Eternal Sunshine

Summer days in the Hamptons, school days in Palm Beach: Linens designer and shopowner JULIA AMORY fashions a pair of cottages as fresh-air idylls for her family, with no shortage of blooming florals, vivid checks, and nostalgic ease.

- CELIA BARBOUR

AT A TIME WHEN SO MUCH of the world is pursuing the next big thing, it's refreshing to encounter someone who's happily committed to what she already knows and loves. Julia Amory's tastes are radically unedgy. "I love brown furniture," she says. "I love chintz and majolica." She compares her approach to designing houses for herself and her family-husband Minot and their two children-to speaking in her native language. "This is the way Minot and I grew up," she says, "and this is the way our children are growing up." Crayon marks on the upholstery, shirred lampshades, antique quilts that disintegrate with use, a kidney-shaped vanity from the 1950s "these things make me feel safe and cozy," she says.

Her decorating vernacular provides a constant in a life that is otherwise quite dynamic. The Amorys spend summers in Southampton, New York, and the school year in Palm Beach, where she runs a growing women's clothing and textile business. "It's an incredible time to be in Palm Beach," she says. "There's been a convergence of my peers in the design space, and so many young families have relocated. We're always busy."

Southampton, by contrast, is where the Amorys kick back, fling open the doors, and slow down. "Our house is a proverbial clubhouse for all our friends," says Julia. "It's big, open, and easy; we love to have people over." Such conviviality was written into the house's DNA. The home was originally designed by legendary architect Jaquelin T. Robertson for Minot's aunt, decorator and fashion icon Chessy Rayner, to accommodate her whirlwind social life. "She entertained a lot and didn't have children," says Julia, who aimed to strike a careful balance between honoring that legacy and making the house more relaxed and livable for a family with two small children and a pair of dogs.