great rooms

A Modernist Inherits an Old Sag Harbor House

Maximilian Eicke mixes his designs with his parents’ antiques.

The Living Room: “I did a quick one-month renovation that was basically repainting the walls and adding back some trim,” Eicke says of the work he did this past February. In the living room, “we replaced the fire surround. It used to be oak with gesso — it’s now cast iron. The whole room used to be white.” Eicke’s own designs for the sofa and armchair introduce a new aesthetic. “We wanted to create an absolute flip of an experience.” Photo: Björn Wallander
The Living Room: “I did a quick one-month renovation that was basically repainting the walls and adding back some trim,” Eicke says of the work he did this past February. In the living room, “we replaced the fire surround. It used to be oak with gesso — it’s now cast iron. The whole room used to be white.” Eicke’s own designs for the sofa and armchair introduce a new aesthetic. “We wanted to create an absolute flip of an experience.” Photo: Björn Wallander

Back in 1994, antiques dealers Michael and Elfi Eicke, who’d had galleries in London and Düsseldorf, decided to spend their summers in Sag Harbor. They bought a house on Main Street which they filled with old-master paintings. In 1996, they purchased a cottage on Bay Street to live in, and used the Main Street building as an antique shop and showroom/storage space. Their son, Maximilian, now 31, eventually carved out his own little apartment in the Main Street building for privacy. His parents sold the cottage on Bay Street a few years ago and retired to Bali, where they live in a house Maximilian designed.

Last fall, Maximilian and his girlfriend, Irina Krylova, moved back to the Main Street place full time. He’d always had his own passion for the business, and his penchant for modernism is reflected in his designs for Max ID NY, the company he launched in 2009. Since February, he has given the old digs of the family business a makeover as his home and office. “We used this time to reinvigorate the space,” he says. “Basically adding our twist of furniture to their collection mixed with mine.”

In doing so, he was surprised to discover that maybe his aesthetic wasn’t as far removed from his parents’ as he thought. He and Krylova have done a thorough inventory of the place, sending some pieces to Philadelphia, where he is opening a new showroom. They also incorporated other heirlooms with his own designs. “The fun thing is that I thought since my parents aren’t here, I would make the space completely modern,” says Maximilan. “But as soon as we started decorating, we were actually having more of a tendency to go back towards my parents’ antiques.”

Dining Table: “I created a lot of vignettes because we were stuck inside and we wanted to create an indoor-outdoor feel,” Eicke says of the airy dining space with chairs of his own design and a brass table that has been in the family for years. The vase is part of the new collection he launched this year. Photo: Björn Wallander
Blue Paintings: Paintings by an English artist named Tony Stubbing “who ended up having a studio here in Sag Harbor,” Eicke says, are juxtaposed with a bookcase of his own design. “One year I decided to use the alphabet as inspiration. This is the letter E. I made the light; it was a commission from Alanna Heiss,” the founder of MoMA PS1, who went on to run a space called the Clocktower. It was “the first commission I ever got to do a collection for a room called Where Eagles Dare in the Clocktower by Sabina Streeter.” Nearby is an African mask his father bought at an estate sale 15 years ago as well as This “a sprinkler head with two old English desk lamps attached.”Bookshelves: Eicke designed the bookcase.Björn Wallander.
Blue Paintings: Paintings by an English artist named Tony Stubbing “who ended up having a studio here in Sag Harbor,” Eicke says, are juxtaposed with ... Blue Paintings: Paintings by an English artist named Tony Stubbing “who ended up having a studio here in Sag Harbor,” Eicke says, are juxtaposed with a bookcase of his own design. “One year I decided to use the alphabet as inspiration. This is the letter E. I made the light; it was a commission from Alanna Heiss,” the founder of MoMA PS1, who went on to run a space called the Clocktower. It was “the first commission I ever got to do a collection for a room called Where Eagles Dare in the Clocktower by Sabina Streeter.” Nearby is an African mask his father bought at an estate sale 15 years ago as well as This “a sprinkler head with two old English desk lamps attached.”Bookshelves: Eicke designed the bookcase.Björn Wallander.
The Bedroom: “This was always my living room,” Eicke says of the space he and Irina have taken over as their bedroom. “My bedroom was a tiny little closet.” Eicke painted the wainscoted walls that had been painstakingly stripped by his father, because, he says, “after living in it for 15, 20 years, it felt very brown and claustrophobic, so we decided to repaint it.” Photo: Björn Wallander
The office: Eicke repainted this brown-and-white room dark green and uses it as his office. Photo: Björn Wallander
The Walking Sticks and Fire Seating: There is fireside seating in Eicke’s office. The photograph is by Nan Goldin, “who lived about a five-minute walk from our house.” Eicke says. “This is a photograph of a room in Berlin.” Photo: Björn Wallander
Desk on Porch: “It was always my mom’s favorite place,” Eicke says of the porch. The campaign desk has been in the family for years. The chair is Eicke’s design. “ I was always inspired by the Zig Zag chair by Gerrit Rietveld” Eicke says. “So it is my way of paying homage to when I started my company.” Photo: Björn Wallander
Portrait of Maximilian and Irina on the porch: “We used this time to reinvigorate the space,” Eicke says of taking over his family’s building. “Basically adding our twist of furniture to their collection mixed with mine.” Photo: Björn Wallander
A Modernist Inherits an Old Sag Harbor House