Layers. They’ve been on my mind lately. First and foremost, my urge to peel them off and leave this past very cold winter (and, so far, super chilly spring) behind.
When it comes to home, I tend to think about that topic in layers, too. The spring-cleaning kind — house, closets, car, magazine piles, ignored paperwork. Revealing fecund perennials under piles of decomposing leaves. The stripping down of things and finding what matters. Maybe even things you didn’t really know were there to begin with or just forgot about.
In this first print issue of Southforker for 2025 — our Spring Home issue! — one of my favorite stories is one I got to research and write, on Sylvester Manor’s multi-layered restoration project. The story focuses on one room in particular — the Ladies Parlor — papered back in 1905 with hand-blocked Zuber wallpaper. It’s rare stuff that the Alsatian French company still produces the way it was done 200 years ago and, thanks to a village of impassioned staffers, professional tradespeople (shout out to the very wonderful Jim Francis and John Nalewaja of Scenic Wallpaper, who are treasures in their own right) and supporters of Sylvester Manor’s work as both an educational and historical institution. You know that old trope, “If these walls could talk…”? The thing about wallpaper? It kind of does.
Lauren Parker’s illuminating (light puns!) story on custom lighting designer and all-around cool crafter Helen Gifford is a lesson in lighting as art. Staffer Emily Toy’s deep dive into what it takes to turn an unremarkable space into one of the most successful restaurants on the East End (we’re lookin’ at you, Vine Street) — and all on a shoestring DIY budget — just makes me marvel ever more at Terry and Lisa Harwood. I remember when that space was a German bakery when I was a little kid! It’s come a long way, baby.
You know how some hotels don’t feel like hotels? But more like dreamy spaces that feel at once unique to themselves and specific to their region? Photographer and writer Doug Young captured the unique beauty — and thought process — of how some of the Hamptons’ recent hotel and inn renos and redos became the beautiful spaces they are.
There’s lots more to inspire you here, too — the dreamy landscapes and heartening commitment to bringing up others of Summerhill’s Declan Blackmore, native plants to put some local pride into your landscape, the unsung charms and necessities on hand at Hampton Bays’ Bar-Boy, and lots more.
I hope you have fun peeling back the layers in this Spring Home issue of Southforker, which is hitting stands any second now. May your season be nothing less than revelatory!
Cheers, South Forkers
