At Home with Sara Story in her Gramercy Park Brownstone

When seven months pregnant with her first child and apartment hunting in New York City, designer Sara Story received a directive from her husband. He only wanted to live on Gramercy Park, the storied area encircling the bucolic private park only accessible to residents of surrounding buildings. While scouring the New York Times real estate section (no internet listings in the early 1980’s) Sara found a full floor one bedroom rental in an 1849 building overlooking the park and it was love at first site. They transformed a closet for the baby and over the next 20 years gradually acquired nine other apartments in the building, cobbling together a warm and welcoming home for her family of three children and two dogs. Please join me and Susanna for a visit to Sara’s inspiring Manhattan home.

While Sara is certainly careful and calculated with client projects, in her own home, she threw caution to the wind with unbridled creative energy.

Having evolved over decades, the home is layered with carefully curated art, such as the large photograph by Norwegian artist Per Barclay, with impromptu acquisitions, like the 70s Swedish U-shaped leather sectional sofa bought on the spot at LA design destination Blackman Cruz.

She effortlessly combines pieces from legions of illustrious designers – think Gio Ponti, Noguchi and Royère – with no name pieces for a panoply of chic pattern and color.

From a custom terrazzo dining room table inspired by furniture design legend Jean Prouvé, above, to a Josef Frank floral enveloped game room, seen through the dining room below,

it’s a home of boisterous beauty and love with endless style and inspiration!

If you just can’t get enough of Sara’s style, put her new book, The Art of Home https://amzn.to/42obbHu on your list.

And be sure to look for her Kips Bay Decorator Show House Palm Beach room debuting later this month.

all photos by Stacey Bewkes for Quintessence