Inside RHONY Star Luann de Lesseps' Hamptons Dream Home: 'It's My Safe Haven'

Luann de Lesseps, 52, was first drawn to her Sag Harbor house for the water views, but she ultimately bought the 5-bed, 5-bath abode in 2014 for its cottage charm. “It was a blank canvas of perfection,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “It was just white, simple wainscoting, an old whaling captain’s home. When I walked onto the property I knew that this is where we would live."

With a passion for renovation and design, the Real Housewives of New York star went to work updating and decorating the beach retreat with collections from her travels and heirlooms from her first marriage to Count Alexandre de Lesseps, 68, with whom she shares daughter Victoria, 22, and son Noel, 21. “My former father-in-law was an ambassador to Monaco, so I have a lot of French antiques from that part of my life,” she says.

One of her favorite personal pieces is a papier-mâché bull’s head she brought back from a trip to Haiti that now serves as a focal point in the kitchen. “I carried it through the airport with me and it’s enormous!” she says. “It just goes great in that room.”

“My bedroom views are just great,” she says of her neutral-colored master suite, which boasts bedding from her Countess Luann Collection, now available at Ross stores nationwide. “I love to be up there.”

The family room is one of many spots the former countess likes to unwind in at the beach house, which she now uses year-round following her separation from her second husband Tom D’Agostino Jr., 50 (the two are currently in the process of getting divorced). “It’s my safe haven,” she says. “It’s been so helpful in terms of not having an apartment right now in New York.”

De Lesseps admits “I am kind of a neat freak,” so it’s no surprise that her office is pristinely organized. The space features antique books, woven baskets and a shoe-shaped Real Housewives award. “That was for, ‘Don’t be all, like, uncool,’” she says with a laugh.

A sign donning one of her favorite phrases is proudly displayed on a doorknob. “I love it so much because it’s so true,” she says. “When in life, if you fall into a bush, you brush off your knees and keep moving!”