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AT THEIR HOME IN SOUTHAMPTON, INTERIOR DESIGNERS BRIAN BRADY AND FRANCO BISCARDI TURN A VIRTUAL TEARDOWN INTO A DECORATING TRIUMPH

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NEUTRAL TERRITORY (click photo for larger view)

IT'S AN UNSPOKEN RULE THAT living in Europe, even for a short while, is one of the many ways to perfect one's artistry. Think of the American-born James Whistler, who famously painted his mother while living in London. Or F. Scott Fitzgerald, T. S. Eliot and Ernest Hemingway in Paris, not to mention Mary Cassatt, who met Edgar Degas in the City of Light, forging a mentorship that would come to define her career.

For a young Brian Brady—who, fresh out of Notre Dame's School of Architecture, helped design embassies and consulates for the Ministry of Saudi Arabia—Athens was the inspiration. "I was always drawn to older buildings that were built from the Classical order," he says. "They teach you proportion, symmetry and balance, which all works from an interiors standpoint—getting the base molding right, getting the chair molding right, laying out the space right."

CHEFS' CHOICE (click photo for larger view)

Brady and his partner, Franco Biscardi, who run Southampton-based Brady Design, called upon exactly these principles while renovating their 1930s cottage just down the road from their office. The couple, who also own a pied-à-terre in Greenwich Village, first purchased the house around the corner, living in the main structure while converting its barn-like work shed into a pool house and installing a 50-foot lap pool. Its backyard abuts the backyard of their current home, which came on the market soon after.

"This was going to be a guest house for the main house, but now we live in it and rent the other house," says Brady, who upon leaving Athens worked for I. M. Pei & Partners before setting off on his own. The 1930s ranch had yellow siding and a bright red door, but Brady envisioned a "classical little cottage" with dormers and a new porch. "We gutted it on the inside to make it more conducive to our living style," he says. A masterful new kitchen indulges Biscardi's love of cooking (a former chef, he cooked professionally at Mario Batali's Pó in the Village). And an open-plan living space allows the couple to entertain nearly every weekend.