Additional reporting by Paul Makovsky.
Martha Stewart, a defining force in home goods and design media, is extending her reach into housing itself with a curated selection of prefabricated homes.
Recently, Marquee Brands and Hapi Homes announced the Martha Stewart Iconic Estate Housing Collection, a series of four prefabricated homes modeled on some of Stewart’s most recognizable properties.
Mary O’Brien, Hapi Homes’ CEO, framed the collaboration as a shift in Stewart’s influence from product to infrastructure.
“Our role was to honor each lifestyle and aesthetic while applying advanced building technology to make these homes faster to build, more efficient to own, and enduring in quality.”
Stewart Merges Upscale Inspiration With Everyday Living
Stewart is as well-known for her signature style as she is for anticipating how consumers want to live and translating these insights into products for the mass market. Her brand has been built on making high style feel attainable for the average consumer, while actively reshaping perceptions of value.
At the heart of Stewart’s vast media and housing goods empire is the idea that good taste isn’t about exclusivity, but rather about accessibility.
After setting the bar high with time-intensive recipes and handmade decor, she meets the consumer where they are, literally: in the aisles of the stores they already frequent, with myriad budget-friendly but stylish product lines that have evolved over the years, including everything from decor to pet products to garden tools.
How Stewart’s New Endeavor Caters to Today’s Buyers
In her collaboration with Hapi Homes, Stewart could be reframing the housing type as a deliberate design option for buyers prioritizing affordability, efficiency, flexibility, and style from a trusted brand.
Stewart’s foray into prefabricated homes comes at a telling moment in the housing market, as affordability concerns, alongside rising interest in sustainability and flexible design, are reshaping how people think about homeownership.
These priorities are especially pronounced among Gen Z and Millennial buyers.
As market conditions compel buyers to seek creative ways to access and navigate the property ladder, curiosity about prefabricated housing is growing.
While conventional on-site construction still dominates the housing market, prefab is becoming a more visible part of the housing conversation, showing up in academic research, policy discussions, recent efforts to address affordability, and post-disaster rebuilding, including after the Maui wildfires in 2023 and after the L.A. wildfires in 2025.
How Stewart Sets Her Prefab Homes Apart
Prefab homes, which include manufactured housing and modular homes, come with a lingering stereotype that they are constrained by limited style and customization options.
The Stewart and Hapi Homes collaboration addresses the perceived gap in style. Buyers customize layouts and finishes through Hapi Homes’ digital platform, which offers real-time pricing and transparent scheduling, an experience closer to configuring a car than commissioning a house. For buyers who expect digital transparency and cost clarity, this process reflects a broader shift toward housing that feels more accessible and controlled.
Behind the aesthetics is a tightly engineered construction system. Hapi Homes builds using a panelized, light-gauge steel frame that, according to the company, cuts build times by up to 40 percent, reduces embodied carbon by roughly half, and delivers about 10 percent more usable space within the same footprint.
Homes are designed to meet Passive House standards, offering high thermal performance. Also, these homes qualify as site-built for conventional U.S. financing, an important distinction in a market where prefab often struggles for institutional acceptance.
Stewart has weighed in on details in the floor plans that have an impact on overall livability for the average homeowner: space planning, storage, window placement, and more.
There are four models, each drawing from a different chapter of Stewart’s architectural life:
The Bedford reinterprets her 1925 Katonah farmhouse with clapboard siding, stone accents, and metal roofing.
Photo Credit: Hapi Homes Perry Street, inspired by her former Manhattan residence, leans modern—white stucco, expansive glazing, and flexible indoor-outdoor connections.
Photo Credit: Hapi Homes Skylands channels the gravitas of her Maine estate, with masonry façades, pergolas, and French doors opening toward the landscape.
Photo Credit: Hapi Homes Lily Pond, referencing East Hampton, adopts a shingle-style vocabulary with cedar siding and gabled roofs.
Build kits start around $150,000 for accessory dwelling units and $450,000 for full-size homes, with timelines ranging from four to twelve weeks from permit to delivery.
Combining Brand Identity With Home Building
These homes are emblematic of Stewart’s signature approach, using pragmatism to bridge the gap between high-end inspiration and mass-market popularity.
Time will tell if prefab homes are destined to become mainstream, but Stewart’s endorsement and participation signal cultural relevance at a time when buyers are open to new ideas around housing.
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