Some believe that less is more. Others believe that more is more. But when it comes to decorating the home of Broadway star Sutton Foster Tony Award-winning Grace Home Furnishings co-owner and interior designer Michael Ostrow says “more is enough.” According to the star Music Man (who recently received another Tony nomination for his role): “I love working with him because there’s no fear, we just go for it.” Foster says his friend from Los Angeles has impeccable taste and a “true sense of play and fantasy”and she’s someone who should be very clear regarding that, having collaborated with Ostrow on a 1969 A-frame house in California, an apartment in Manhattan, and a house in Greenwood Lake, New York.
the country setting lured the actress and her screenwriter husband Ted Griffin to seek a more permanent home outside the city: “We were driving through Tuxedo Park and were always curious to see what was there,” says Foster. While shooting her successful television series, YoungerGriffin saw an 1895 Dutch Colonial home built by Gilded Age architect Bruce Price for his family, including his daughter Emily Post. “He called me on a break and said, ‘I think I’ve found our permanent home.’ And as soon as I walked in, I felt the same way,” says Foster. “It felt like that home where you want your child to grow up. I might see Christmas and holidays, friends and family.”
Although it had been impeccably renovated, in Ostrow’s words the house was “so white” that it begged for warmth. The green setting of Tuxedo Park became a thematic element, as did Foster’s penchant for the butterflies, the flowers and the birds, that appear in almost every room of this bustling 4,000-square-foot property. To ensure that he did not drift into old age, Ostrow was inspired by designer Charles Voysey’s organic style: “If he was going to have a very lively wallpaperso I made the curtains and the beds very simple,” he says.
And there are plenty of eye-catching wallpapers, including a large-scale floral example installed on the ceiling of Foster’s light-filled room, where the furniture is new and indestructible. That’s in part because the couple’s five-year-old daughter, Emily, and her two dogs also reside here. And, as Ostrow points out, “There was no point in buying doll furniture when Ted is regarding 6 feet 3 inches.”
An alluring piano room with a leather bar by Julian Chichester celebrates the deepest tones and sumptuous textures, with dark floral Designers Guild wallpaper, while the office of the self-described craftswoman, who specializes in crocheting, it is lined in pink with yellow roses. (“My goal is to knit something for every room, whether it’s a blanket, pillow, or tissue box,” says Foster.) His daughter, Emily, had a consultation with Ostrow for her bedroom, during which they chose a wallpaper with trees, butterflies, ladybugs and dragonfliesmuch to her mother’s delight: “I love being there because it’s magical, and it all makes sense to where she is right now in her life,” says Foster.
Even the few rooms that aren’t wallpapered are dynamic, like the jewel-box-like library with green lacquered walls, built-in bookshelves, and auction finds like a tufted yellow leather sofa. “What I find funny is that each room has a defined personalityand is the personality [de Sutton]says Ostrow. The designer magically transformed the dwelling with shingles while Foster was in London making Anything Goes in the summer of 2021. He even stayed in the house for much of the process and oversaw the renovation of the master bathroom, where the existing bathtub was strangely too big. “The most important thing in my life is a bathtub”says Foster, who enjoys her new “dream tub” every night following coming home from doing The Music Man.
Ostrow traveled to London during his time recording Anything Goes for an epic shopping day at a mall in antiques where they bought portraits — the inspiration came to Foster following visiting friends’ homes there — and a gold mine of needlepoint and embroidered wall hangings now covering stools and pillows or they are framed and hung throughout the house. “It was a really nice find,” says Foster. And he adds: “Much of the house is inspired by my time in London.” The designer incorporated everything he might from the city to spark memories. “My favorite thing is to look for the little things that complete the house,” says Ostrow. “Y They tell stories because they have a past.
As a Californian designer, for Ostrow this 1885 house was a gift: “For me it was one of my greatest joys, because I was able to play in a genre that I normally don’t get to play, and it was definitely play: Sutton lets you play.” For its part, Sutton Foster is delighted to live in such a bold housedifferent, quirky, and full of life, as well as building a relationship with her: “I love anything that feels organic or brings the outside in or has a sense of humor and playfulness,” she says, adding, “I don’t I take nothing too seriously.”
Mutual admiration is absolutely at the root of all aesthetic and energetic success: “You put a lot more love into the house when the client is a friend and you love him, you make it special for him,” says Ostrow. “So this house is full of lovebecause I love them all, but I love Sutton.” Although Emily and her father returned to Tuxedo Park early for school to start, Ostrow says she knew she would feel incomplete without Foster. The physical home, so personal and intimately curated for a singular personality, it was only part of the equation.In October, when the Broadway star walked into the house, she was impressed: “Sutton is basically the house to a certain extent,” says Ostrow. I saw in it, I said to myself: ‘It’s done, because it’s all yours, and you complete it'”.
Article originally published in AD US.
