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Hamptons style is often reduced to white paint and blue cushions, which is why so many versions of it look thin. The real language is a set of proportions and materials from American east coast summer houses: wide weatherboard, deep shaded verandahs, tall windows with genuine glazing bars, standing seam or shingled roofs, and gardens whose formality is softened by very generous flowering planting.

The garden is the half of the style most people skip, and it is the half that makes it convincing. Clipped box or similar hedging to hold the geometry, hydrangeas in blocks along the shaded side of the house, gravel or bluestone paths with crisp edges, standard trees in pots either side of the door, and lawn kept as a clean shape rather than a leftover. Formality in the structure, abundance in the flowering layer — that contrast is the whole idea.

Outdoor furniture should be substantial and pale. Deep seated white or grey painted timber lounges with heavy linen cushions, a long dining table with woven or slatted chairs, oversized striped umbrellas rather than small ones, a white cabana or pergola with drop curtains for the pool surround, and lanterns instead of downlights wherever possible. Nothing shiny, nothing black framed, nothing that reads as contemporary minimalism.