Dale Cohen Curates Design Installation for The Watchcase Project

Cape Advisors recently asked Dale Cohen to take over a Watchcase Townhouse and do, she says, “something interesting.” The result? A series of rooms that “speaks to the exquisite quality of space, light, and scale” of the Sag Harbor design landmark.

Cohen recruited artists Annie Coggan and Caleb Crawford and offered them an entire room. Their Melville Room, named after the author who wrote of Sag Harbor in Moby Dick, includes a quote from the novel embedded in the ground of hand painted rug based on a plan drawing of a 19th Century whaling ship. A bergère chair boasts technical drawings hand-embroidered across its upholstery, while window drapery incorporates a digital print of the local Sag Harbor Whaling Museum’s architecture.

“This is not typical beach house décor,” Cohen says. Indeed, throughout the four-story townhouse, she hung work from a dozen artists, mostly from the East End. In the kitchen, a 1960s wallpaper by Fornasetti by Lee Jofa gives the illusion of shelves hung above a vintage Swedish rug from Doris Leslie Blau. Elsewhere, paper from Grow House Grow interacts with kinetic paint accents, a vintage mohair rug by Sacco, from Fritz Hansen, Knoll, and Overman. She filled the interior with antiques from Laurin Copen, R.E. Steele, and Stellar Union, while outdoor furnishings were provided by Dodds and Eder Home. The installation will be on view through Monday, October 10th, 2016.