House of Stewart
PEOPLE CAN now buy a Martha Stewart house in this brand-obsessed culture -- and they probably will.
The partnership announced this month between
They have sprung for the presumed prestige of San Raphael toilets, California faucets, Sub-Zero refrigerators, and Le Bijou hand-painted porcelain sinks. And they go for just about anything Martha -- who sells just about every household item with her name on it.
So, why not market a bungalow to hold all that stuff? A community being built near Raleigh, N.C., is billed as ''KB Home Twin Lakes: Homes Created With Martha Stewart" and will feature places that resemble Stewart's homes in Maine and New York.
They won't be as luxurious -- prices run from around $200,000 to the mid-$400,000 range. But they will have the domestic doyen's imprimatur in exterior and interior design and will offer buyers her line of kitchen cabinets, lighting, paints, and other accessories.
A bit of condescension is also available in the bargain.
''Let's face it," Stewart was quoted as telling The New York Times, ''everybody wants to live in one of my homes. You see one of them and you don't want to leave. The idea here is to give a flavor of that in affordable housing."
Call it ''Martha Lite," or ''Martha For the Little People Who Can't Afford First Class."
Buyers will most likely swallow the insult because they'll figure what people usually figure when dealing with a big-name expert: She knows what she's doing and I don't.
This line of thinking has accounted for many a designer living room going too heavy on brocade, or too green in the wallpaper, or becoming overwhelmed with ''window treatments."
People also allow themselves to be bullied by insistent hair stylists with megawatt reputations and a penchant for giving the person in the chair ''the Parisian look," even though the salon is in Buffalo. People get ''makeovers" from cosmetic and wardrobe experts who may know what's hot but can never know the intangibles of what feels right inside the skin of another human being.
A house -- like a haircut or a suit or a tube of lipstick -- should be about the buyer more than the seller. The people entranced by a Martha manse could easily feel like her guests after they've moved in. A home with no brand, white walls, and possibilities -- even the possibility of choosing an outdated color on one's own -- just might feel more like home.
