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Inside Amanda Seyfried’s Peaceful New York Home

July 13, 2023

The Mean Girls and Mamma Mia! star channeled the spirit of her country home in the city with help from General Assembly

By Rachel Wallace
Photography by Cassie Floto Warner
Styled by Colin King
June 27,2023
When Amanda Seyfried purchased her New York City pied-à-terre, “all that was there were windows,” the actor says. The apartment, comprising of three former staff’s quarters on the top floor of a 1907 building on the National Register of Historic Places, indeed lacked walls, finished floors, and every other feature that makes a home livable. But it had a row of dramatic arched windows that allowed light to flood into every room.
That bright and airy quality was exactly what Seyfried was looking for—she was ready to upgrade from the apartment downtown that she’d purchased at age 24. Back then, she opted for a dark third-floor unit because she was “afraid of heights,” as she confesses. She and her husband, actor Thomas Sadoski, live full-time on a farm in the Catskills Mountains of New York (they also have a place in LA) and now have a sunny nest egg where they can stay when work calls them to the city and their two young children also feel at home.

Shop out the look of the house here

Thanks to the addition of a solid oak wall with a built-in mirror and shelf, “You walk into the apartment and you have a little bit of an entryway, even though you’re literally right next to the kitchen,” Zames says. The coat hooks are by Fort Standard.
Zames “talked [Seyfried] into” the custom pulls made by Sun Valley Bronze on the custom-made kitchen cabinetry, styled by Elizabeth Stewart. “They’re the only thing I can picture now. They’re perfect.” The floors throughout the home are by The Hudson Company.  Fashion: Rosetta Getty yellow suit, Stuart Weitzman shoe, Tank watch.
General Assembly custom-designed the entire kitchen, from the white oak and marble island to the cabinetry. The Stem Shade Rig from Pelle Designs hangs under the skylight, which informed the design of the kitchen during the renovation.
In the dining room, a Hudson Furniture table is surrounded by antique chairs and sits under a Soren light by Pinch. Fort Standard’s Strata hutch holds an array of books and treasures, including a toilet sculpture made by Seyfried’s sister in a high school ceramics class and a Refigured 16 sculpture by Ian Collings. The black-footed bowl is by Danny Kaplan.
The Oscar nominee and Emmy winner, who currently stars in The Crowded Room on Apple TV+, enlisted design firm General Assembly very early on in the process. As this was Seyfried’s third time working with founder Sarah Zames, she trusted the designer and her partner, Colin Stief, implicitly with the massive job. “Extensive work had to be done just to get the place to a functional home level,” Zames says. The pair, who work out of a studio in Gowanus, Brooklyn, and recently opened a storefront called Assembly Line in nearby Boerum Hill, often tackle gut renovations. And yet Zames says this was their most dramatic transformation yet.
When it came to the layout of the home, Zames and Stief were a bit hemmed in by guidelines that limited what kind of work could be done in the historic building. By using plenty of custom-made built-ins, the duo were able to create something that works for Seyfried and her family. “Sarah can do acrobatics when it comes to saving space. She has such innovative ideas,” Seyfried says. For this project, those concepts included placing the kitchen (with its custom cabinetry) directly underneath the existing skylight, adding an oak plank with a built-in mirror as a partition to create a designated entryway, lining the primary bedroom with built-in oak storage cabinets, and adding custom bunk beds to the kids’ bedroom.

Seyfried calls her longtime design collaborator’s style “so modern,” which is interestingly the polar opposite of the star’s own taste. But the Catskills farm Seyfried has owned for a decade now thoroughly represents her aesthetic thanks to General Assembly’s careful work. “I grew up in a stone house,” Seyfried says. “I just love history, and I love the smell of old wood. History has a smell to it. You know what I mean?“

A painting of Seyfried holding a cat by Mark Ryden is a focal point of the main living space, which is also home to a playhouse by Make It Cute, a company Seyfried founded with two childhood friends. Art: Mark Ryden
The hallway ceiling sconces are by Allied Maker, the wall sconces are by Studio Dunn, and the rug is by Salam Hello.
Seyfried sits on one of the custom oak built-in wall cabinets designed by General Assembly in the primary bedroom. The firm also designed the custom window shutters, painted in Farrow & Ball Slipper Satin. All of the custom millwork throughout the dwelling was done by First Third. The pedestal tables are by Goula/Figuera for Collection Particuliere. Fashion: Erdem dress, Stuart Weitzman shoes, Tank watch
Seyfried sits on one of the custom oak built-in wall cabinets designed by General Assembly in the primary bedroom. The firm also designed the custom window shutters, painted in Farrow & Ball Slipper Satin. All of the custom millwork throughout the dwelling was done by First Third. The pedestal tables are by Goula/Figuera for Collection Particuliere. Fashion: Erdem dress, Stuart Weitzman shoes, Tank watch
Zames and Stief did their best to imbue a bit of the country spirit into Seyfried’s NYC space while also honoring the building’s architecture. “We wanted to bring in some of the feeling of what we’d done at her place upstate because she goes back and forth between the two. We don’t want it to feel like a dramatic change,” Zames says. “Amanda is not really a formal person, and keeping a relaxed vibe was really important.”
One way they achieved this was by installing wide plank flooring and by adding custom shutters to almost all of the windows in the home. “The arched windows were something that we really wanted to highlight and [emphasize] in the space,” Steif says. “Instead of doing drapery, we designed these shutters, which keep out the arched beams of sunlight. Also, there’s a really nice thing that happens when you adjust the shutters—you can control how much light is coming in and provide privacy without having to totally block out the views. It also, I guess, feels a little countryish.”
With her New York City pad, Seyfried can truly have the best of both worlds. “I’m part of the development of a Broadway show,” she says “This is going to be my home for six, seven, eight months. I know this will be where I live, and I’m comfortable here. I feel really safe.”
This article is originally available in www.architecturaldigest.com