September 2006

FEATURES

IN HER SOUTHAMPTON HOME, INTERIOR DESIGNER BETTY WASSERMAN CULTIVATES A BLISSFUL EXISTENCE WITH HER DAUGHTER WHILE DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE DESIGN IDEAS

Almost every weekend between April and December, interior designer Betty Wasserman and her three-year-old daughter, Milly, can be found in one of three places. "We're either at the Beach Club, the Tennis Club or at the house," Wasserman says of their Southampton home. "It's kind of a landing pad between those two places." The two-story, three-bedroom, white-shingled house tucked away in the Sebonac area of Southampton serves as a space for play dates and barbecues, and also a place for developing creative design solutions. It is here where Wasserman often tests many of the innovative furnishings featured on her website, bettyhome.com.

When Wasserman first saw the house, which was built in the 1940s, five years ago, it left little to be desired. "There was no foyer, only one bathroom, no shower, linoleum in the kitchen and a potting shed," the designer recalls. "Let's just say it didn't show well." However, there were possibilities. "I fell in love with the wonderful landing on the second floor and saw that I could add a fireplace. I just really liked the bones and the guts of the place."

The clincher turned out to be the modest potting shed. "Where some people saw 'potting shed,'" Wasserman notes with a smile, "I saw 'guesthouse.'" That guest house has proven invaluable when Wasserman hosts overnight guests and their children—especially at that point when tired children and parents need to retire to their own quarters for a rest.