Designer Secrets
Mr. Watson's Opus
Beyond an early-1800s rosewood
center table, antique carved doors
lead from living area to bedroom
(right), where a pair of Persian
temple doors that belonged to
Watson’s mother adorn a wall
(below). Armchair fabric, Vervain.
INTERIOR DESIGN BY
MARSHALL WATSON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LUKE WHITE
ST YLING BY HELEN CROWTHER
WRITTEN BY FRANCES SCHULTZ
In his Upper West Side flat, Marshall Watson
composes a symphony of exquisite blues,
harmonizing lustrous textiles with auction
finds and ancestral heirlooms.
"WHAT A DUMP…” deadpans a visitor upon entering the exquisite home of designer Marshall Watson
WHAT A D UM P…” deadpans a visitor
upon entering the exquisite home of
designer Marshall Watson and hus-
band Paul Sparks. Peals of laughter
erupt as said visitor knows that the pair,
with their theater and film backgrounds
(Watson was a regular character on As the
World Turns in the early 1980s; Sparks built a career as a documentary
and corporate producer), will ken the phrase first
uttered by Bette Davis’s disgruntled housewife
in Beyond the Forest and later seared into film
history by Elizabeth Taylor in Who’s Afraid of
Virginia Woolf ? Sparks and Watson’s impecca-
ble and stylish flat is anything but: It is a study in
traditional elegance and sophistication, informed
by history and wrapped in the ambience of sanc-
tuary. “I love the New York energy,” Watson says,
“but it’s go-go-go and sometimes fierce. We need
a gentler, more civilized life in our homes. We
need them to be havens.”
In a 1912 building on Manhattan’s Upper West
Side, the classic “Edwardian five” apartment
appealed for its ceiling height and light. “You
can fix everything but those,” says the designer,
I love the New York energy, but it’s sometimes fierce. We need a gentler and more civilized life in our homes. We need them to be havens.
so glamorous,” Watson says. “I love the darkness of it.” In daylight, reflections in
the living area’s lacquered ceilings create the illusion of double-height rooms.
Other considerations included what to do with the squirreled-away-since-
the-’80s Gracie wallpaper that had cost the young designer weeks’ worth of
paychecks. (It’s gorgeous in the study with that peerless Regency desk.) And
what of the lugged-home-in-a-yellow-cab enormous solid iron pediment res-
cued from a torn-down bank building? (Again, gorgeous in the study atop an
artfully built-in closet creating precious storage.) And then there were the bath
tiles piled on the floor for decades, now finally in the floor. “Poor Paul,” Watson
laughs, noting that Sparks had long endured stepping around and tripping over
such items. Worked into the mix as well are furnishings acquired over time
at various auctions and sales, most notably a pair of Billy Baldwin–designed
étagères bought from Mario Buatta’s estate that almost certainly came from Cole
Porter’s apartment. Elsewhere, provenance is more personal; family heirlooms
include Watson’s mother’s bouillotte table, a grandfather’s violin, and a bronze
clock belonging to his great-great-grandfather,
who was the first medical doctor in Kansas City.
Connecting with his forebears’ legacy of preser-
vation and healing, Watson believes in home above
all as a place to nurture, and that nurtures you in
return. “I never thought of it as an investment,” he
says. “There is meaning and comfort here.”
FROM TOP: Bedroom walls
and swagged curtains
(more on page 114) are
a Suzanne Tucker print
(Carita). The violin was
Watson’s grandfather’s.
Soaking tub, Blu Bathworks.