Martha Stewart at Home: 29 Photos of the Legendary Homemaker in Her Element

Skip to main contentWhether it’s her farm in Connecticut or her seaside Maine lodge, the tastemaker’s home is always a good thingMartha Stewart’s empire began with her catering business.Photo: Susuan Wood/Getty ImagesBefore 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,” her friend Lloyd Allen claims in Martha, the 2024 Netflix documentary. “Martha was the first influencer.”She honed the homemaking skills upon which her empire was built at a four-acre former tobacco and onion farm she dubbed Turkey Hill in Westport, Connecticut. In the span of nearly 30 years, Martha and her now 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. “Turkey Hill was a dream place for my family and me for many years,” she once wrote. “It taught us, it nurtured us, it fed us, and it occupied us in so many wonderful and instructive ways. I would not be who I am today without the vast knowledge I gained there, on that small bit of paradise.” In 2000, she moved on from that home to a 153-acre farm in upstate New York, where she now spends most of her time.After losing control of her company and much of her cultural currency in the early aughts due to a highly publicized insider-trading-related conviction (resulting in a five-month prison stint)—which she maintains was unwarranted—the prototypical domestic goddess bounced back into the zeitgeist over the past decade with aplomb, and has maintained her relevancy since. Just this past 4th of July, the social butterfly was seen hobnobbing with a slew of celebs like Emma Roberts and bestie Snoop Dogg at socialite businessman Michael Rubin’s annual White Party.These days, many of her younger fans know her mainly as a savvy, sassy power player on social media, where her 7.5 million followers tune in daily to get the scoop on her lifestyle tastes. In her mid-eighties, the cultural tastemaker is still hitting milestones: appearing as Sports Illustrated’s most senior cover model in 2023, releasing an Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary in 2024 that chronicles her trailblazing legacy, and publishing her 101st book in 2025. In celebration of her 85th birthday, we’ve rounded up some photos of Stewart in her element: the home.Photo: Arthur Schatz/Getty ImagesTurkey HillMartha and Andy purchased Turkey Hill for $46,750 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 a 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 ImagesThe tobacco barnSnug 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. The completed 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: Susuan Wood/Getty ImagesA model gardenLong 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 ImagesLiving off the landMartha 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 blog. 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. “Even the animals, domesticated or not, coexisted very well,” she recalled of the property’s bucolic atmosphere. “One night, late, with a full moon hanging above the treetops, I went looking for my errant Blue Max, a black chow. He was down at the chicken coop with the chickens safely inside, an opossum perched atop the perimeter fence, and a cat or two curled up on the warm stone steps. It seemed just as if I was looking at the Turkey Hill version of Peaceable Kingdom.”Photo: Susan Wood/Getty ImagesRaising an organic flockAfter raising the geese from eggs in this 1976 photo, Stewart credits them with teaching her a lot about maintaining a backyard flock. “They, and the chickens and turkeys I nurtured, infused in me a love of sustainable, organic, and carefully raised poultry and eggs,” she once said. “Today on my farm, I have geese from five different countries, and they continue to do the same.”Photo: Susuan Wood/Getty ImagesThe heart of the homeMartha’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 loves making her own pasta; this 1976 image shows her laying out a fresh batch in her home’s kitchen.Photo: Susuan Wood/Getty ImagesGood naturedMartha 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: Susuan Wood/Getty ImagesThe formative years of Martha’s design philosophy“Turkey Hill was my original farmhouse and my first laboratory,” Martha reflects on her website. The estate’s gardens are where the domestic maven developed her foundational garden philosophy centered on preserving sight lines. “Axis of vision, an architectural principle, is so important,” she once told Veranda. “No matter how big your property is, allocating your space prior to planting is essential,” she emphasized. This 1976 aerial shot captures Martha on the Turkey Hill grounds during the early days of her philosophy’s development.Photo: Susan Wood/Getty ImagesMartha’s bespoke kitchenThough 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 ImagesCenturies-old accentsAt Turkey Hill, Martha and Andy conceived the kitchen as a generous eat-in space that blended history with everyday function. One of its main highlights was an original fireplace, which Martha painstakingly stripped of 173 years of paint to reveal the warm pumpkin pine beneath. Beside it, an original built-in Dutch oven was revived for baking pizzas with coals taken directly from the hearth, while 19th-century hooks mounted to the mantel displayed everything from drying herbs to Christmas decorations.Susan Wood/Getty ImagesCooking in the kitchenThe DIY queen is seen chopping an onion in the kitchen at Turkey Hill in 1976. In the 1990s, the wood-lined kitchen received an extensive professional renovation, lightening up the space with a white and pale green color scheme. White marble united the countertops, backsplash, and a spacious center island lined with drawers for plentiful storage. Martha kept the pot rack, which continued to proudly display her copper cookware.Photo: Arthur Schatz/Getty ImagesMartha’s catering rootsThrough 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 ImagesFor the love of basketsThis 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. In 2023, Stewart had to repair the house and suggested that she may own too many of the woven totes. “My little basket house needed a new roof,” she wrote on Instagram. “Replaced the rotted cedar shingles with a brand-new painted metal roof that will outlive most others. The baskets inside had to be removed during the two-day process. Gave me time to clean inside and rearrange and even edit a bit. Getting to be time for another tag sale?????”Susan Wood/Getty ImagesSetting the tableMartha sets the table with some blue-and-white dishes from her collection in this 1976 snapshot. Naturally, she has an enviable collection of dishes in addition to baskets. “If you saw my dish basement, you would be very jealous,” the businesswoman told AD in 2024. “It’s lined with many, many, many shelves, and that’s where the masses of glass, silver, and crystal are housed. And the piles of pottery—you would love. It’s like my own personal prop house.”Photo: Arthur Schatz/Getty ImagesChickening outYears 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: Arthur Schatz/Getty ImagesFeline familyCats are among the animals that have remained constant companions throughout the homemaker’s adult life. Martha, photographed here in 1980 with her Persian cat, has long favored this distinguished breed. Most recently, in June 2025, she welcomed Lilium, a brown Persian longhair from Doha, Qatar, bringing her current Persian cat family to three.Arthur Schatz/Getty ImagesThe end of an eraMartha and Andy are pictured in 1980, amidst construction in one of the structures at Turkey Hill. The former couple separated seven years later, with their divorce finalized in 1990. Martha held onto the property until 2007, when she sold it for $6.7 million. “Was it hard to leave Turkey Hill? Yes and no,” the media mogul later reflected. I definitely miss certain aspects—the soil with no rocks; the trees I planted with my own two hands; the rare and exotic specimens I searched for in catalogs and nurseries everywhere; the beautiful stones, lovingly placed by [landscaper] George [Hoyland] at entryways and in pathways; the outdoor kitchen, where I cooked so many wonderful meals; and the mudroom, where I wrote my books, so many books. The house itself was so comfortable to me, me who never sits down except to eat or write.”Photo: Todd Eberle / ©CBS / courtesy Everett CollectionMartha & JuliaFor Martha Stewart’s Home for the Holidays CBS special in 1995, the domestic goddess brought out the original queen of television cooking who introduced everyday Americans to French cuisine, Julia Child. The two whipped up an idyllic croquembouche, the puff pastry towers seen above. “Yours looks so neat—l’élégance parisienne,” Child said to Martha, complimenting her meticulously constructed tower. To which Stewart replied: “Well, yours is the country style. I love it!” In the image above, the two stand side by side in Stewart’s kitchen, each with their completed confections.Photo: Todd Eberle / TV Guide / ©CBS / courtesy Everett CollectionA full-scale Christmas decorating blitzStewart has always held a special place in her heart for Christmas; during her childhood, it was the most jubilantly celebrated holiday in her household. The decorating diva goes all out, often adorning each room in her house with multiple trees, garlands, wreaths, and a variety of DIY ornaments like cookies, paper chains, and strings of popcorn and cranberries. “Indoors, I go [a bit] more crazy,” she once wrote in her Martha Stewart Living magazine. “A tree or two or three in every room, hung with vintage and not-so-vintage ornaments that I have collected over the years” makes everything Martha-perfect. “My windows and doorways are always garlanded, and wreathed indoors and out,” she said. In 2015, the homemaking maven “purchased more than 40 evergreen wreaths for the windows of the house and the eaves of the outbuildings, and affixed wonderful shooting stars, made from hundreds of little white lights, to the roofs and sides of the buildings.”Photo: Michael Nagle/Getty ImagesOn home confinementMartha 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: Michael Nagle/Getty ImagesPaw PawKublai Khan Paw Paw Chow Chow Chow, better known as Paw Paw, was one of Stewart’s favorite pets. Her furry friend was her most photographed dog, appearing in several print and television ads with the homemaker—and racking up almost as many frequent flyer miles as the lifestyle luminary herself while accompanying her on several trips around the world. “Paw Paw was a spectacular chow and an even more spectacular dog. He was always my loyal companion,” Martha said about her pet of almost 13 years right after his death. Paw Paw “was never disobedient, and never, ever, required me to raise my voice,” Martha said in praise of his temperament. “I will miss him always.” The two are pictured here during Stewart’s home confinement.Photo: Stephen Chernin/Getty ImagesCantitoe CornersThe 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 (pictured at center in orange) 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 ImagesFriesian horsesMartha can sometimes be found on horseback meandering the grounds of Cantitoe Corners. In 2011, the media mogul went riding the trails with former NBC anchor Ann Curry, pictured here. The Entertaining author favors Friesian horses, a breed native to the Netherlands known for their shiny black coats and long elegant manes. “Beautiful, friendly Friesian horses became the focal point of [my] farm life, drawing carriages along dirt roads and offering big, comfortable ‘seats’ to my friends and me for long weekend rides along the many miles of trails,” Martha once said. The passionate animal enthusiast owns a number of these horses, including Rutger, 27-year-old Rinze, and two 14-year-old males named Hylke and Geert acquired in 2022.NBC NewsWire/Getty ImagesHorsing aroundAlthough Stewart grows and harvests premium hay on her farm—including timothy, orchard grass, Kentucky bluegrass, ryegrass, alfalfa, and clover—to sustain her horses’ primary diet, she also treats them to the occasional carrot, as seen here with Curry. Those same snacking horses even helped Snoop Dogg overcome his lifelong fear of the animals, though not entirely. “I was afraid of horses because you can’t talk to them, you can’t tell them to sit, to go, so I was scared of them,” the rapper and Stewart’s bestie told talk-show host Jennifer Hudson. “But my good friend, Martha Stewart, she broke that—it was carrots. She was like, ‘Give him carrots,’ so I gave him carrots and he was eating it. Then he tried to bite my hand. I’m like, ‘Hold on, cuz.’”Photo: Peter Kramer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)Hosting famous friendsMartha 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. “I love taking out all the turkey decorations I have amassed over the years,” Stewart once wrote on her blog. “Whenever I entertain, I try to set the table so it is a little different every time.”Photo: Peter Kramer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty ImagesFrom scratchAt 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, is pictured watching from the sidelines.Photo: Eric Liebowitz via Getty ImagesMartha’s personal treasures on offerFaced with limited storage space across her residences, Martha hosted her inaugural tag sale in May 2022. There, the entrepreneur gave devotees access to decades of her carefully curated acquisitions. Naturally, everything from antique china to stemware, baskets, furniture, fine art, vintage clothing, and silverware—among many other decorative objects—was up for grabs. This snap shows Martha and her antiques team discussing a few of the artworks and vintage prints that were for sale. Documented for the ABC television special The Great American Tag Sale With Martha Stewart, the two-day event generated $800,000—all benefiting the Mount Sinai Martha Stewart Center for Living.ESTERSOHN PIETERStaying at SkylandsIn 2015, Martha opened the doors of her 63-acre Skylands estate on Maine’s Mount Desert Island for an Architectural Digest tour, and posed for this photo in front of the 1920s home with her dogs, Ghenghis Khan, Sharkey, and Frencesca. The home, which is constructed from local stone, was designed by architect Duncan Candler for Edsel Ford, the son of Henry Ford and the namesake of the red 1958 Edsel Roundup pictured alongside the homemaker extraordinaire. The historic abode, which Martha uses as a summer house, has been under her ownership since 1997, when she bought it fully furnished, right down to Ford’s silverware. “I look at myself as the caretaker of an American treasure,” she told AD. “I didn’t have to buy a plate,” she said, due to the original collection of china still in place, “although I’ve certainly added my fair share.”ESTERSOHN PIETERGood for gatheringFormer AD design editor Howard Christian, Martha, photographer Pieter Estersohn, and former Architectural Digest editor in chief Margaret Russell pose in one of the living areas at Skylands. The home, which Martha has referred to as her “favorite place,” was decorated with gathering in mind: Friends are often found sitting by the fireplace, a games table enjoys a prominent spot in the great room, and the kitchen stools vary in height to accommodate a wide range of visitors. “Now when you take a group picture,” Martha explained of the latter feature, “everybody’s at the same level, even though they are sitting on different-size stools.”Michelle Duncan is a Brooklyn-based independent writer and editorial consultant, specializing in stories and written communication centered around design. She covers interiors, architecture, art, and fashion. Apart from AD, her bylines have appeared in Robb Report and Metropolis, among others. Michelle holds an M.A. in Design Research, Writing & Criticism from the School of ... Read MoreKatie Schultz is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer who reports on celebrity real estate news and other pop culture-related content for AD. She has previously written for House Digest and the Minnesota Daily. Hailing from small town Minnesota, Katie has a degree in Cinema and Media Studies from the University of ... 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