Patrick Page and Paige Davis met in the mid-1990s, during rehearsals in New York for the first national tour of the musical “Beauty and the Beast.” But with Mr. Page working on the scenes of him in one studio (he played Lumière) and Ms. Davis, a member of the ensemble, singing and dancing in another, they did not really meet until performances began in Minneapolis.
“We started hanging out as friends and have continued hanging out ever since,” Page, 61, said. The couple's outdoor 2001 nuptials were chronicled on the TLC series “A Wedding Story.”
For several years, the vivacious Ms. Davis, now 54, hosted TLC's “Trading Spaces,” a home improvement show (in which neighbors, supported by a design team, remade a room in other people's homes with a budget of $1,000). her and then she returned to her theatrical roots, starring in “Chicago” on Broadway. Recently, she completed an independent short film that will be released this year.
The couple could probably rest on their laurels and retire to a country estate if they had a nickel for every person who approached Ms. Davis (or thought about approaching Ms. Davis) in the last 20 years with which they They seemed to think it was a New observation: “Oh, you're Paige Page.” Poor me ….
Patrick Page, 61, and Paige Davis, 54
Occupation: actors
I love you just the way you are: “Having Nate Berkus take care of our apartment was an incredible gift,” Ms. Davis said. “And because the design was so well thought out, any alterations affect the entire look. So when we change even a little bit, we do it as carefully as possible.”
Ms. Davis joined Mr. Page in their 400-square-foot, one-bedroom rental on the Upper West Side in the late 1990s. Space was at a premium, of course. But they were in love and stayed until 2003, when they decided it was time to buy a place.
But the market was hot and they lost several apartments by not acting quickly enough. “Then Patrick said we had to go to open houses and educate ourselves,” Ms. Davis recalled. “That way, when we saw the perfect apartment, know It was the right place for the money. “We were just going to watch.”
Ms. Davis agreed it was a sensible plan. She's not one to make quick decisions and apparently she's never encountered a variable she doesn't want to review. And review a little more.
The weekend after adopting this new ploy, they took the top spot on the list. “And when we came out, Paige said, 'That's it. he. That's the apartment. And she hadn't been like that anything”Mr. Page said. “And I told him we owed it to ourselves to at least look at the other two places we had planned to see.”
Ms. Davis disagreed. “I said, 'I'm telling you this is he. “If we don’t make an offer, we will lose it.” I was getting angry on the sidewalk; She was crying. And Patrick said, 'Okay.' We will come back and make an offer. And I said: 'It's No good. We are going to lose it. But we did it.”
The object of that histrionics was a two-bedroom co-op on the Upper West Side with 10-foot ceilings, nice big windows, and an open, loft-like feel. The previous owner had knocked down the wall between the second bedroom and the living room, “and that opened up the whole space,” Paige said.
She had planned to receive decorating guidance from a “Trading Spaces” staff designer, but out of the blue a tempting offer came to her.
In the fall of 2003, the expo ran a two-hour special, “$100,000 Challenge,” which allowed each designer to ditch the usual $1,000-per-room limit and spend $50,000. The episode garnered attention and high ratings, sparking the interest of Oprah Winfrey, who invited Ms. Davis to Chicago, where “The Oprah Winfrey Show” was based.
“I spent the afternoon with her,” Ms. Davis said. “It was pretty impressive.”
Even more surprising: Shortly after that visit, Ms. Winfrey and her staff came up with the idea of sending interior designer Nate Berkus to the Davis/Page apartment, in the mold of “Trading Spaces,” and letting him paint , wallpaper, tiles and furniture as you see fit. (Mr. Berkus talked to Ms. Davis about his favorite color: orange.)
Could she and her husband refuse? They couldn't. After all, the price was right. —they didn't pay anything— and the moment was excellent. They had recently moved in and had done little more than paint a wall red (about which the less said the better). They had to leave for two weeks while Berkus worked, but “The Oprah Winfrey Show” paid for a hotel.
Ms. Davis was a guest on the show and Mr. Page was in the audience when the producers cut to the video of the renovation and the big reveal: rustic meets modern.
An elegant glass dining table sat on a base of real tree branches. In a touch much appreciated by Ms. Davis, the four-poster bed Mr. Berkus chose for the couple's bedroom was made from the same branches. Similarly, the sconces in her bedroom echoed the chandelier over the dining room table. Dark wood cabinets and open shelving in the kitchen replaced an expanse of white laminate. And since Mrs. Davis is as tidy as a Trappist, Mr. Berkus knew he was on safe ground by choosing a glass-front cabinet to store towels and linens, as well as a glass-front refrigerator.
Two decades later, the apartment remains just as Berkus left it. The sculptural, earth-toned sectional in the living room? Still there. The yellow patterned curtains that separate the guest room/media room from the living room and darken the small his-and-her offices? Still hanging. The orange dinnerware, a nod to Ms. Davis's favorite colors? Still stacked on a kitchen shelf, along with a pile of green plates and bowls.
One of the few adjustments Ms. Davis made — swapping out a marble-topped console table for a sideboard — was to create more storage space. And yes, they replaced a rug, but you can blame the depredations of the couple's beloved Maltese, Georgie.
Mr. Page and Ms. Davis have certainly put their own stamp on the apartment. Three floating shelves in one corner of the large room contain books, plays and about 500 Playbills, arranged alphabetically by Ms. Davis. To celebrate their first wedding anniversary (year number 1 is designated as the document), Mr. Page hired a calligrapher to write the wedding vows they had composed for each other. The finished product hangs in the master bedroom, hidden between two pieces of plexiglass.
Mr. Page's collection of walking sticks (one hiding a sword, another hiding a flask) is in a stand near the front door. His Grammy Award for the “Hadestown” cast album is nearby, as is a framed page from a Shakespeare folio.
Ms. Davis's natural inclination is to have more open spaces. Mr. Page's tendency is to fill that space.
They meet, happily, in the middle.
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