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,