Photo credit: Gentl & Hyers
For more than 20 years, Eileen Fisher has been designing clothes that make women feel good about themselves. Her sophisticated new house is as comfortable and stylish as her fashions. And that's exactly the effect Eileen Fisher had in mind. "People get a feeling of calm and peacefulness from this house," she says.
It's the kind of house that makes you feel as if the rest of the world doesn't exist. Maybe that's because of the mesmerizing view of the Hudson River, which draws you in as soon as you cross the threshold. Or perhaps it's the pale, utterly unadorned walls or the precisely placed furniture. Whatever the reason, there's something here that makes even the air seem cleaner, fresher, more limpid. You want to take a deep breath, reach for the sky and let all the stress within you evaporate.
Photo credit: Gentl & Hyers
The rambling 9,000-square-foot building is modeled on a traditional farmhouse, but its graceful, fan-shaped layout is only one room deep, which means that nearly every window has a river view.
The sense of movement—of having enough space to run and dance around the rooms—reminds Fisher of her childhood in Des Plaines, Illinois. Eileen Fisher pauses to look out at a sailboat drifting down the river. "I always liked to dance for fun in front of a picture window," she says. "I guess, somehow, I've just re-created my childhood here."
Photo credit: Gentl & Hyers
Fisher was adamant about having all the rooms open and compatible with one another. "I love nature, the river, sunsets, the Shakers—nothing stuffy or serious," she says.
The central meeting place is the large kitchen, which is sandwiched between the glass-enclosed dining room and the more formal living room. Fisher is pleased when visitors feel immediately comfortable and gather around the long dining table (which was inspired by a traditional quilting table), perch at the kitchen counter...
Photo credit: Gentl & Hyers
...or relax on the deep, linen-covered sofas that flank the fireplace and its distressed-cherry wood mantelpiece.
Photo credit: Gentl & Hyers
The house is also a direct reflection of Eileen Fisher's own personal style: straightforward yet informal, luxurious yet unpretentious, spare without being austere. Every wall is painted in a neutral color from a palette of "bone or stone" (one room was matched precisely to a raincoat in her clothing line). The dark wood benches, chairs, and tables—some antiques, some reproductions—were chosen because their distinctive shapes contrast with the pale walls and upholstery.
Photo credit: Gentl & Hyers
Always in the habit of touching things and experimenting with different textures, Eileen Fisher is keenly sensitive to how people feel when they wear her clothes or walk through her home. One of her main goals, she says, is "to have a relaxed environment, because that's what's needed to be creative." That strategy certainly works for her: She recently held a staff meeting while floating in this indoor pool off the entrance foyer.
And there isn't a tub in the master bathroom. "I like to take showers," the designer confides, "and I swim in the indoor pool. Not putting in a tub was about being honest with what I really needed."
Photo credit: Gentl & Hyers
And shockingly, there is absolutely no art on any of the walls. "I think space is a backdrop for people," Eileen Fisher says, adding that seeing the shapes of others moving through the rooms is her idea of art.
In the home she shares with her two children—Zachary and Sasha—Eileen applied the same rigorous discipline she brings to creating her minimalist clothing designs. "Simple is hard to do," she observes. "But when you get there, it's so liberating. It means taking away things to arrive at just the right elements. I have a chaotic brain, but here I feel calm and organized. It's a relief."
Go Inside More Celebrity Homes
Where Oprah goes to get way from it all
Celine Dion's breathtaking Jupiter Island home
Rob Lowe's architectural gem in California
