Martha Stewart at Home: 15 Photos of the Legendary Homemaker in Her Element
Before there were Pinterest boards and Instagram reels, there was Martha Stewart. The homemaking icon elevated quotidian domestic tasks like cooking and gardening to aspirational levels, feeding a burgeoning demand for lifestyle advice through scores of her own made-from-scratch recipes, elaborately set tablescapes, and pristinely manicured grounds. She became the first American woman to build a billion-dollar company—one based on sharing knowledge of the domestic arts, no less. “She was the first person that saw the marketability of her personal life. Martha was the first influencer,” says her friend Lloyd Allen in the new Netflix documentary Martha.
Stewart honed the homemaking skills upon which her empire was built at a four-acre former onion farm dubbed Turkey Hill in Westport, Connecticut. In the span of nearly 30 years, Martha and her ex-husband Andy Stewart transformed the run-down spot into an estate teeming with fantastical gardens and dreamy ADUs. It was during her time at Turkey Hill that Martha launched the catering company that led to her first book deal. In 2000, she moved on from the home to a 153-acre farm in upstate New York, where she now spends most of her time.
After losing control of her company in the early aughts and serving a five-month stint in prison (for a highly publicized insider-trading-related conviction she maintains was unwarranted), Martha also lost millions of dollars and much of her influence. However, the prototypical domestic goddess regained most of her cultural relevancy over the past decade with aplomb; these days, many of her younger fans know her mainly as a savvy, sassy power player on social media, where her two million followers tune in daily to get the scoop on her lifestyle tastes. Last year, Martha graced the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, which made her the brand’s most senior cover model, and this month she’s on track to release her 100th cookbook. As the career-spanning Netflix doc primes Martha for yet another cycle of media dominance, we’re taking a look back at some more intimate moments of the star in her element: at home.
Photo: Arthur Schatz/Getty Images1/15Turkey Hill
Martha and Andy purchased Turkey Hill in 1971, when it was just a few large trees and the 1805-built Federal-style farmhouse pictured here. The couple subsequently bought adjacent land, turning the property into the four-acre pastoral paradise. In this 1980 image, Martha and Andy stand in front of the pool they installed themselves. To the left is their carriage house, which the couple also built with their own hands—along with a little help from Martha’s brother George. Upstairs was a full apartment for guests.
Photo: Susuan Wood/Getty Images2/15A model garden
Long before she fashioned the art of living in her own image, Martha was a model signed to the prestigious Ford agency, where she booked gigs from her teen years well into her days as a Barnard student. Her resume included a campaign for Breck shampoo, a television spot for Lifebuoy soap, and some work for Chanel during her college career. In this 1976 image, Martha makes holding a basket of eggs look stylish as she strikes a pose with a fresh collection from the chickens on her farm. Although only five years into owning Turkey Hill, the lush landscape in the background already shows signs of thriving under Martha’s green thumb—a foreshadowing of “good things” to come.
Photo: Susuan Wood/Getty Images3/15Living off the land
Martha has long been vocal about her appetite for organic food and living off the land. “Ever since I’ve owned a house, I’ve craved backyard farmyard animals,” the businesswoman wrote in a 2019 article for her website. Ever the farmer, Martha is seen here at Turkey Hill, commanding a gaggle of geese while the farm’s 50 chickens mill around in their coop. Martha also tended to ducks, turkeys, lambs, goats, sheep, and hogs on the property.
Photo: Susuan Wood/Getty Images4/15The heart of the home
Martha’s culinary journey began in her childhood kitchen in Nutley, New Jersey, where she absorbed her mother’s teaching and fostered a love for the process of cooking. “I stood by my mother’s side, learning everything I could,” Martha reflects in the Netflix documentary. Her early years in the kitchen laid the foundation for the successful catering company she launched in 1973. Of course the DIY icon always makes her own pasta; this 1976 image shows her laying out a fresh batch in her home’s kitchen.
Photo: Susuan Wood/Getty Images5/15Good natured
Martha makes her stance on the value of gardening clear in the Netflix documentary, reciting a maxim she lives by: “If you want to be happy for a year, get married. If you want to be happy for 10 years, get a dog. If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, make a garden.” Her connection to the land was nurtured in the backyard of her childhood home, where her father, an avid gardener, passed on his horticultural wisdom. “Dad made each of us learn how to garden,” Martha says. “I wanted to learn. He had a lot to teach, and I listened.” This early communion with nature blossomed into a lifelong passion, as Martha later transformed each property she acquired into magazine-worthy spreads of exotic plants and vegetables.
Photo: Susan Wood/Getty Images6/15Martha’s bespoke kitchen
Though gardening was no small part of her work at home, the kitchen was the centerpiece of Martha’s nascent empire. She spent countless hours testing recipes in the kitchen she and Andy built. The bespoke cabinets pictured here are made of native Massachusetts sycamore wood. And, being the thrifter that she is, Martha sourced the pot rack in the foreground at a tag sale.
Photo: Susan Wood/Getty Images7/15Centuries-old accents
At Turkey Hill, Martha and Andy’s dream kitchen took shape as a large, eat-in space. Among the room’s many delectable design details was its original fireplace, from which Martha meticulously stripped 173 years of paint to expose rich pumpkin pine wood beneath. Adjacent to the fireplace was an original built-in dutch oven, in which Martha would place coals from the fireplace to bake pizzas. She also installed 19th-century hooks on the mantel to hang everything from dried herbs to Christmas decorations.
Photo: Arthur Schatz/Getty Images8/15Martha’s catering roots
Through her culinary talents and keen eye for aesthetics, Martha’s catering service caught the attention of Manhattan’s cultural elite. She built up a roster of high-brow clientele, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and Sotheby’s, as well as private clients for soirées in residences across Bedford and Westchester, New York. The homemaking virtuoso’s bold vision propelled the company into her first million dollar business. “We tried to be a little outrageous,” recalls Martha of her innovative approach to gastronomy and presentation. “We wanted to catch people’s attention.”
Photo: Arthur Schatz/Getty Images9/15For the love of baskets
This 1976 shot shows Martha inside the kitchen of Turkey Hill, serving homemade food and drinks to friends while some pieces from her now famed basket collection hang above. The icon has amassed hundreds of specialty baskets over the years and houses them in a shed she calls the “Basket House” on her current home base in upstate New York. “I love baskets of all kinds and am always looking for rare pieces to add to my collection,” the lifestyle guru once said.
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Photo: Arthur Schatz/Getty Images10/15Chickening out
Years before she crafted her Connecticut sanctuary, Martha began chicken farming on her Middlefield, Massachusetts, property. The weekend getaway was a converted one-room schoolhouse that started off with no electricity or pipe-born water. By the time she and Andy had set up shop at their Westport abode, they were raising a flock of 50 chickens. And by 2019, at her current home in upstate New York, Martha housed over 200 chickens in four coops and a number of covered wire structures, which allow the birds to roam free while staying safe from the New England weather. Among her brood are several different breeds, including Cream Legbars, heritage Barred Plymouth Rocks, and Blue Coppers.
Photo: Susuan Wood/Getty Images)11/15The tobacco barn
Snug amongst a thicket of trees on Turkey Hill is a 1900-built tobacco barn, which Martha gifted to Andy on Father’s Day 1976. She purchased the structure disassembled for $15,000, so the Stewarts put together the loose chestnut beams, aged red-stained siding, slate roof tiles, and wide floor planks by hand. They outbuilding served as a storage area as well as a venue for hosting parties as needed. The tobacco barn is also the spot where Martha first uttered what would become her career’s catch phrase: “It’s a good thing.”
Photo: Michael Nagle/Getty Images12/15On home confinement
Martha began a five-month prison sentence in 2004 after the FBI brought charges against her for obstruction of justice during an investigation into an insider trading case. (Martha maintains her innocence.) The prison was nicknamed Camp Cupcake for its comparative leniency, although Martha has said that the sentence was not without its hardships. After serving her time, Martha was released in March 2005 and spent the next five months under house arrest at her farm in Katonah, New York, which she bought in 2000. Martha is pictured here greeting the swarm of press that descended upon the estate in the days following her return home.
Photo: Stephen Chernin/Getty Images13/15Cantitoe Corners
The 153-acre upstate New York farm, nicknamed Bedford Farm or Cantitoe Corners, is Martha’s primary residence today. By 2011, the grounds were home to 15 buildings, including a European-style, eight-stall stable with a stone façade that houses her horses. Martha offers carriage rides through the grounds of Cantitoe Corners, which are laced with more than four miles of carriage roads. The property also hosts several greenhouses, guesthouses, a gym, and an enviable chef’s kitchen (naturally).
Photo: Peter Kramer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)14/15Hosting famous friends
Martha invited the cast of NBC’s The Today Show (to which she regularly contributed) to her Bedford farm for Thanksgiving dinner in 2011. Included on the intricate tablescape were her homemade cranberry sauce and cornbread, both in the shape of a turkey.
Photo: Peter Kramer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images15/15From scratch
At home, Martha practices what she preaches; here, she demonstrated a bit of her penchant for consuming foods made from scratch for the viewers of The Today Show in 2011. Together with Al Roker, the queen of all things homemade pressed freshly picked apples from her orchard to make cider for a Thanksgiving feast. One of her prize-winning chow chows, alongside her French bulldogs Francesca and Sharkey, watch from the sidelines.
