THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE when you enter Ophelia and Bill Rudin’s oceanfront home on the East End of Long Island is the precious metal. Everywhere. Not just the walls and furnishings but “every sheet, every napkin, every dish, everything,” says Alex Papachristidis, the esteemed decorator and Ophelia’s brother, who has been designing residences for the Rudins for more than 30 years. “When we started, I asked Ophelia, ‘What colors would you like?’ She said gold, silver, and white. And that’s the whole house.”
The result is a kind of unrelenting—and ultra-refined—radiance, an eternal sunshine conjured by two very compatible minds. As both siblings will tell you, they are extremely close. Nine years older, Ophelia calls Alex her baby brother, whom she helped raise. “Alex was born with an innate…
