Martha's Great American Tag Sale

When I received an email from one of Martha's television producers in early April of this year telling me that Martha would like me to attend her first ever tag sale at her farm in Bedford, New York, I was floored. She asked if I was interested in attending and being one of the featured guests on a television program about the event. I wasted no time in replying a resounding "YES!" What followed were two weeks of preparation for the trip - my first trip out of the country (I live in Canada) since the pandemic hit in early 2020. I had to get everything in order, including all my vaccination papers, all of the documents required to be on the television show and make all the travel plans. It was a short window of time to plan it, but I was determined to make it happen. And happen it did!

Martha held a pre-sale cocktail party at the stables on her property, which I was invited to but was not able to attend because of scheduling. I regret not trying just a little bit harder to get that extra day off work - but it's all hindsight now. You will see photos of this cocktail party in an upcoming post by Bernie Wong and Dennis Landon, two of Martha's biggest fans (who met on the Martha Moments group!) and collectors of her merchandise. They were also asked by Martha to attend the tag sale.

Not only did I get to see Martha again and chat with her on a few different occasions, I got to meet so many of the people I had corresponded with for years on the Martha Moments Facebook group, including Bernie and Dennis, who have become great friends. I was so proud that Martha Moments had a really strong representation at the tag sale and that it was regarded by Martha, and much of her staff, as THE resource for fans online and on social media. Everyone I met from the group was so warm, caring, friendly and generous. But, honestly, I would expect nothing less from such a great group of people. 

Below are some of my photos from the event. Please be sure to watch the program about the tag sale, which airs on ABC on Wednesday, May 25th, at 8 pm. You will see me, Bernie, Dennis, and several other Martha Moments 'regulars' on the show! It's going to be great fun! Enjoy!

The morning of the tag sale, everyone was asked to park at the John Jay Homestead, which is just a short drive from Martha's home in Bedford, New York. I was so enchanted by the old 1787 homestead, which is where statesman John Jay, one of three authors of The Federalist Papers and the first Chief Justice of the United States, retired. Everyone attending the tag sale was asked to park on the large lawn. From there, attendees would be transported to the sale in shuttle vans, scheduled to arrive and depart at timed intervals, based on the ticket timeslots. 

These are the vans that transported the guests from the John Jay Homestead to Martha's farm. They are shown here in Martha's driveway the morning of the event.

Before heading up to the vans, Bernie Wong and I stopped for a quick photo. We were both so excited to be there! Bernie and Dennis both dressed in really fun mint-green overalls and green patterned shirts. Bernie's favourite colour is green (it's also one of Martha's favourites) and they both looked so great. 

Bernie, Dennis and myself were referred to by the producers as "the superfans" - the ones asked by Martha to attend the sale. We were given the royal treatment - we even had our own private shuttle van that would pick us up from the tag sale whenever we were ready to leave! We felt very special, indeed!

Everyone who attended the sale was given a paper wristband with a number on it. They were, of course, Bedford Gray, and emblazoned with Martha's iconic sycamore logo, which is the symbol of her farm, Cantitoe Corners. The number on the wristbands helped the salespeople keep track of our purchases as they were taken from the tables and placed aside until you were ready to pay.

When we arrived, Martha was waiting for all of us - with the cameras rolling for the ABC special about the sale. Martha instructed the large crowd to please be careful when they were shopping: "No pushin', no shovin'...walk, don't run!" Everyone was definitely very excited and it wasn't a stretch to believe that some people would 'crash the gates' as it were. But everyone was very respectful. These are MARTHA fans, after all! We know etiquette. Martha rang a large bell to announce the official opening of the tag sale and we were off! (As I went past Martha I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek! She approved.)

There was SO MUCH to look at and take in! It was overwhelming at first: chairs, tables, hutches, desks, benches, dishes, glasses, serveware, cookware, bakeware, books, magazines, all kinds of furniture and decorative accessories, from lamps to candlesticks to rugs to mirrors... And they were all part of Martha's personal collection. Many of the objects had been used in her houses over the years, in her kitchens, living rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms. There was even clothing Martha had worn!

Each item was tagged and priced. Many of the prices were very reasonable and all of the objects were in excellent condition, of course. Martha takes care of her things, as well all know.

There were so many unique and beautiful things. I, of course, wondered where everything had been, originally. Many of the items were from her home in East Hampton, Lily Pond Lane, which she sold last summer.

I loved this piece so much, but it was well beyond my budget - and my capacity to bring it home across the border to Canada in the trunk of my car! But it was stunning.

The tag sale was held in the hay field of Martha's farm. None of the main houses or stables were visible from this section of the farm.

Outside the tents was all of the outdoor furniture! There was SO MUCH!

I loved these beautiful wooden chairs. I remember seeing them on Martha's terrace in many photographs. 

Not far from here was the "contemporary house" on Martha's property - the only residential structure Martha has not yet refurbished, inside or out. There were all manner of bedframes, hutches, framed prints and posters for sale in this structure. Adjacent to it was another tent filled with wicker furniture, garden urns, flower pots and more!

At the end of a very long driveway through the woods was an enormous storage barn, where I'm assuming many of the items had initially been stored. Even still, it was packed to the rafters with items from Martha's old television studios and offices, including this original "American Made" sign that had once hung in the clerestory of the Starett-Lehigh building, where the Omnimedia offices had once been located. In this barn were Martha Stewart products for sale: merchandise from Macy's, Martha by Mail, Home Depot, Home Decorators, Wayfair and more. There were bins of Christmas ornaments, scrapbooks, tote bags - all manner of items that bore the Martha Stewart imprint. 

THE PEOPLE

Truth be told, it was the people I met at the tag sale who really made the whole thing special for me. Aside from seeing Martha again, which was so wonderful, it was meeting people like Bernie and Dennis, and many others from the Martha Moments Facebook group who made their way to the tag sale from various parts of the United States: Anthony, Tim, Matt, Jennifer, Jeremy, Kristina... All such friendly people I had admired from afar now standing with me in Martha's yard! Everyone I met made the experience brighter, more engaging and certainly more memorable. 

This was "our group" - the people I spent the most time with at the tag sale. Front and center is the amazing designer and ceramicist Christopher Spitzmiller who is as much a Martha fan as the rest of us! Jennifer Zimmerman, far left, was like a big sister to Bernie, Dennis and myself and encouraged us at every turn. That's Bernie and Dennis looking dashing in their matching outfits! To Chris's right is Tim Obert, a Martha enthusiast who only recently discovered Martha Moments. Next to him is Anthony Picozzi, the co-administrator of our Martha Moments Facebook group and someone I've admired for many years. And far right is Matt Obey, Tim's partner and administrator of the @purelysalem Instagram page, which is worth checking out!

One of the highlights was finally meeting Kevin Sharkey, someone whose work I had admired in the magazine for decades. He is currently the executive vice president and executive director of design for the Martha Stewart brand. He was friendly and charming and we both enjoyed the light being cast upon our faces from the plethora of silver cake servers below us - three of which I purchased!

I had met Hannah Milman 11 years ago at an event at the Omnimedia offices but I got to speak with her more in depth at the tag sale. Hannah was the editorial director of crafts for Martha Stewart Living for many years and is responsible for so much of the inspirational projects we got to see over the years. I was so pleased to hear that she will be in charge of the new American Made initiative that Martha Stewart Living will be resurrecting! Stay tuned for more news on that! 

This is Jeremy Lambertson, a longtime member of the Martha Moments group and a reader of this blog for many, many years. It was great to finally meet him! He is a professional collector and he got some excellent things at the sale!

This is Jocelyn, the official writer and photographer for TheMarthaBlog.com. It was great to finally meet her! She said she always likes seeing my comments on the blog posts. 

Jocelyn snapped this photo of me with the plant stand I had just purchased - one that Martha painted herself at Lily Pond Lane. This photo later appeared on Martha's blog!

Bernie and Dennis posed with Wendy Norling and Ryan McCallister. Wendy is the caretaker of Martha's estate in Maine, Skylands, and Ryan is Martha's head gardener at Bedford. They were both so incredibly friendly and warm. 

Vincent Manzo, an antiques expert and appraiser, was on hand to help shoppers with any questions they may have had about any of the objects for sale. He helped Martha select and group the items, along with the main organizers of the event, Kaminski Auctions. Vincent was such a joy to be around and was so exceptionally sweet! He loved all of us Martha groupies!

This is Samantha Frisoli who was responsible for organizing much of the inventory and ensuring everything had the appropriate tag. When I met Sam, she told me she used this blog for so much of her research into many of Martha's own products! I was so honoured to hear that!

It was a great pleasure meeting Carey from The Idea Emporium. She told me she was a huge fan of the Martha Moments Instagram page. Her work has been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, as was her own wedding! She was so much fun!

You'll be hearing more about the sale here on the blog in the coming weeks, so be sure to check back. Bernie and Dennis will be sharing their memories here too! (They attended the cocktail party and got a special treat on the last day of the sale!) In the meantime, be sure to watch the one-hour special on ABC on Wednesday, May 25th, at 8pm: The Great American Tag Sale with Martha Stewart! You'll see me, and many of the people mentioned above!

Martha Gets Down and Dirty for Discovery+

Discovery Plus has unveiled its summer 2021 roster of streaming programming and Martha is taking center stage with her series, "Martha Gets Down and Dirty", which premiers on July 1. The eight episode series will follow Martha, her friend and colleague Kevin Sharkey and her head gardener, Ryan McCallister, as they prepare her Bedford, NY, farm for the spring/summer season. There will be celebrity guest appearances and questions from her viewers and readers seeking advice about how to plant their summer gardens. 

If the premise sounds familiar, you're not dreaming. It is essentially the same program as "Martha Knows Best," which was developed for HGTV and aired for two seasons on that channel. 

You can watch the trailer for the show here.

You can find a full description of the series by clicking here, as well as the other Discovery Plus programs on offer this summer.

"Martha Bakes" on YouTube

"Martha Bakes" - the acclaimed baking series developed for the Hallmark channel and subsequently made famous by PBS - is now available to stream on Martha's YouTube channel! Viewers will soon be able to watch every single episode from all eleven seasons of the show! I'm hoping, too, that the shows will be added to the Martha Stewart TV app eventually. "Cooking School" episodes - Martha's James Beard Award-winning cooking show for PBS - would also be a nice addition. I'm glad these programs are now being collected and curated for online consumption. Be sure to revisit these informative and inspiring episodes!

Martha Returning to HGTV and Food Network

No one knows how to take "free time" and spin it into pure gold better than Martha Stewart. Not only has she been putting her cooking and gardening skills to the test during quarantine but she's also been developing new television shows!

A new program for HGTV called Martha Knows Best is tentatively scheduled to air later this year, although it is still in production. Filmed at Cantitoe Corners, Martha's farm in Bedford, New York, the show will invite viewers to follow Martha around her property as she completes household and gardening tasks. This is exciting news for all of us viewers who have wanted, for so long, a show that takes us inside the workings of Martha's farm. Episodes began filming recently and will continue throughout the summer. Stay tuned to HGTV for news about a firm air date.

Martha will also be returning as a guest judge on Chopped on the Food Network for its next season and is also developing a "holiday-themed series" for that channel. We'll have to wait for more details about that show, but it does sound intriguing.

Martha at "Bakeaway Camp"

Martha will soon star in a new competition show on The Food Network called "Bakeaway Camp with Martha Stewart." Acting as a mentor to six amateur bakers, Martha will guide the contestants as they rough it outdoors in tents and lean-tos while creating camp-inspired food with the barest of essentials. A snippet from the show's casting call shared on Apartment Therapy, describes the show like this: "part exclusive culinary retreat, part baking boot camp and part summer camp-inspired competition with a cash prize." The contestants will all take part in baking challenges, sometimes facing the unpredictability of outdoor situations. Their culinary creations will, of course, be judged and there will, of course, be a winner. Confirmed judges are Chef Barbara Hall, food blogger and Food Network Host Dan Langan and former Bachelor star Jesse Palmer.

The contestants are all competing to win a $25,000 kitchen renovation. Prizes will also be awarded to the winner of each of the challenges throughout the series, including a one-on-one cooking lesson with Martha at her home kitchen in Bedford, New York. An air date for the series has not yet been announced.

Season Ten of Martha Bakes Airs July 5

It seems unreal to me that Martha Bakes is now entering its tenth season! While the program had its first airing on the Hallmark Channel in 2011, where it enjoyed two seasons, it was PBS that really gave the baking series its proper audience. Since 2013, PBS and Martha Stewart Living have produced two seasons of the program per year and it has since become the channel's most popular baking series. On July 5th, the series will begin to air its tenth season with an episode on adorned cakes.

This season will explore a range of new recipes, from desserts to breads to pastries - with a relatively heavy focus on desserts. (No complaints here!) Below is a summary of each episode.

JULY 5 - EPISODE ONE:  ADORNED CAKES - The season 10 premiere shows how to turn one basic recipe into three stunning celebration cakes: a berry chiffon cake, a confection-topped caramel chiffon cake, and a woodland stump cake that's truly a modern yule log masterpiece.

Berry Chiffon Cake - Photo by Mike Krautter

JULY 14 - EPISODE TWO: PERFECT PATE A CHOUX - Learn to make this magical dough that's the foundation for three spectacular filled desserts: pâte à choux swans swimming in a pond of chocolate, custardy coconut eclairs, and a towering pink croquembouche.

JULY 21 - EPISODE THREE: DECORATIVE BREADS - Three boulangerie-quality breads: a crusty golden brown artisanal boule, a unique "edible landscape" onion and leek focaccia, and a buttery, multi-layered brioche feuilletée.

JULY 28 - EPISODE FOUR: ELEGANT COOKIES - Recipes that turn humble cookies into art: "faux bois" vanilla and chocolate shortbread decorated with chocolate bark and pistachio moss, embellished wreath cookies with sugared flowers, and pretty-as-a-picture cherry blossom cookies.

AUGUST 4 - EPISODE FIVE: MAGNIFICENT MERINGUES - Learn the foundation for three different meringue-based desserts: meringue wreath with jewel-like sugared berries, chocolate angel food cake with a decadent milk chocolate frosting, and almond dacquoise bombes.

AUGUST 11 - EPISODE SIX: BREAKFAST PASTRIES - Join Martha to make an easy-to-prepare sweet-yeasted dough in three addictive recipes: pear and frangipane pastries, a pull-apart cinnamon and brown butter swirl designed to share, and mouth-watering jam-filled croustades.

AUGUST 18 - EPISODE SEVEN: FANCIFUL TARTS - Tips and techniques for creating showstopping tarts, such as red fruit tart piled high with colorful berries, lemon custard tarts filled with a citrusy curd, and a rosy pink apple tart.

AUGUST 25 - EPISODE EIGHT: IMPRESSIVE CHOCOLATE DESSERTS - S'mousses, a twist on the campfire favorite of graham crackers, marshmallow and chocolate; a chocolate and peanut butter tart; and a triple chocolate ice cream cake.

Pink Crochembouche from Episode Two - Photo by Mike Krautter

Be sure to check your local PBS listings for air times. Click here for the official Martha Bakes website. You can also watch full episodes online at TVGuide.com after the shows air.

Season Nine of Martha Bakes Starts This Weekend

If you're a cookie monster, as I am, then this ninth season of Martha Bakes on PBS is the one for you. Martha will be making cookies from around the world with guest experts to help her along the way. This season was filmed at Martha's Maple Avenue kitchen at her home in Bedford, New York. To promote the show, Martha hosted a Facebook Live video where she made two of the cookies featured on the program. Be sure to check your local PBS listings to find out when Martha Bakes airs in your area.

This season of Martha Bakes was filmed in Martha's Maple Avenue kitchen - one of several kitchens at her home in Bedford, New York.

 These Russian cookies are called Gusinie Lapki (this translates to "goose feet" in English) - a delectable, flaky cookie that resembles the webbed feet of geese.

 One of the best-known French cookies is the Meringue. This one is infused with chocolate.

In Finland, these Cream Cheese Star Cookies are popular during the winter holidays.

 These are Baci di Dama (Ladies Kisses) from Italy and are made by fusing two chocolate cookies together with a dollop of delicious chestnut frosting.

This season will feature cookies from Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand, North America, Austria, Germany and Switzerland, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Italy, Great Britain, Middle East, Greece, Netherlands and France. 

Season Eight of Martha Bakes Begins This Weekend!

Martha Bakes is in its eighth season and this time Martha will teach us all about ways to bake using more health-conscious ingredients and baking methods. Inspired by her latest baking book "A New Way to Bake", the show will also welcome a roster of guests who will join Martha in the kitchen to share their recipes and techniques for healthy baking. Among the recipes will be apple-cider cake, honey-wheat Parker House rolls, sweet and savory versions of Scottish hot oat cereal, healthier ways to make pie crusts and pastries, chocolate making and more! I'm looking forward to tuning in! Check your local PBS listings to find out when the show is airing in your region. (Oh, and if you love the kitchen where the show is filmed - on set at Martha's headquarters in Manhattan - you can get the look yourself at home with Martha's line of kitchen designs at The Home Depot. Click here to explore these designs.)

Guests this season will include Simo Kuusisto, owner of Nordic Breads in Long Island City in New York, Blair Marvin, co-owner of Elmore Mountain Bread in Elmore, Vermont, Nate Hodge, head chocolate maker at Raaka Chocolate, Jack Algiere, the farm director at Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture in Tarrytown, New York, and many others. For a full list, click here.

Martha & Snoop Get an Emmy Nomination!

Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party picked up an Emmy nomination yesterday in the "Host of a Reality/Reality-Competition Show" category. The first season, which aired on VH1, was a huge hit and the second season recently completed filming in Los Angeles. It will air this fall on VH1, premiering October 16th. Guests this year will include Queen Latifah, Ru Paul Charles (also nominated this year in the same category as Martha for his show Ru Paul's Drag Race) Patti Labelle and Jamie Foxx, among numerous others. Congratulations, Martha and Snoop! You'll get the award... fo' shizzle!

Martha is Working on a New TV Show!

According to the New York Post, Martha is working on a new television series based on her American Made initiative. The program will be one hour long and will show Martha working with American entrepreneurs to help them improve and grow their businesses. There has so far been no official announcement from Martha's team about the show.
Martha will be working with Amazon Prime to bring the series to air, however an executive producer has not been chosen and it is unclear how many episodes will be produced. According to the source quoted in the Post, the series will begin shooting in August with a planned debut for the end of the fourth quarter of the fiscal year.  The aim of the series will be to promote American entrepreneurs and to help sell their goods at Amazon.com through Martha's "American Made Market." Sounds like a great show!

Martha Bakes Season Six Starts Today!

Where did the last six years go? I still remember hearing the news that Martha would be launching a new TV show centered on the art of baking. Now, the Emmy-Award nominated "Martha Bakes" is in its sixth season with a new roster of 13 episodes that begins today on PBS.

I know many of you will be glad to learn that this season of the show was filmed in the kitchen of Martha's home at Bedford - a warm and inviting space that makes it feel as though we are right there with her. The new episodes will feature some guests baking alongside Martha and a nice mixture of savory and sweet recipes, including classic white bread, French meringue, pizza dough and homemade donuts. Click here to read more about the show and the episodes to come!

The October Issue + A New Halloween Web Series!

Many of you, I'm sure, are happily browsing through the pages of the October issue of Martha Stewart Living, which is on newsstands today. The issue features two covers, front and reverse: on the front, an adorable owl nestles with a trio of pumpkins that have been stenciled using a lace-stocking overlay. (For the craft how-to, see the Good Things section on page 23.) Flip the magazine over and we see Martha with piercing blue eyes and a stark white wig, cloaked in black satin. I saw several newsstands today that had the magazine displayed with the Martha cover facing out - a clever move to entice those of us who may still be hopefully searching for that elusive Halloween special issue. It will be a futile search, however, since there will not be special Halloween issue published this year. But...the October issue hints at a very intriguing, six-episode Halloween web series that will document the making of Martha's costume! Details below!

FLIP THE COVER AND....

This is not, in fact, Martha's full costume. She is cloaked in black satin for a reason. The big costume reveal will happen in October at MarthaStewart.com as part of a new web series called "Shriek or Chic" that will document Martha's Haute Halloween Challenge in which three contestants will compete to design Martha's costume. Here are some of the details about the program:

For the first time ever, three fashion design hopefuls compete to create Martha's Halloween costume - and win the honour of dressing Martha for her favourite holiday of the year. Go behind the scenes at Martha Stewart headquarters where the contestants work around the clock, with surprise visits from renowned fashion designers! And don't miss the dramatic season finale where Martha selects the winner, and appears in her costume of choice. Click here to watch for updates about the series until its premier episode on October 7th.
 
ABOUT THE COMPETITORS:

Gabrielle Ruffino, 24, New York
A 2014 graduate  of Merchandising & Management-Fashion Design, FIT, Gabrielle comes from a family of seamstresses and looks forward to impressing Martha with her skills in dress construction.

Joelle Samaha, 24, New Jersey
A 2-14 graduate of Fashion Design at FIT, Joelle's attention to detail  and award-winning  evening wear line separates her from the competition.

Taylor Ormond, 19, New York
A sophomore studying Fashion Design at FIT, Taylor is a big fan of Martha. If she has her way, Martha will wear something completely different this year.

Season 4 of "Cooking School" Premiers in October!

Martha Stewart's Cooking School is the number-one, most-watched cooking show on PBS and, earlier this year, won the 2014 James Beard Foundation Award for best cooking show in a studio or fixed location. It should come as little surprise, then, that season four will soon be underway! The new series of episodes will air beginning in October. Be sure to check your local PBS listings for showtimes and click here to learn more about the program, watch previews and find the recipes.

I am frequently asked where this program is filmed. It is filmed at the Starrett-Lehigh building in Manhattan, which is where MSLO is headquartered. When The Martha Stewart Show ended, the studio was dismantled and reassembled in this new location. The decision was made to keep all MSLO production under one roof, including all television and video recording.

Remembering: Martha's Westport Television Studios

Westport Digital Studios, Inc. was located at 19 Newtown Turnpike in Westport, Connecticut. It was leased by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia from 1998 to 2004 and produced many of the most memorable segments of Martha's television show. The studios were housed in a 1929 office building and warehouse, which Martha converted into one of the most beautiful television studios ever built. Prior to leasing this building, Martha filmed her television show on her personal properties: Turkey Hill in Connecticut and Lily Pond in East Hampton. Her private kitchens and gardens were the backdrop to her teaching segments. While outdoor gardening segments continued at her private residences, the new studios allowed Martha to greatly expand her television production team, providing much more space (indoors and outdoors) to develop ideas and produce daily content.

The studio complex featured a number of different production and post-production areas: three studio sound stages, a broadcast-ready digital control room, a shoot-ready prep kitchen with stainless-steel work surfaces, radio broadcast facilities where her Ask Martha segments were taped, editing suites, offices, a guest cottage for overnight housing, an on-site gym featuring an entertainment system, a commissary and 8.5 acres of wooded grounds, aesthetically maintained for "backyard" filming with a deck, a patio and multiple barbecue grills. 

Two primary kitchen studios were designed to film the cooking segments; the kitchen design of Studio B was based on Martha's kitchen at Turkey Hill Road.This set also included a dining area and a projects/crafts room. Studio A, shown in the top photograph and below, was based on her Lily Pond Lane kitchen in the Hamptons. There was an adjacent study and dining area in Studio A, each with its own functional gas fireplace. Studio A also contained the mud room and pantry. Studio C featured natural lighting where a number of set vignettes could be staged: a living room, a dining room, a laundry room, a bedroom and a bathroom. All were designed to Martha's exact specifications, intended to replicate rooms in her own homes.In total, the studios accounted for nearly 7,000 square feet of space.

The kitchen in Studio A, shown here, was modeled after Martha's kitchen in East Hampton. It had soapstone countertops by the Vermont Soapstone Company in Perkinsville, Vermont. The Viking range had six gas burners, a double griddle and two ovens: one conventional and one convection. Two other Viking ovens were built into the back wall. Each drawer in the kitchen served its own storage purpose: knives, baking racks, cookie cutters, tart shells, etc., were all assigned their own drawer. There were even two under-counter refrigerated drawers for easy access to chilled cookie dough and pie crusts.The kitchen cabinets are made of Poplar wood. Lucifer lights were installed inside all of the glass-front cabinets to illuminate Martha's dinnerware collections. The walls of this studio were painted using Martha Stewart Everyday paint in "Twine". The cabinets were painted "Westport Green."

The studio spaces were designed by a company called Meridian Design Associates and built by contractor Structure Tone Inc., a construction firm that operates across the United States, the United Kingdom and Asia. Structure Tone worked with Martha and her production team to ensure all of the requirements were met to Martha's exact specifications. On its website, Structure Tone breaks down the design:

"The new 32,000 square-foot space included two 2,000 square-foot stage kitchens, a 1,000 square-foot prep kitchen, a 500 square-foot commissary with seating for 40, fully equipped gym and post production and office support facilities. Representatives of Martha Stewart Living preferred natural gas instead of electric or propane for cooking purposes. Since natural gas was not currently in this area of Connecticut, our staff worked closely with Yankee Gas to bring the service to the building to supply the kitchen equipment and new HVAC system. In addition, Ms. Stewart requested the ability to change the kitchen set-up in the main studio (Studio A). With all the necessary hook ups for kitchens, including connections for gas, water and vent lines, our staff installed six separate valve locations under the studio floor. These lines facilitate quick and easy changes to the kitchen layout."

This is the craft area of the studio, organized with tools and supplies for any craft project and spaces to display some of Martha's interesting collections. All of the surfaces in the crafts/projects room were made of durable Dupont Corian. It also contained a working flower refrigerator.

A washer and dryer in the laundry room set were fully functional, as were all of the appliances at the studio. Here, Martha demonstrated many homekeeping tasks, such as stain removal from textiles, ironing, folding, organizing and clotheskeeping.

Martha is pictured here with her mother, "Big Martha" (Kostyra), in the Turkey Hill kitchen set, Studio A.

Martha shown in Studio A with four of the nine Emmy's the Martha Stewart Living program was awarded during its eleven seasons on the air - most of which were filmed at the Westport Studios. (The show was nominated for 22 Emmy's in total.)

Westport Digital Studios Inc. was in operation for a period of just over 14 years, six of which were under Martha's supervision. The building is currently home to Westport's Museum of Contemporary Art.