Martha Stewart revealed back in June that she was parting ways with her home on East Hampton Village’s famed Lily Pond Lane, but now we know for just how much.
Suffolk County deed transfers show this week that Stewart sold 58 Lily Pond Lane for $16.5 million on August 16. The buyer is officially listed as Katherine Sailer, the wife of Kenneth Lerer, the former Huffington Post co-founder and the former longtime chairman of BuzzFeed.
The house, which sits on one acre, dates back to the 1800s, and Stewart purchased the shingled cottage 30 years ago shortly after her divorce.
She painstakingly renovated it with the help of Ben Krupinski, “contractor to the stars” as The New York Times once called him. Krupinski, with his wife, Bonnie Krupinski, ended up becoming her close friends (Stewart gave a eulogy at their funeral; they died with their grandson when their plane crashed into the ocean off Amagansett in 2018).
“Her renovation hewed as closely to the original as possible, but Martha’s practical, polished aesthetic made it fresh,” an article on MarthaStewart.com explained. She enclosed an open porch off the kitchen to create a dining area, wainscoted the cracked plaster ceilings, knocked down walls to create a larger living room and combined three rooms to make a luxurious primary suite, the article said.
“It’s an old-fashioned house, but it has a clean, pristine vibe,” she said for the article.
Living up to her Domestic Diva name, Stewart attended to every detail. “For years, the home’s trim was teal, to complement Martha’s rose garden. When she moved the rosebushes to her farm in Bedford and replaced them with deep-green shrubbery and burgundy Japanese maples, she switched to a biscuit color that blends in better with the new plantings,” the article said.
Stewart entertained many famous friends at the home, from having Hillary Clinton over for cappuccino to throwing big bashes with Billy Joel, Lee Radziwill and Mort Zuckerman in attendance.
Time will tell what Lerer and his interior designer wife do with the 19th century home. Perhaps they will be spending more time in the Hamptons. They recently sold their Miami mansion in an off-market deal for $25 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.
As for Stewart, she still owns her 153-acre farm in Bedford and a home in Maine. She’s also keeping busy. She is reuniting with Snoop Dogg to judge a new food competition special, Snoop and Martha’s Very Tasty Halloween, airing on NBC’s Peacock streaming platform on Thursday, October 14.
Email tvecsey@danspapers.com with further comments, questions, or tips. Follow Behind The Hedges on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
