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HOUSE TOUR | ROOMS & GARDENS | WORLD OF CABANA
Interior designer Alfredo Paredes was surprised to find fresh inspiration in a Victorian cottage on New York's Shelter Island. A thoughtful renovation, a few meaningful edits, and a porch bathed in sunlight transformed the house into a mellow All-American family haven with an ever-changing vista of Dering Harbor. In an exclusive extract from his new book, Alfredo Paredes At Home, Ralph Lauren's former chief creative officer shares the evolution of his home.
BY ALFREDO PAREDES | ROOMS & GARDENS | 18 APRIL 2025
Interior designer Alfredo Paredes’ house on Shelter Island, photographed in Alfredo Paredes At Home, published by Rizzoli.
After we'd had a house in East Hampton for close to twenty years, there came a point when we started to think about alternatives for where to spend our weekends and summer breaks—we knew we were going to be dads and were ready for something a little more mellow. Around that time, we were invited to lunch at a friend’s place on Shelter Island. It felt so special that we reached out to a broker the next day.
About six months later, he sent us a listing for a Victorian cottage in the village of Dering Harbor. We drove there on a beautiful summer Friday. It was late in the day and the house, which sits on a bluff overlooking the harbor and Gardiners Bay, was lit up like a lantern by the setting sun. It was glorious and took our breath away.
The living room at Alfredo Paredes All-American cottage on Shelter Island; Alfredo Paredes At Home, published by Rizzoli.
As a rule, I’m not a huge fan of Victorian architecture, but this one had less gingerbread than some. I loved its simplicity—it reminded me of an Edward Hopper painting. It needed a lot of work, though, so once we closed we had to push to get it done in time for the summer, which by then was just around the corner. We also had a newborn, so living there during construction wasn’t really an option.
It was all so rushed that my directions to the contractor never went much beyond “Paint it! Change it! Pull it out!” All the shingles had to be stripped. All the shutters were removed. All the screen and storm windows were fixed. The porch leveled. Trellises put in. New gutters. Wi-Fi and cable. New appliances across the board. We fixed the bathrooms, added lighting inside and out, removed a furnace from the basement that hadn’t worked in a decade... We did a lot, and we did it fast.
Before taking on a major renovation, I always recommend letting a house “talk” to you so you can understand what it really does or does not need. This is especially true for old houses, where new interventions that remove or damage original features may be difficult or impossible to restore. The challenge always is how to keep the patina and the authenticity while at the same time making it feel fresh and up-to-date.
For example, sometimes it’s best to just keep the old bathroom sinks but update the tile or paint. I’m typically drawn to homes where things have been allowed to age in place, and where there’s a lived-in casual-ness to even the most formal spaces. I wanted Shelter Island to be the kind of place where the kids could run around barefoot and not worry about getting mud on the floors—which was the point of seagrass rugs everywhere.
A corner of the living room at Alfredo Paredes' All-American family retreat on Shelter Island; Alfredo Paredes At Home, published by Rizzoli.
One pleasant discovery was that once we cut back some of the overgrown landscaping, we found that the front of the house was actually quite sunny and that the three ground-floor rooms on that side were bathed in warm light. The last thing I wanted to do was to impede that in any way. But the house was also missing a front porch. It clearly had one once, probably a wraparound, but when we bought the place it was long gone and the front façade looked a bit like a face without a nose.
The challenge was restoring that without blocking all the natural light. We compromised by adding a small, two-tiered porch to the front entrance. On the upper level we created a balcony that connected to the second floor’s center bedroom via French doors— the perfect spot for watching the water or the weather rolling in. It made that bed- room really special—so of course Brad and I quickly claimed it for ourselves.
Alfredo Paredes' All-American weekend retreat on New York State's Shelter Island; Alfredo Paredes At Home, published by Rizzoli.
It actually took me a while to make this house feel like a home, and somewhat surprisingly it didn’t have much to do with decorating the interiors per se. Two relatively simple things made the biggest impacts. First, the property had no hedges around the perimeter when we bought it, which meant no privacy, so when we finally added them the site no longer felt so exposed. That’s when it all started to shift for me. Second was the simple addition of a porcelain farm sink and a marble counter to the kitchen island. With these two relatively small changes, everything began to feel a little more elevated. And then, of course, once we put it in the pool it became our own happy little resort.
One thing I loved immediately was the screened-in side porch, which faces the harbor. Before we even closed, I found a great Victorian dining table with a zinc top and ornate wood legs in the perfect size. From the start I envisioned filling the porch with white wicker, which I knew I could find at the flea market in Brimfield, MA. It was amazing to see it come together as a real outdoor room, especially when we added rugs and lamps.
In the late afternoon and evening the breeze tends to pick up along the harbor; there’s nothing better than sitting on one of the wicker sofas out there, listening to the wind chimes. At times it feels like being in one of those old Shingle Style cottages along the northern coast of Maine, something Brad picked up on the first time he laid eyes on the place, having spent some memorable summers there as a kid.
I always like a house whose rooms reflect the tones you can see on the exterior, which in this case meant relating furnishings to the green-and-white striped porch awnings visible from every window in the living and family rooms, as well as all the shades of green in the surrounding trees and the grass. Luckily, I find greens very soothing and relaxing. A green sofa in the summer feels fresh; toss a throw blanket on it in the fall and it turns cozy. In fact, the more we layered the house with that palette the better it started to feel.
Alfredo Paredes' All-American weekend retreat on New York State's Shelter Island; Alfredo Paredes At Home, published by Rizzoli.
One of the decisions I made early on was to use the designated dining room in a different way. As originally laid out it was right off the screened-in porch, in the spot where an outdoor dining table would naturally sit, which meant there would have been two long tables and their corresponding lineup of chairs in adjacent spaces—useless except for meals. Shifting the inside dining area to a more intimate room farther away allowed the original dining room to function as a kind of family room.
Now it gets constant use by the kids and we can have family breakfasts there. During the warm months we mostly eat dinner on the porch anyway, so we made sure the “new” dining room would feel cozy in colder months. It ended up being a good move and helped us to truly optimize the busiest spaces in the house.
The living room just evolved naturally, with a mix of pieces from East Hampton, landscape paintings (which I love), and odds and ends we’ve gathered over time. Initially the room’s proportions felt slightly awkward—because it’s a bit narrow the seating areas had to be placed far from each other, but I wanted to make the space feel more conducive to conversation. I ended up finding a large, rectangular coffee table to fill the empty floor space, loaded it up with books and objects, and it somehow balances the room and makes everything feel closer and more unified.
The gardens at Alfredo Paredes' weekend retreat on Shelter Island; Alfredo Paredes At Home, published by Rizzoli.
Upstairs, I felt I had more latitude to play with different ideas, in part because you don’t see the kids’ rooms in the back from the principal rooms up front. That gave me license to try something else there in terms of color and pattern: wallpaper. I think the house would have turned stodgy quickly if we hung too much of it, but using it in isolated areas felt really good—in tune with the era but still at ease.
Given the house’s location I’d known we’d have the pleasure of watching the ferry travel between Greenport and Shelter Island year-round, but I wasn’t aware of what a sailor’s haven Dering Harbor is, or the fact that we’d have a front-row seat to all the races and other sailboat activity happening around us. We’re also treated to the sight of these and other boats, many of them incredibly majestic, anchored right outside our door.
This happens throughout the summer, with a number of them arriving during the night so they become a surprise addition to the next day’s backdrop. It’s an ever-changing vista—sometimes a huge sloop, others a major yacht—and at night they tend to be all lit up, with the twinkling lights reflected on the water. It’s pure magic.
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Alfredo Paredes At Home, published by Rizzoli, chronicles the homes and interior designs of Alfredo Paredes, Ralph Lauren's chief creative officer and the designer behind many of the brand's most famous visuals, including the legendary Polo Bar.
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