It felt like a bit of a home-coming when Anik Pearson and her husband, Jim Taylor, bought their weekend cottage in Quiogue (a small, unassuming enclave of Southampton) 14 years ago. “I went to Southhampton High School,” says the French-born architect, who moved Stateside as a teenager. In 2007, she and Taylor (also an architect) officially put their roots down, buying the neighboring house and creating a family compound of sorts: There’s a barn and a large garden, and the original cottage (at one point part of a country club; Pearson thinks it was the soda shop) is now used as a guesthouse. The 2007 purchase, a classic saltbox that had undergone an expansion in the 1970s, is the main house. Before they settled in, Pearson explains, “the first step was to remove everything that had been badly done during the ’70s renovation. It was editing out anything that wasn’t real or historic or was installed backward, and then making it more personal.” Pearson describes the process as an act of art more than architecture. “We were interested in experimenting,” she says. “Just making a compilation of all these things that are dear to us.” The dining chairs were a gift from Pearson’s mother, and Taylor found the daybed in a long-gone West Village antique shop before he and Pearson were married. “We have that freedom to play here,” Pearson says. To complement the Romo floral wallpaper in the library, the couple painted the ceiling a bright blue. “We went all out—and turned the volume up to 11.” The floor-to-ceiling curtains in the dining room are something Pearson whipped up one day after a trip to Mood Fabrics. “I spotted a couple of designers with a client, and they had wrapped her up in this beautiful purple silk taffeta and were talking about how fabulous it would be as a dress. She wasn’t convinced—but I was. I bought the fabric, and to this day, I feel like I have six ball gowns hanging in my living room.”
The Bedroom
“The room is misshapen,” says Anik Pearson, “so we thought that if we went for a dark color, it would hide the awkwardness of the geometry. It worked. But we’re tired of blue.” She’s currently experimenting with different colors.
Photo: Annie Schlechter
The Fireplace
The object mounted above the fireplace is the innards of an old piano, discovered by Pearson while she was a student at Cooper Union. “It’s followed
me from house to house,” she says. “I’ve always gone back to it for inspiration.”
Photo: Annie Schlechter
The Bike Shed
The main house (and its companion shed) has a classically beachy shingled exterior.
Photo: Annie Schlechter
