Hotel of the Week: The Hedges Inn Captures the Magic of East Hampton with an Abundance of Thoughtful Details
Hotelier Sarah Wetenhall and designer David Netto team up for a spirited renovation that speaks to place and personality
From its perch across the street from Town Pond in East Hampton, The Hedges looks every bit the epitome of a crisp, top-to-toe renovation of an inn dating back to 1873. There’s the white picket fence festooned with rambling roses, the freshly painted porch, the American flag bunting. Everything about the exterior is totally classic and simply perfect—the absolute ideal, the pageant queen. But once one walks through the doors, something far more spellbinding and fascinating awaits.
Sarah J. Wetenhall, who, along with her husband, Andrew, transformed The Colony Hotel in Palm Beach into the beating heart of the Floridian enclave’s social scene, tapped David Netto for this special project to revitalize The Hedges, a local landmark rich with history and nostalgia. Ever the savvy hotelier, she knew he had exactly what it would take to update the sleeping beauty.
“How could you not fall in love with David’s witty irreverence? His depth and breadth of knowledge on every subject is just baffling and incredibly impressive,” says Wetenhall. But in addition to those exceptional traits, Netto had the quality essential to making The Hedges a smashing success. “This is someone that gets East Hampton, who understands the East End of Long Island.”
That’s exactly the spirit Wetenhall recognized was critical to transform the space into something alive. With just 12 rooms, The Hedges had to function as much more than just a place to stay. Just as she has accomplished with its sister property The Colony in Palm Beach, The Hedges had to be where all of East Hampton would want to gather for cocktails, conversations, and a very in-demand dinner reservation at Swifty’s, which opened last summer and also has a popular location at The Colony.
“It’s an inn, but from a design standpoint, it’s just a really big house,” says Wetenhall. “We had a blast creating the character of who lives in this home and what her history is—where she’s traveled and what her roots are.” In much the same way she worked with Mimi McMakin and Kimball Interiors in establishing not just what but who The Colony was, Wetenhall devised the personality of the place and then backed into the décor based on those guiding traits.
Netto was completely on board for this highly imaginative approach. “The Hedges needed that fiction,” says Netto. “And Sarah thought that I wouldn’t make it into a joke, because I really am from East Hampton and know the way people had lived,” says Netto. “If there had been such a person, and that had been their house that I would make it groovy but not sort of like too flamboyant or outlandish.”
Here’s where Netto really shines—fusing an amalgam of wide-ranging references into one delicious visual feast rich with a sweeping range of references, styles, and eras. Netto collages a rich palette of design ideas—The Lobster Inn in Hampton Bays, design legend Jed Johnson’s cool take on Americana, as well as the imaginary idea of what if Renzo Mongiardino has come to East Hampton in 1985, which coincides with the time frame he was working on The Carlyle in New York.
The brilliance of that combination is seen the moment one sets foot in the entrance hall. A tiled fireplace, a skirted banquette, a quirky lantern, and a mélange of little drinks tables, side chairs, and rugs. Everything looks as if it’s been lovingly collected over a lifetime of travel rich with anecdotes and memories, mixing high and low. And that’s a result of Wetenhall saying yes to every piece of furniture and accessory Netto suggested from sourcing trips to Brimfield Market, shops in Maine, the Decorative Fair at Battersea Park in London, and beyond.
“The way Sarah and I approached honoring the past was with a little insolence and innovation as well. We didn’t treat it with all this reverence, where everything had to look polite. We wanted to juice this so that it was hot,” says Netto, who achieves this by creating just the right tension in his mix of old and new, high and low, color and pattern.
For example, a custom de Gournay mural, a signature of The Colony as well, evokes an imaginative take on hallmarks of East Hampton and defines the parlor room. But it’s the personal references and nods to things that the locals know that make it come alive. One of Wetenhall’s favorite pieces is the American flag-covered wingback chair in the library, and Netto notes the sublime rattan sconces from his collection with Soane Britain that hang at the entrance to the garden room.
“Sarah understood the value of having a few special things that were exactly what they were supposed to be, and that lifts the entire room,” says Netto. “There’s none of this dumbing down that usually happens with commercial projects.”
That attention to quality and detail extends to the art, which adds another layer of personality to the spaces. The choices are an eclectic mix that reflect how a personal collection would be amassed over time and provide a snappy punctuation that gives each space that extra zing.
Netto has loaned a piece from his personal family collection by Alan Campbell, which hangs on a mirrored wall in the library, while Wetenhall has one from her former East End home on display. These works, along with a painting on ceramic by Tom Rooth in the bar and an homage to Picasso by Raymond Le Grand on a small easel in the entrance hall, are balanced by nautical prints, engravings of whales, and paintings of fish that are both geographically appropriate and convey a real sense of wit.
Upstairs, the whimsical rooms convey those characteristics as well. Here, that New England flamboyance is served up with style and whimsy. With so few rooms, they seized on the opportunity to take a unique approach for each; this is the antithesis of cookie cutter hospitality design. The schemes are rich with texture, stripes, vintage furniture mixed with nautical prints and quilts, each room a completely original idea.
One suite has walls sheathed in a custom de Gournay paper that mimics horizontal hickory planks; then, for the perfect local touch, hung on top is a Guild Hall poster from a Roy Lichtenstein exhibition from 1980. In the third-floor studio suite, Netto installed a glossy white tub. “I wanted there to be one room at The Hedges that was for like hot honeymooners, that could have gone to Bali,” says Netto of this unexpected design element he describes as “an anti-bourgeois impulse.” Netto’s flair for thoughtful baths runs throughout—giving a lot of character to these modestly sized spaces by inventing two different design schemes, one that conjures the spartan Scandinavian chic of a sauna and another that leans toward the Belle Époque.
“There’s a playful but intellectually rigorous relationship to history of loving whatever I saw out here, and Sarah added to that for me because she loves this place as much as I do,” says Netto. That soulfulness extends beyond the design and can be felt in the gracious service. With much of the same team from The Colony relocated for the season, a sense of warmth and care permeates every moment of one’s stay. The overall result is so intimate and authentic, it’s possible to forget this as hotel and imagine it’s instead a stay at a dear friend’s home—albeit without the obligation to show up at breakfast and with complete permission to sleep in as long as one likes.
All these attributes add up to a feeling that one stay isn’t quite enough, and that is absolutely Wetenhall’s intention. “We want people to leave with a desire to come back and even to experience The Hedges in different seasons.” And who wouldn’t want that?