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"View Slideshow\n\nThe North Shore of Long Island, New York, has a somewhat chameleonic sense of place. Depending on the time of year and the direction your gaze is drawn, this desirable spot could be sandy Nantucket or a rangy stretch of Tuscany. When flocks of sailboats cross the sound, it could be the C\u00F4te d'Azur. Those transporting views are what led a retired real-estate executive and his wife here six years ago and inspired their decision to build a stylish but welcoming dwelling on a four-acre parcel just outside the village of Oyster Bay Cove. Explains the couple's interior designer, Mariette Himes Gomez, \"It's not a summer getaway but a very lived-in residence, complete with children, grandchildren, and dogs.\"\n\nThe spacious neo-Colonial house, designed by Thorndike Williams and Andrew Giambertone of Kean Williams Giambertone, an architecture firm located in nearby Cold Spring Harbor, suits the family's busy, beneficent lifestyle. The couple are prominent philanthropists and required expansive rooms for entertaining, yet they also wanted a cozy home to enjoy when the crowds dispersed. In Gomez the clients found the ideal talent to realize that balance. The Manhattan-based designer is a savant when it comes to integrating architecture and decor, which makes sense given her background: One of her first jobs out of the Rhode Island School of Design was in the office of modernist architect Edward Durell Stone. \"Then I worked for Sister Parish, who taught me about chintz,\" she says with a grin. \"So I got the best of both worlds.\" Gomez is also a proponent of what could be called the squish factor. For all her projects, she sits in every chair and tests every sofa, noting, \"If you're not comfortable, your guests aren't going to be comfortable either.\" That philosophy goes for the bath, too, believe it or not. \"Clients tend to select their own tubs, but I insist that they go to the showroom and sit in several of them before we buy the right one,\" she says. \"People often want a really big tub, and I have to warn them, \u2018You'll just float away!'\"\n\nThe interior designer came on board during the construction of the house, which took nearly two years, weighing in on finishes and livability. \"Design works best when it's a collaboration,\" Gomez asserts. \"We scheduled site meetings every week with the builder. I'm a team player, but I have a voice.\" She lauds Giambertone's graceful handiwork, pointing out how he made lofty spaces intimate with vaulted ceilings and how almost every room is traced with voluptuous moldings and stately paneling whose crispness jibes with her own leanings toward rigorous geometry.\n\nNowhere is that more evident than in the living room, where near-symmetrical seating areas complement Giambertone's traditional environment. The furnishings range from clean-lined antiques with a French, English, or Italian provenance to classic reproductions, Gomez's own creations included. On the mantel, a quintet of stone disks echoes the round mirror hanging above. \"I thought it would be a nice moment about the circle,\" Gomez explains. \"In a house like this, a lot of small tchotchkes wouldn't cut it. You just need a few grand things for graphic impact.\"\n\nChoosing the right palette was a challenge given the wide-open layout, where \"every room touches another,\" says the designer. To that end she collaborated with color consultant Donald Kaufman. \"He is,\" she says, \"a master at knowing how shades will be perceived under different lighting conditions.\" The two had an on-site paint confab that stretched over several days, mixing and observing copious samples\u2014first on boards, then on walls\u2014with Kaufman tweaking formulas until the perfect hues, from dove-gray on the walls of the airy entrance hall to celadon for the kitchen ceilings, were achieved. Gomez is particularly thrilled with how the master bedroom's subtle lavender glows: \"It's a color the clients love. Isn't it beautiful?\"\n\nSimilar attention was paid to selecting the ideal stain for the salvaged wide-plank-pine floors that run throughout the house. The wood underfoot helps the kitchen relate seamlessly with the adjacent family room, and kitchen designer Mick De Giulio supplied striking fittings. (\"He is just so clever,\" says Gomez, noting details like the pot rack that doubles as a light fixture.) The long, tablelike island is a favorite spot for the family to congregate, while a separate butler's pantry offers snug confines for day-to-day food prep. Casual meals take place beneath the breakfast nook's skylit cupola, and formal sit-downs are staged in the ethereal dining room. Neutral-tone peony-print wallpaper and glass accents make the latter space shimmer, while translucent sheers suf-fuse the room with soft light. \"They frame the windows without cutting you off from the outside,\" Gomez says.\n\nAs for the painterly views of the bay that captivated the couple from their first visit, there are plenty of vantage points from which to appreciate it. The windowed alcove in the master bedroom, which Gomez outfitted with an inviting settee, provides a bird's-eye panorama. But for an up-close experience, there is always the infinity pool in the backyard\u2014where everybody can have a front-row seat.\n\nClick here to see the slide show of this stylish and serene Long Island mansion."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/mariette-himes-gomez-long-island-shore-house-article>