This text is a part of our Design particular part about water as a supply of creativity.
Take into account the 21 gilded mirrors lining the music room, every extra extravagant than the final. Or the Italian monastery desk that seats 24, by no means thoughts the tapestries, peacock feathers, brass candlesticks and Persian rugs seemingly in every single place.
And did we point out complete suites devoted to Frank Sinatra and Noël Coward?
Let others embrace minimalism. Good issues are available in multiples within the waterfront house that Tom Postilio and Mickey Conlon have created for themselves on two and 1 / 4 acres on the North Shore of Lengthy Island.
Even the home itself, which started life as a single-story Mediterranean-style abode from the Sixties, seems to have adopted the more-is-more mantra, swelling to 10,000 sq. toes of Spanish Colonial splendor encompassing six bedrooms, 5 fireplaces, a conservatory, a library and an expansive subterranean stage with a screening room, music “archive” and hammered-brass bar presided over by an Al Hirschfeld mural and a portrait of Charles Nelson Riley — on black velvet.
“An excessive amount of of a great factor is great,” mentioned Mr. Postilio, quoting Mae West by the use of Liberace.
The entire enterprise started modestly, although.
Mr. Postilio, 54, and Mr. Conlon, 47, actual property brokers with a background in present enterprise and a star clientele (together with Liza Minnelli, Barry Manilow and Marilyn Horne), had lengthy had a one-bedroom condo in Manhattan and wished a spot they may escape to on weekends.
They explored the same old haunts: the Hamptons, Connecticut, the upstate New York city of Hudson — wherever that they had pals and there was “upside potential,” mentioned Mr. Conlon. Then they realized that the village of Nissequogue, not removed from the place Mr. Conlon grew up and Mr. Postilio spent his teenagers, possessed every little thing they wished, together with dreamy views of Lengthy Island Sound.
“Dorothy needed to go to Oz to find there’s no place like house,” mentioned Mr. Postilio, who, like his husband, is an previous film buff.
Mr. Conlon’s mom, an actual property agent herself, occurred to personal the Sixties home, perched on a bluff overlooking the water. She had imprecise plans to repair it up and retire there sometime however she was in her seventies, and already retired. So in 2012, she agreed to promote, for $870,000.
As the brand new owners launched into a renovation — with the concept of elevating ceilings, enlarging home windows and bumping out a room towards the water — they encountered structural points, together with a 40-foot crack within the cinder-block basis. When a part of the inspiration caved in after a storm, they realized they needed to begin throughout.
That’s after they began to get bold.
Due to the location’s proximity to the water, they had been required by native zoning to restrict themselves to the footprint of the unique home. But when they couldn’t construct out they may construct up, which supplied the benefit of extra home windows and extra views — extra “upside” and, not by the way, extra room for friends. They may additionally construct down.
At first, ever the true property professionals, they discovered themselves making choices with an eye fixed to resale worth. Someplace alongside the way in which they started to embrace the journey of designing for their very own delight. “This isn’t the home for a broader demographic,” Mr. Conlon mentioned.
They had been aided and abetted by John Cetra and Nancy J. Ruddy, the married founding ideas of the design agency CetraRuddy. The {couples} had met on a undertaking years earlier and found all of them beloved the Twentieth-century musical requirements collectively often known as the Nice American Songbook. They turned pals.
Mr. Cetra, an architect, and Ms. Ruddy, a designer, are likely to work in a clear, trendy model. However like their purchasers, they’re admirers of Addison Mizner, who conjured up spectacular Spanish colonial revival estates in southern Florida within the Nineteen Twenties. They channeled Mr. Mizner of their design for the home.
Six years, two contractors and $8 million later, the brand new stucco house had risen beneath a clay-tile roof, evoking the previous with none of the crankiness of an precise previous home.
The double-height lobby has what folks in actual property name the “wow issue,” with spiraling columns and a coffered ceiling inscribed with traces from favourite songs. Off it’s a corridor with a vaulted ceiling.
However the inside is freed from fussy woodwork and window remedies. All the higher to focus consideration on the view — and the homeowners’ prized possessions.
Mr. Postilio, knowledgeable singer earlier than stepping into actual property, had acquired an unlimited assortment of Frank Sinatra memorabilia that was stashed in plastic bins in his dad and mom’ basement. Mr. Conlon, a former Broadway producer, was virtually born accumulating — when he was 16 his mom signed a lease so he may open an antiques store — and right this moment follows on-line auctions with the ardent consideration others dedicate to sporting occasions.
That’s how they got here to personal a Seventeenth-century chest that belonged to Phyllis Diller (whom Mr. Postilio opened for in Atlantic Metropolis in 1993; the chest is within the lobby). Additionally they have a wrought-iron fireplace display from Marlene Dietrich’s Park Avenue condo (now of their eating room) and Cole Porter’s backgammon set (goes backwards and forwards between the music room and the conservatory — as a result of they use it).
“Having stuff in bins isn’t any enjoyable,” Mr. Conlon mentioned.
The couple bought the concept for themed visitor quarters from a keep at London’s Savoy resort, the place suites are devoted to well-known figures, together with Winston Churchill and Frank Sinatra.
Their very own Sinatra suite has a curvaceous headboard upholstered in moleskin within the singer’s favourite colour — orange — flanked by ginger-jar lamps that got here from the property of Mr. Sinatra’s first spouse and lifelong good friend and confidante, Nancy. Within the Noël Coward suite, charming panorama oils by the playwright, actor and composer cling on partitions and are propped on an easel.
The suite that got here collectively most not too long ago is dedicated to the entertainer and songwriter Peter Allen. Mr. Postilio mentioned he was impressed to embrace his sexuality when he was 20 and heard Mr. Allen sing “Love Don’t Want a Purpose” and located himself moved to tears by the road “love’s by no means against the law.” As a result of Mr. Allen was a flamboyant performer who favored flashy costumes, Mr. Postilio and Mr. Conlon felt his room must be excessive, too.
Its gold-painted wrought iron mattress has a purple velvet unfold with a silk leopard-print lining. A ground lamp is formed like a palm tree, with ostrich feathers for foliage. Seashells march throughout the highest fringe of a mahogany-and-mother-of-pearl fainting sofa upholstered in additional velvet, this time pink.
“It could look campy, however every little thing has which means to them,” Mr. Cetra mentioned about his purchasers.
The couple, who not too long ago moved their enterprise to Compass, mentioned their land alone has appreciated threefold since their buy. (“Upside!”) And whereas they might be persuaded to promote sometime, they mentioned they’re, for now, internet hosting family and friends, throwing events and simply typically having fun with their creation.
Nonetheless, one visitor demurred when supplied the chance to sleep within the Allen room.
“I’m a homosexual man,” he mentioned to one among his hosts, “however that is too homosexual for me.”
