Timothy Godbold designs himself a sensuous villain lair in the Hamptons

Interior designer and founder of nonprofit Hamptons 20 Century Modern, Timothy Godbold is no stranger to Long Island, New York’s modern beach vernacular. Outside of his nonprofit, which preserves and recognizes iconic modern homes in the Hamptons, Godbold designs contemporary interiors with an eye for traditional and natural references. The same holds true for his own Southampton home which draws references from James Bond films.

A black angular home in the Hamptons — A traditional 1973 residence by architect Eugene L. Futterman was painted black to highlight its angular features (David Mitchell)

A firepit pathway leads to a modern black home — The deck is lit from underneath to give the appearance of floating (David Mitchell)

Godbold transformed the once traditional 1973 residence by architect Eugene L. Futterman into a strikingly modern lair. On the exterior, he painted the cedar facade black to accentuate the home’s angular features. He converted all the windows to floor-length portals. Then, he added a series of underlit cantilevered bluestone steps that lead to a small deck in front of the home’s entry. As the house is situated on a wetland, interventions were left minimal.

A narrow, linear hallway in a modern home with big windows — Narrow, linear hallways are fitted with full-length windows to soften the modern structure of the home (David Mitchell)

A living room with two rectangular windows of different sizes — A vintage coffee table is lit by windows of contrasting sizes (David Mitchell)

But inside the Australian-born designer had free reign. The black-finished home gave him an idea. “It looks very Norman Jaffe in a way,” Godbold told AN Interior. “A lot of Norman Jaffe houses look very much like a villain lair. They’re these really huge cavernous, theatrical spaces that are extremely dramatic and that was tapping in my head about this house.”

A slanted wall leads to a hanging garden, another nod to a James Bond film (David Mitchell)

A living room with a stepped fireplace — Godbold redid the fireplace to create a stepped structure inspired by a Mayan ziggurat temple (David Mitchell)

Low furniture amidst floor-to-ceiling windows emphasizes the home’s gratuitous voids. Highlighting the sharp lines of the triangular roof, Godbold reconfigured the pre-existing fireplace into a stepped-structure, resembling a Mayan ziggurat temple. It falls under a short angled wall that leads to a hanging garden, a nod both to the James Bond film Moonraker and the geometric designs of architect Paul Rudolph. Most of everything is subsumed in gray and stainless steel finishes, fitting of a home of Bond’s enemy, Auric Goldfinger.

The primary bath’s tub is lit underneath a skylight fitted with wooden slats (David Mitchell)

A bed on a pedestal in a corner of a room surrounded by windows — The designer situated the bed on a floating platform to create a sensual environment (David Mitchell)

A bachelor pad isn’t complete without a sensual quality, however. This arises upstairs in the tower-like bedroom. Godbold knocked down the walls to open the floorplan between the bathroom and primary bed. The bed, situated on an underlit carpeted riser, appears to float. A Belgian linen is the only partition dividing it from the bathroom.

Light shines into a room via the skylight fitted with wooden slats — Wooden elements soften the angular, modern nature of the home (David Mitchell)

Clean lines and slanted walls coincide with abundant natural light to blend the modern and organic (David Mitchell)

“Whenever I go to Stockholm, I always stay at Ett Hem and a lot of the rooms that I’ve stayed in, the bathrooms are all open. In some of the rooms, the bathtub is in the middle of the room. I find that so sexy,” said the homeowner. The inspiration gave way to a soaking tub set beneath a skylight with wooden slats. It’s surrounded by walls of ribbed fibrous cement panels that add another contemporary layer.

A custom-built bedframe continues into a desk (David Mitchell)

It’s part and parcel of Godbold’s unique aesthetic: modern but not cold, angular yet organic. In his Southampton lair, the designer embraces this style with even more panache.

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