Step Inside the Storied New York Home of Tony Award–Winning Actor Sutton Foster
Some people feel less is more. Others believe more is more. But when it came to decorating Tony Award–winning Broadway star Sutton Foster’s home, Grace Home Furnishings co-owner and interior designer Michael Ostrow says, “more is enough.” According to the Music Man star (who recently received another Tony nomination for her role), “I love working with him because there’s no fear—we just go for it.” Foster says her L.A.–based friend has impeccable taste and a “real sense of playfulness and whimsy.” And she should know, having having already collaborated with Ostrow on a 1969 A-frame in California, an apartment in Manhattan, and a crisp house in Greenwood Lake, New York.
The bucolic environment lured the actor and her husband, screenwriter Ted Griffin, to seek a more permanent home outside the city. “We would drive by Tuxedo Park, and we were always curious what was back there,” Foster says. While she was shooting her hit television series, Younger, Griffin saw an 1895 Dutch colonial home built by Gilded Age architect Bruce Price for his family, including daughter Emily Post. “He called me on a break and said, ‘I think I found our forever home.’ And the minute I walked in I felt the same way,” Foster says. “It felt like that home you want your kid to grow up in. I could see Christmases and holidays, friends, and family.”
Though it had been impeccably renovated, in Ostrow’s words the house was “so white.” It called for warmth. He imagined an updated Aesthetic Movement vibe that was fun, not old-fashioned.” The verdant Tuxedo Park surroundings played in thematically, as did Foster’s love of butterflies, flowers, and birds, which appear in almost every room of the spirited 4,132-square-foot property. To ensure it didn’t veer toward old lady, Ostrow took inspiration from the organic style of designer Charles Voysey. “If I was going to have a very animated wallpaper, then I made the drapery and beds very simple,” he says.
And there are many animated wallpapers, including a large-scale floral example installed on the ceiling of Foster’s luminescent living room, where the furniture is new and indestructible. That’s in part due to the fact that the couple’s five-year-old daughter, Emily, and their two dogs reside here as well. And, as Ostrow notes, “It didn’t make sense to buy doll furniture when Ted is about six-foot-four.”
A seductive parlor complete with piano and Julian Chichester leather bar celebrates deeper tones and sumptuous textures, with a dark floral Designers Guild wallpaper, while the self-described crafter’s office–slash–crocheting den is clad in pink with yellow roses. (“My goal is to crochet something for every room, whether it’s a blanket or pillow or tissue box!” Foster says.) Their daughter, Emily, had a consult with Ostrow for her bedroom, during which they chose a wallpaper with trees, butterflies, ladybugs, and dragonflies, to her mom’s delight. “I love being in there because it’s magical, and it all makes sense for where she is right now in her life,” Foster says.
Even the few non-papered rooms are dynamic, such as the jewel box–like library with lacquered green walls, built-in bookcases, and auction finds including a tufted yellow leather sofa. “What I think is fun about it is each room has a definite personality, and it’s [Sutton’s] personality,” Ostrow says. The designer magically transformed the shingle-sporting abode while Foster was in London doing Anything Goes in the summer of 2021. He even stayed in the house for much of the process, and oversaw renovation of the primary bath, where the existing tub was, funnily enough, too big. “My favorite most important thing in my life is a bathtub,” says Foster, who enjoys her new “dream tub” every night after coming home from doing The Music Man.
Ostrow traveled to London during her Anything Goes run for an epic shopping day in an antiques mall where they bought portraits—inspiration struck Foster after visiting friends’ homes there—and a gold mine of embroidered and needlepoint tapestries that now cover stools and pillows or are framed and hanging throughout the home. “That was a very cool find,” Foster says. She adds, “A lot of the house is actually inspired by my time in London. The designer incorporated as much as he could from the city to spark memories. “My favorite thing to do is look for the little things that make the house complete,” Ostrow says. “And they tell stories because they have a past.”
As a California designer, to Ostrow this 1885 house was a gift. “For me it was one of my greatest joys because I got to play in a genre I don’t normally get to play in,” he says, “and it was definitely playing—Sutton lets you play.” For her part, Foster is thrilled to live in—and develop a relationship with—a home so bold, different, quirky, and full of life. “I love anything that feels organic, or like it’s bringing the outside in, or has a sense of humor and play,” she says, adding, “I don’t take anything 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 customer is a friend and you love them,” Ostrow says. “You’re making it special for them. So this house is full of love, because I love all of them, but Sutton I adore.” Though Emily and her dad returned to Tuxedo Park early for the start of school, Ostrow says he knew it would feel incomplete without Foster. The physical home, so highly personal and intimately curated for a singular personality, was only part of the equation. Come October, when the Broadway star walked in, she was blown away. “Sutton basically is the house to a certain extent,” Ostrow says. “When I saw her in it I was like, It’s done, because it’s all you, and you complete it.”
1/17Sutton Foster pictured outside her historic Dutch colonial home. She became great friends with the previous owner, who had extensively renovated the house and was incredibly helpful during the performer’s project, sharing exact paint colors and more.
2/17Foster requested that the porch in the back of the house be “fun,” Ostrow says. The designer rose to the challenge and added an outdoor swing. “It’s just a nice, sweet space,” he says. The swing in question is by James, while the chairs and table are from Janus & Cie.
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3/17The vintage lamp with a beaded shade—by Kathleen Caid of Antique Artistry—in the home’s entry was a gift Ostrow had made for Foster. An antique chair and cabinet share the space.
4/17There are many fireplaces in Foster’s 1885 Tuxedo Park home, but none as vibrant as the one in the parlor, flanked by striped chairs from Julian Chichester and a piano. A Julian Chichester mirror and antique garniture also share the spotlight. Not pictured here, there’s also a shallow distressed leather bar, since Foster knew she “wanted the parlor to be a glamorous sitting room where we could have people over for cocktails.”
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5/17“I wanted it to look very English, and they paint their mantles all the time,” Ostrow says. He showed Foster what he was thinking and got the okay. “She’s like, I love that. I think that’s going to be so fun.” He loved designing that room in particular because Foster gave him free rein.
6/17Foster and Ostrow purchased the painting of a woman playing piano that hangs over her piano in a London antique mall. On the piano are flowers by Broadway dancer turned florist Robbie Fairchild. Moody Designers Guild wallpaper gives the intimate room even more glamor. The ottoman was originally a coffee table Ostrow had upholstered in chartreuse leather.
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7/17Ostrow searched for a tufted sofa that would fit the parlor, found it in Connecticut, and had it reupholstered in a deep fuchsia. Almost every room has a floral motif of some sort, and Foster is working to crochet a piece for every room of the house.
8/17The wallpaper on the ceiling of the living room was “Ostrow completely,” Foster says. “He sent me some photographs of what that could be like, and I was like, Sure, let’s go for it.” Also in the room are a Chippendale cabinet from Foster’s husband’s family, vintage cattail lamps, and a record player, the latter reminiscent of what Foster and her husband grew up with. “It’s cool to be able to listen to records again and have music like that in the house for Emily,” she says. A collection of vintage paintings hang salon-style around the TV.
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9/17Foster stands in front of an original fireplace with a vintage cattail fire screen, fender from Detroit, vintage cane chair, and framed English Deco embroidery, under a ceiling papered in Flavor Paper’s Camellias wall covering. Ostrow and the actress chose wallpapers first for each room, and in the living room he suggested an unexpected placement. “It’s very light and gives the room dimension and personality without being overwhelming,” says the designer, who kept the rest of the space simple.
10/17The lack of a proper dining room in the house meant they had to get creative. (The original had been transformed into the kitchen.) Ostrow devised a dining space in the former sunroom, with two tables that can be connected with a leaf, plus banquette seating, all custom by Grace Home Furnishings.
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11/17Foster had the idea of building a library upstairs for their many books in a tiny room that was previously used for sewing. “We decided to lacquer it, so it’s this very cool little space to sit and read a book or make a phone call.” It’s furnished with auction finds including a tufted yellow leather sofa and a portrait bought in London. “I almost kept it because it has the most pre-Raphaelite late 19th-century style, but I knew I’d never have any place for it,” Ostrow says of the painting in his favorite room.
12/17Guest room one or, as Foster calls it, Fox Room, has a whimsical but grounded feel. It features a Voysey-esque wallpaper, a silvery desk made for the singer a long time ago, an antique chair, and a vintage painting that speaks to her desire to have a lot of portraits in her home, inspired by her stay in London.
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13/17“I wanted tranquility, but also elegance,” Foster says of her sleeping sanctuary—with an accent wall in Miyako’s Scene One Dove wallpaper and a glamorous Visual Comfort chandelier—that ended up being “my favorite bedroom I’ve ever been in.” Ostrow found ceramic Arts and Crafts–era lamps at an auction and made new shades. “I wanted to bring old and new in there,” he says.
14/17Foster’s office, with its giant closet filled with crafting supplies, is where the “mother lode of crocheted blankets is,” she says. Ostrow purposely left the space open beyond the English desk and Birch Lane daybed to give the performer room to create. It’s one of Foster’s favorites, with pink-and-yellow Lord Twig wallpaper. “It just feels like a very peaceful creative space, which is exciting for a crafter,” she says.
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15/17Foster’s daughter, Emily, got to choose her own wallpaper (by Romo), which informed the entire cheery room. Ostrow made the nightstands to cross eras, with a modern silhouette featuring tiles in an original Arts and Crafts design. He loves using vintage table lamps in his projects, “because you can give a lot of character to a room by throwing in something that seems uncommon and one of a kind.” These were originally brown and orange, so Ostrow painted them to match the room, adding trim to the edges of the shades.
16/17By the fireplace in Emily’s room is the whimsical Busy Buzzy wall mural from Romo and a rug by Capel.
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17/17A sense of craft and a strong nature theme extend to every nook and cranny of the 1885 home, including this antique chair with a vibrantly stitched floral seat and back.
