Katie Couric Designed Her Upper East Side Apartment with a “Sexy Piano”
It’s not every day that you get to sit down with a TV legend and seamlessly talk about the importance of appreciating both science and sexy pianos. But that’s precisely what happened when we chatted with Katie Couric recently.
The award-winning journalist recently partnered with manufacturing company 3M to release their second annual State of Science Index, a global study of attitudes toward science across 14 countries. It revealed some startling facts, like that 85 percent of the world admits they know little to nothing about science. Couric (who lost her first husband, Jay Monahan, to cancer in 1998) hopes to change that.
“I became passionate about science as I’ve gotten older, largely because my late husband was diagnosed with colon cancer and I had to have a crash course in cancer research,” Couric tells Architectural Digest. “And as a result, my respect for scientists and the need for more science grew dramatically.”
It’s this same vigor for understanding a topic that the former Today show host recently applied to another project in her life: designing her new apartment. She purchased the Upper East Side pad in 2016 with her husband, John P. Molner, after selling the nearby home where she’d lived for more than two decades. Here’s what she had to say about her experiment with interiors.
Architectural Digest: I feel like there’s a science sometimes when it comes to design. In your new apartment, did you do most of that design yourself?
KC: We had some Chicago designers. Arlene Semel and Connie Newberry helped us. But my husband has a very specific taste. He’s a real minimalist, and I’m a hot mess. I like stuff he doesn’t. It’s kind of an Oscar Felix situation. For me, I had an apartment for 20 years where I raised my daughters and we bought it after my husband died. So I wanted it to be really warm and comfortable and bright and happy. But I was ready for a change, and I love sort of a more spare minimalists look. I love our apartment. We just need to get some paintings.
AD: What kinds of artwork?
KC: My husband has a lot of opinions on that too. I’m just like, Can we just put up a poster? It was fun for me to get out of my comfort zone and try a new style.
AD: Did you have a vision for the place?
KC: I was really into kind of grays and camels and white. I wanted it to be super sophisticated and different from my old apartment. He sort of let me do my thing within reason, as long as it kind of stayed in his aesthetic.
AD: What was something that pushed you out of your comfort zone a little bit where maybe you weren’t okay with it at first and then you grew to love it?
KC: We have these cabinet doors in our dining room that are silver, and it almost looks like bottles coming through there, which was a very different look for me. But I think it’s actually really cool, and the light on them is really beautiful. The den is much cozier. It’s where I put all my tchotchkes.
AD: What’s your favorite tchotchke?
KC: I have this little beaded pouch that my late husband’s brother gave me, and I just think it’s beautiful. I have a lot of little pieces here and there, and I’m allowed to put them in the den.
AD: Besides the tchotchkes, was there anything that you brought over from the old apartment?
KC: Lots and lots of books, coffee table books, and obviously my clothes. Oh, my piano! My late husband and I bought each other a piano for our birthdays. It’s a beautiful Steinway Parlor, which is a nice big piano. Our designer said it was super sexy.
AD: Who knew a piano could be sexy?
KC: I know! We always laugh that we have a super sexy piano.
AD: So, this is a relatively new apartment. What drew you to this one?
KC: It was a different neighborhood, but it was still on the Upper East Side. And I think my husband wanted a quick escape route from New York so that he could play golf, or we could go to the beach. Plus, I love the park. So, it still was close enough that I can spend a lot of time in the park. And it was just brand spanking new. It’s also sort of a smaller apartment building, so it feels a little more intimate. And I love the street it’s on. It’s got a lot of beautiful townhouses.
AD: What’s your favorite room in the apartment?
KC: The bedroom.
AD: Why?
KC: It just pretty. It’s very light and feminine without being too feminine. There’s a lot of camel and lavender colors. I’m really into lavender right now even though I don’t like purple. It looks really good if you have green eyes. And we have a TV that raises up.
AD: Sounds like a sexy TV.
AD: Yes! We’ve got a lot of super sexy going on.
