2007 HC&G IDEA HOUSE TOUR

In creating the first space most visitors see in the Idea House, design duo Patricia Healing and Dan Barsanti of Healing Barsanti wanted to evoke the casual elegance of East End living—even though the two-story atrium could have easily gotten a more ostentatious treatment. "We wanted it to have an unmistakably Hamptons feel but still provide a grand segue leading naturally to the rest of the house," Barsanti says.

The team achieved this in part by using "classical elements that aren't too precious," says Healing, including a white marble bench, a gray wooden console displaying large, blue-and-white ceramic vases and a beautifully patinaed antique Venetian mirror.

The entranceway is grounded by a custom cobalt blue rug with a geometric pattern—"a nod to the mod," says Barsanti—complemented by graphite and white draperies with a graphic print that frame the glass doorway leading to the rear patio. This virile (but not overwhelming) color scheme anchors the living room, to the right, and family room/kitchen area, to the left, both done in lighter, beachy tones. A mirrored bar near the living room, designed by Healing and fabricated by Bilotta Kitchens, is "a riff on Chippendale design that references the '70s but also has a classical feel," Barsanti says.

TA simple white chandelier in a huge glass box, a Healing Barsanti special, illuminates framed color panels mounted above the staircase. "They're actually huge paint chips I found on a job in Colorado," Barsanti says. At the top of the stairs, a "totally overwrought" console that had received a bad refinishing job was painted black at the last minute. Says Barsanti, "You can plan a room all you want, but we think that the most exciting spaces have an element of the unknown. Solving those unexpected, last-minute problems is one of the joys of design."