TELEVISION Alexa Hampton adds designer touch

The interior designer has joined 'This Old House' and 'Find!'
HARTFORD COURANT
New York interior designer Alexa Hampton grew up working for her famous decorator father, whose restrained stylishness brought him clients from around the world, including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Estee Lauder.
Now Hampton, the 33-year-old president of her late father's company, Mark Hampton Inc., has taken on a project of her own: as an on-camera senior design consultant on "This Old House" and "Find!"
Hampton, a whirlwind of energy, is the first interior designer to appear on "This Old House" -- and the first female cast member of the show, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year by restoring and renovating an 1849 house in suburban Boston. Hampton will help plan the interior, from the location of the outlets to the built-ins.
At a recent television shoot in Woodbridge, Conn., Hampton, with a mane of blond hair, a pastel pink suit and high heels, looked as if she had stepped out of the pages of Town & amp; Country.
"On my first day of shooting for 'This Old House,' I brought two outfits because they were shooting in two places," she said. "The guys were wearing their plaid shirts and [jeans and boots]. When I changed for the second shot, I said to them, 'Aren't you going to change?' And they had!" she said, throwing her head back in raucous laughter.
PBS series
Hampton also has joined the cast of "Find!" the PBS series in its second season with antiques experts Leigh and Leslie Keno. On that show, Hampton and the Kenos will give viewers glimpses of the private homes of the country's top designers and the best designer show houses as a way to explore the latest trends in design.
During a tour of a Woodbridge home for "Find," Hampton pointed out how a modern home with cathedral ceilings and more glass than wall space could co-exist with items such as an 1840 Mennonite cupboard, life-size mannequins from the 1920s and a giant shoe from an 1885 shoe store.
While Leigh Keno commented on the antiques, Hampton spoke about the mix of old and new.
"These built-ins," she said, pointing to a group of low-slung teak built-ins original to the house, "it's amazing they were already here. As designers, we have to [build these and] drag them in from the streets."
During a break at the shoot, Hampton said of her new "Find!" gig, "It's inspiring, and it's a blast. ... I joke that I'm going to become the third Keno twin.
"What's so cool about this is working with lots of designers," she said. "When we go to the house of a designer, we'll see how these designers live in their own houses. I'll function as an interpreter. I know this world, this business."
Highly qualified
And she does. Hampton has done interior design work on homes, yachts, New York City apartments. She has been recognized as one of Architectural Digest's top 100 designers and a "leading woman in American design" by Interiors magazine. She is especially proud of being commissioned to do the interior design for Trowbridge House, the official guest residence of former U.S. presidents in Washington. (Her father did interior design work for Kennedy Onassis and at the White House of President George H.W. Bush.)
Her work has appeared regularly in top magazines, including Architectural Digest and House Beautiful; she has her own line of fabrics and her own line of furniture, scheduled to come out in 2005.