: “I want to give you 5 Hertford Street at the beach.”’

David Netto said to Sarah Wetenhall: ‘I want to give you 5 Hertford Street at the beach.’

Netto, a self-confessed design nerd, cites his influences as Mark Birley, Ralph Lauren, Jed Johnson (Andy Warhol’s lover; ‘the guy who, in the 1970s, made Americana hip’), and Billy Baldwin, who decorated the JFK White House as well as the homes of Babe Paley, Greta Garbo, Jackie Onassis and many others. ‘Johnson designed Twin Farms in Vermont, which is like Blake’s in London in that it blew up everyone’s perception of what a hotel could be.’ It inspired the wingback chair in the library at The Hedges – one of Wetenhall’s favourite pieces, upholstered in quilts. ‘It’s Americana but in an unexpected way.’

The intimacy of the entrance sitting room (‘we’re not calling it a lobby,’ says Netto) with its marquetry wallpaper and tiled fireplace is a nod to Renzo Mongiardino’s gallery room at The Carlyle. ‘The Gallery is one of the great public rooms in New York, despite its small size. I wanted there to be something here for everybody, from the fancy European to my mother’s old tennis buddies who come to the inn for dinner. They too need to feel seen, and not find The Hedges alien and flashy.’

So personal is this project that Netto has lent The Hedges a painting by his godfather, the renowned textile artist Alan Campbell, who made geometric batik fabrics in his bathtub. ‘He was my mother and father’s oldest friend and made that painting in 1970 as a gift for their new house in East Hampton. It hung in our kitchen for 40 years.’ When Wetenhall and Netto began readying The Hedges for photos, he offered the painting. ‘Decorating is all about giving, not taking,’ he says, ‘just like real love. I could stash beautiful things in my apartment but it’s a lot more fun for everybody to look at them together.’

The sitting room is covered wall to wall in handpainted de Gournay wallpaper that is Wetenhall’s personal canvas, featuring her beloved King Charles spaniels, her husband’s East Hampton family home, the ultra-exclusive Maidstone Club, and The Hedges’ pink parasols at the beach. ‘The happiest outcome of this inn is that all our dare-devilly things have worked,’ says Netto, who admits it’s harder taking risks with a commercial project.

The library, with a painting by Netto’s godfather Alan Campbell and Wetenhall’s favourite quilt-covered wingback chair

On Wetenhall’s part, Netto pushed her out of her comfort zone. ‘David’s design happy place is in the friction – between old and new, or colours you don’t expect to go together. That’s the beauty of David’s designs and one of the key things that makes him so successful. But I’m a Virgo. I crave consistency and a sense of order. Going forwards, I’m going to respect the friction and try to embrace it, instead of following my natural inclination of like, “every throw pillow needs to look the same”.’

Netto sees this as a key string to any interior designer’s bow. ‘You throw down unfamiliar ideas. Sarah was very quick to say yes.’ He started building a cache of art and curios for the inn, assembling a humble nautical Maine aesthetic, starting with a big painting of a fish and vintage $5 lobster receipts. His biggest trawls came from Downeast Art and Antique Show in Maine, Brimfield Antique Flea Market in Massachusetts and The Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair in Battersea, where he bought maps, a beautiful shark painted on tiles, and lots of anonymous 1950s-style paintings in the style of Léger and Picasso. He also found a trove of newspaper clippings and old photos at the East Hampton Historical Society, inspired by pictures he’d seen at Mark’s Club.

For all the character and adventure at The Hedges, its bedrooms have the clean, airy quality you want in a seaside hotel. There are two styles of bathroom: traditional ones with vibrant tiles and Victorian-style washstands, and ones with white tiles and wooden panelling. ‘The bathrooms here before were so depressing. I thought, “What’s the smallest room you don’t mind being in?” To me, that’s a sauna. So I made them like a Swiss spa.’

One of 12 bedrooms at The Hedges in East Hampton

Like Palm Beach – where Wetenhall and her husband bought The Colony, the iconic pink hotel that had once belonged to her husband’s father – East Hampton can be difficult to penetrate if you’re not local. ‘So we lower the hedges and translate some of the language that may be difficult for someone who’s never been here before.’ Both hotels offer a Wednesday afternoon event series; for me, a first-timer to the Hamptons, this was a painting class in the garden (with wine) led by de Gournay. Here I met two local women who invited me to lunch at The Maidstone, where I heard Katie Couric and Christy Turlington in conversation.

‘My favourite Instagram comment when we launched was from a designer I respect, who said: “Love it! Just pretentious enough.” For me, that was the 5 Hertford thing delivered,’ says Netto. I counter that The Hedges to me, a Brit, feels characterful and cosseting but not in the slightest pretentious. He clarifies: ‘I think I mean it’s like an Italian palazzo in terms of service and how it’s appointed, but within a little wooden house in East Hampton.’