{"id":3165,"date":"2025-03-20T18:24:40","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T10:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/2025\/03\/20\/the-simple-life-a-montauk-beach-house-for-a-creative-couple\/"},"modified":"2025-03-20T18:24:40","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T10:24:40","slug":"the-simple-life-a-montauk-beach-house-for-a-creative-couple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/the-simple-life-a-montauk-beach-house-for-a-creative-couple\/","title":{"rendered":"The Simple Life: A Montauk Beach House for a Creative Couple"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Elisa Restrepo, cofounder of the shoe line Dieppa Restrepo, and her husband, Dylan Dodd, who owns NYC restaurants Karasu, Walter\u2019s, Walter Foods, and Barrio Chino, went looking for a place to escape the city, they chose a three-story split-level house in the \u201csleepy surfing town\u201d of Montauk and hired Brooklyn architects Space Exploration to overhaul it.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d worked together before: Space Exploration had renovated the couple\u2019s Brooklyn apartment (whose kitchen, incidentally, won Remodelista\u2019s 2014 Best Professional Kitchen Design award). The firm also designed two of Dodd\u2019s restaurants\u2014Walter\u2019s and Karasu, both in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

Although the house was standing, it required a full gut remodel that included replacing windows, moving skylights, modifying the deck and driveway, and extensive landscaping, in a neighborhood \u201cthat still feels untamed by development.\u201d The remodel took a year\u2019s work, from first meeting to the last item on the punch list. Firm principal Kevin Greenberg walked us through the changes.<\/p>\n

Photography by Kevin Greenberg, courtesy of Space Exploration.<\/p>\n


Above: The dining table in the back is made of a repurposed marble slab from the owners\u2019 Brooklyn home, with legs found on Etsy. <\/p>\n

To meet their clients\u2019 desire for a house with a \u201clight, unpretentious, and casual feel,\u201d Space Exploration used light neutrals and pale woods to frame Dodd and Restrepo\u2019s eclectic furniture collection from travels in Morocco, Europe, and Central America.<\/p>\n


Above: The kitchen and main living space are on the top floor\u2014\u201dthe flexible social center for the house,\u201d said Greenberg\u2014from which the family can enjoy views of nearby Fort Pond Bay over the tree canopy. They anchored the living space here because the top floor \u201cenjoys the best views, an abundance of natural light, and accommodates an open-plan layout perfect for hosting and socializing,\u201d said Greenberg. <\/p>\n

Colombian-born Restrepo was closely involved in the process. She and Greenberg had long conversations about the tiniest details, including \u201cthe finish of the plumbing trims and the placement of the kitchen cabinet hardware. She has a keen eye for materials, color, texture, and proportion,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n


Above: The kitchen cabinets are high-gloss Ringhult from Ikea, and the cabinet pulls are Japanese Futagami Brass Towel Bars. The Miele vent hood is concealed behind a cabinet, and its exhaust duct is hidden behind a custom cabinet detail on top.
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Above: The kitchen countertops are marine-grade Baltic birch plywood, which were intended as a placeholder but eventually won over the owners. The brass kitchen faucet and apron sink are both from Rohl. A single kitchen window frames a view of the surrounding spruce and sumac trees. <\/p>\n


Above: The house\u2019s main entryway is on the middle floor, off the winding deck. Greta Grossman\u2019s Cobra Sconce for Gubi illuminates the foot of the stairs.
Above: \u201cTo preserve an honest, informal feeling in the architecture,\u201d says Greenberg, \u201cwe chose to expose and express the house\u2019s structure wherever possible.\u201d They revealed the house\u2019s original wood flooring framing, painted it white, and left it visible on the ceilings. The entire house is painted in Benjamin Moore\u2019s Super White, with a flat finish on the walls and satin on the ceilings. <\/p>\n

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Above: The stair railing is meant to echo the exposed timber \u201cceiling-scape\u201d of the entry level, and it went through several revisions. \u201cWe wanted the architectural details to err on the quiet side, and several other initial ideas for the stair railing felt too intricate or luxe,\u201d said Greenberg. In the end, they staggered the size of the lumber for visual appeal and to keep the stairwells safe for young kids.,

Above: In the corner of the entryway sits a primitive driftwood chair left behind by the previous owners. The master bedroom entry is to the right. The floors in the middle and top levels are wide-planked red oak, first bleached, then whitewashed.
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Above: The master bedroom makes use of textiles sourced by the owners from all over the world. The Sony television and sound bar are so cleanly mounted that they manage to fit with the surroundings.
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Above: Space Exploration moved and enlarged windows throughout the house to better frame views and take in more light. They chose frames with minimal detailing \u201cto emphasize the connection between indoors and out.\u201d,

Above: The brass fixtures in the master bathroom are from Rohl.
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Above: The master bath sports shower tiles from Mosaic House.
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Above: The bottom floor contains an office, kids\u2019 bedroom, and the sunken lounge space, or \u201csolarium,\u201d shown here. It opens directly onto the grounds via the glass doors at the far end of the room. The walnut shelving system at left is by Atlas Industries.
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Above: Family surfboards are stashed in the corners of the sunroom. Floors are high-\u00adquality plywood with a glossy white epoxy finish\u2014the idea of client Dylan Dodd, who Greenberg says \u201chas great taste and isn\u2019t afraid to make bold and sometimes openly playful design suggestions.\u201d,

Above: Leather handles by Mockett on the doors to the kids\u2019 room. The couple has two young children, Felix and Lucia.
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Above: The existing cedar siding and outdoor lighting was original to the house, which sits atop a densely wooded bluff at the end of a rugged dirt road in Montauk. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Above: The floor plan of the bottom level, with office, kids\u2019 bedroom, and sunroom.<\/p>\n


Above: The middle floor with entryway and master bedroom is shown at left, and the top floor with kitchen and living space at right. <\/p>\n

For more in Montauk, see Ruschmeyer\u2019s in Montauk, Montauk Surf Lodge, and House Call: Roman & Williams in Montauk.<\/p>\n

N.B.: This post is an update; the original story ran on September 18, 2016.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Elisa Restrepo, cofounder of the shoe line Dieppa Restrepo, and her husband, Dylan Dodd, who owns NYC restaurants Karasu, Walter\u2019s, Walter Foods, and Barrio Chino, went looking for a place to escape the city, they chose a three-story split-level house in the \u201csleepy surfing town\u201d of Montauk and hired Brooklyn architects Space Exploration to overhaul it. They\u2019d worked […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diy-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}