When Amanda Seyfried bought her pied-à-terre in New York, “it was just a window,” the actor explains. The apartment, which includes three former employee quarters on the top floor of the 1907 building listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is devoid of walls, finished floors, and anything else that would make a house livable. But there is an impressive row of arched windows that allow light to flood every room. 

This bright, airy space was exactly what Seyfried was looking for: she was ready to upgrade the downtown apartment she bought when she was 24. At that time, she chose a dark room on the 3rd floor because she was “afraid of heights”. “, she admitted. She and her husband, actor Thomas Sadoski, live full-time on a farm in New York’s Catskills Mountains  (they also have a place in Los Angeles) and now have a home where they can stay when work calls they enter town. and their two young children also feel at home.  

The Oscar nominee and Emmy winner, who currently stars in The Crowded Room on Apple TV+, tapped design firm General Assembly  early in the process. Since this was Seyfried’s third time working with founder Sarah Zames, she implicitly trusted the designer and his partner, Colin Stief,  with this massive undertaking. “A lot of work had to be done to get this place running,” Zames said. The pair work out of a studio in Gowanus, Brooklyn, and recently opened a shop called Assembly Line on nearby Boerum Hill, often dealing with interior renovations. And yet, Zames said this is their most drаmаtic transformation yet.

When it came to furnishing the house, Zames and Stief were somewhat bound by rules that limited the type of work that could be done in a historic building. Using a variety of built-in customization software, the duo was able to create something that worked for Seyfried and his family. “Sarah knows how to do some acrobatic moves to save space. She has such creative ideas,” Seyfried said. For this project, these ideas included placing the kitchen (with custom cabinets) directly under the existing skylight, adding an oak panel with a built-in mirror as a divider to create a designated entry and Main bedroom paneling in integrated oak. . storage cabinets and adding custom bunk beds to the children’s bedrooms. Seyfried calls her longtime design collaborator’s style “very modern,” which is oddly at odds with the star’s preferences. But the Catskills farm that Seyfried has owned for a decade now fully reflects his aesthetic thanks to the careful work of the General Assembly. “I grew up in a stone house,” Seyfried said. “I  love history and I love the smell of old wood. History has a smell. Do you understand what I meаn? 

Zames and Stief did their best to infuse a  country spirit into Seyfried’s New York space while also honoring the building’s architecture. “We wаnted to give some sense of what we did for her in the suburbs because she goes back and forth between the two places. We don’t want it to feel like a radical change,” Zames said. “Amanda isn’t really a formal person and staying relaxed is 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 wаnted 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 helping develop a show on Broadway,” she said. “This will be my home for six, seven, eight months. I know this will be where I live and I feel comfortable here. I feel really safe.

Thanks to the addition of a solid oak wall with built-in mirrors and shelves, “You walk into the apartment and there’s a small entryway, even though you’re literally right next to the kitchen,” says Zames. The hangers are from Fort Standard.

Zames “spoke to [Seyfried]” about the custom handles made by Sun Valley Bronze on the custom kitchen cabinets, styled by Elizabeth Stewart. “It’s the only thing I can imagine now. They are perfect. The floors in the house are from the Hudson Company. 

Fashion: Rosetta Getty yellow suit, Stuart Weitzman shoes, Tank watch.

General Assembly designed the entire kitchen from the white oak and marble island to the cabinets. A shade pergola from Pelle Designs hangs under the skylight, inspired by the kitchen design during the renovation.

In the dining room, the Hudson furniture table is surrounded by antique chairs and sits beneath a Soren lamp by Pinch. Fort Standard’s Strata Hutch holds a wealth of books and treasures, including a toilet sculpture made by Seyfried’s sister in high school ceramics class and a Refigured 16 sculpture by Ian Collings. Blackleg bowl by Danny Kaplan.

The ABC Carpet & Home sofa in the living room is surrounded by two classic chairs reupholstered in Élitis Effigy Galactica fabric on the front and Dedar mohair velvet on the back. On the Fort Standard wood-column coffee table sits a Floris Wubben vase. Throughout the house, walls are plastered and moldings are painted  Farrow & Ball Wimborne white.

Mark Ryden’s painting of Seyfried holding a cat is the focal point of the main living space, which also houses the performance room of Make It Cute, a business Seyfried founded with two childhood friends. 

Art : Mark Ryden

The hallway ceiling light is from Allied Maker, the wall sconce is from Studio Dunn and the rug is from Salam Hello.

Seyfried sits on one of the custom oak wall cabinets designed by General Assembly in the master bedroom. The company also designs custom window shutters, painted in Farrow & Ball Slipper Satin. All in-house custom fabrication work is performed by First Third. The pedestal tables are from Goula/Figuera for the Private Collection. 

Fashion: Erdem dress, Stuart Weitzman shoes, Tank watch

Farrow & Ball Atacama wallpaper highlights the alcove in the master bedroom, which features a four-poster bed with  Roman and Williams Guild linen sheets.