A Look Inside Ina Garten's NYC Apartment, or How Can I Become Ina's New Best Friend?

If you watch Barefoot Contessa regularly, you've seen the home of the one-and-only Ina Garten. The large East Hampton estate—with its vast gardens and stunning kitchen that served as Ina's original set—was recently complemented with the construction of a new "barn" featuring an even larger kitchen, as seen in the most recent episodes. Ina and Jeffrey also have an apt. in Paris.

But guess what...


House Beautiful got the grand tour of Ina's Manhattan apartment.

Ina lives the opposite of most New Yorkers with a Hamptons hookup, spending most of her time in the Hamptons (even the winters, we're told) and only venturing into NYC from time to time. Still, when she does make it into the big city you know she's not living in some studio apartment down in Chelsea.




Ina on decorating:
"Everything has to be of a certain scale. Lots of little things would look ditzy. When I travel, I like to shop. I found two sofas that I liked in Belgium. I knew they had to be highbacked, because of the volume. I found a coffee table I liked, so I bought it. Then I put it all into the apartment, and it was just horrible. I had the sofas near the window and a library table by the bookcase, and it felt like two rooms. I wanted to throw it all out and start over. Then I was here with a friend and he started moving furniture around, and literally ten minutes later I thought, Oh my god, it's done."

Ina on the kitchen:
"We did a really streamlined kitchen with a cooktop, an under-the-counter refrigerator and freezer, a dishwasher, huge drawers. In a funny way, I actually like a smaller kitchen. It's much more efficient. I tend to like things spare anyway. I can't stand clutter."


[Images via House Beautiful]