At home with Amy Zerner and Monte Farber

A front door painted a cheery green and topped with a sculpture of a smiling cherub’s face is all that stands between visitors and the enchanted world of award-winning artist/designer Amy Zerner and nationally-known astrologer and tarot reader Monte Farber.

“Come on in!” welcomed Ms. Zerner as she opened the door. The purple-haired and rhinestone-bespeckled artist still resides in the same house in Springs that she and her family moved into in 1967. Her husband, Monte Farber (the man she’s been “in love and lust” with since 1974), quickly appeared at Ms. Zerner’s side with a smile and outstretched hand.

The couple, who just published “The Soulmate Path: Find the Love You Want and Strengthen the Love You Have,” have a gift for making complete strangers feel like lifelong friends.

For more than three decades, this creative team has combined their deep love for one another with the work of self-discovery to build their unique brand, known as “The Enchanted World of Amy Zerner and Monte Farber.” Their collections of self-help books, meditation kits, divination games and other “spiritual power tools” are designed to help people find meaningful answers to life’s many challenges.

Described by The New York Times as “the Martha Stewarts of the new age,” the couple’s best-selling books include “The Enchanted Tarot,” “The Enchanted Astrologer,” “Karma Cards,” “The Breathe Easy Deck” and “The Instant Tarot Reader,” titles which they have successfully sold on QVC and the Home Shopping Network.

In addition, Ms. Zerner’s Spiritual Couture line of one-of-a-kind haute couture jackets and coats is sold exclusively at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City and collected by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Elizabeth Taylor, Patti LaBelle and Shirley MacLaine. Each unique creation features animals, metaphors, mythological beings and universal symbols assembled into intricate tapestry panels created from textiles, ribbons, trims, beading, appliqués and hand painting. Prices range from $2,200 to $6,000.

Ms. Zerner said creativity has always been in her blood. Her maternal grandfather, Clayton Spicer, was a “masterful painter” who studied at the Art Students League of New York with Robert Henri, founder of the Ashcan School of American art. Her first memories are of painting at her grandfather’s knee in her birthplace of Laporte, Pennsylvania (population 175). Her grandmother, Lilias Spicer, was a lamp buyer at W.J. Sloans Department Store in Manhattan who pioneered the use of Chinese vases as lamp bases, according to Ms. Zerner. And her late mother, Jessie Spicer Zerner, was a talented artist who wrote children’s books and illustrated greeting cards, Ms. Zerner recalled as she discussed her early childhood transition from small-town Pennsylvanian girl to East Ender.

“We had an idyllic life in Pennsylvania, but when my grandfather passed away—my parents, who were native New Yorkers—wanted to move back home,” she explained. “I was really afraid to move anywhere since I had been raised in such a small town. My parents literally pulled out a map of New York State and asked me to pick our next home. I glanced at the map and picked Springs because it had a population of only 50. I think I was looking at an old map!”

Ms. Zerner’s parents drove to the Springs section of East Hampton, bought the first house they saw for $23,000, and reported back to their then 16-year-old daughter that she’d love the area because Willem de Kooning and other famous artists were neighbors.

“I always thought the way we came to live here was so auspicious, especially since I ended up earning a living making oracles and predictive tools,” she noted.

The family’s three-bedroom house was the first one built by local builder Link Jewett and is set on a half-acre in the Sunnydale Acres development, “Just like the name in the movie, ‘Back to the Future,’” chimed in Mr. Farber.

Ms. Zerner recalled how her parents painted the interior “daring colors from the wild 1960s” and decorated it with pop art. Today, remnants of chartreuse paint can still be found in the hall closet.

“We’ve had a great little family compound here,” Ms. Zerner said. “Before my father died in a car accident in 1969, my parents bought the house next door, and my sister, Toni Lind, raised her family there. My wonderful mother lived here with us until she died in 1996.”

Ms. Zerner briefly left Springs to study art at Pratt Institute in New York and spread her artistic wings, which included designing props for Tony Walton, the Tony and Academy Award-winning set designer. As luck would have it, she and her future husband met through an entertainment connection, though one for a decidedly less “artistic” venture.

“In 1974, Amy and I met at the filming of the first feminist porno movie, entitled ‘Up the Girls,’” laughed Mr. Farber.

A Brooklyn native and musician at the time, Mr. Farber had been hired to play for a rooftop party scene for the film. “I’m sorry to disappoint, but we were wearing clothes,” he laughed as he described the day he met his wife.

Eventually the couple was drawn back to the East End, where they married in 1978 and settled in Ms. Zerner’s childhood home, which they have firmly made their own over the years.

“Our entire home is constantly evolving toward becoming a sort of spiritual center. But because we’re constantly working on numerous business projects, our house sometimes feels like a factory with bedrooms,” she said. “Feng shui is important to us; it’s like acupuncture for your house. When people come into our house, they say it feels so peaceful and calm. We really have a ‘no drama’ household; instead it’s filled with love and serenity.”

One change a well-known feng shui master recommended was changing the color of their front door—which had been painted Ms. Zerner’s favorite purple color for 30 years—a more subdued green. They also were told to take down some trees in the front so they’d get more publicity. And they installed a “marriage corner” in the far left corner of the living room. There, on a baker’s rack, one finds a portrait of the couple by artist Dan Romer, crystals, a Buddha statue, the King and Queen of Hearts, angels, fairies, and other sentimental treasures.

Because the couple possesses many of Ms. Zerner’s grandfather’s nature and landscape paintings, they said they are more apt to collect sculpture, including works by friends Bill King, Audrey Flack, David Suter, Josh Dayton, Randy Rosenthal and Ms. Zerner’s sister.

“We like to mix real antiques with newer shabby chic pieces and wonderful works of art,” Mr. Farber explained while surveying the room, which has pinky-beige walls and sea-foam green trim.

The combined living/dining space is filled with 19th century Pennsylvania hand-crafted pieces mixed with an Odegard area rug, crystals, wind chimes, stained glass pieces, whimsical works of art and tapestry pillows made by Ms. Zerner.

An antique hutch that was a wedding gift to Ms. Zerner’s parents holds an extensive collection of ceramic and one-of-a-kind hands from around the world.

“It’s a fitting collection since I work with my hands so much, and hold my heart in Monte’s hands,” she said.

There are also pieces of memorabilia on display in the home, Mr. Farber reported.

“That mauve loveseat was once in Tom Hanks’s dressing room when I worked in the movie biz and was the location manager for the movie ‘The Money Pit,’” he explained.

The true heart of the house resides in the large, two-story, mauve-colored 24-foot-by-36-foot studio that Mr. Farber designed and had built in 1987. The addition expanded the size of the 1960s-era house to 3,500 square feet.

“The studio has served as the sacred birthing place for my work,” Ms. Zerner explained.

“When the studio was built, we consecrated it as a temple using ancient techniques from every culture—Egyptian, Babylonian, Celtic, etc.,” Mr. Farber added as Zane, the couple’s silver tabby cat, made his presence known.

“Monte marched around the cinder block foundation seven times forward and seven times backward, nearly falling into the hole at least seven times,” Ms. Zerner continued. “We wrote our favorite sayings on the walls with heavy felt markers, like metaphysical graffiti artists. And though the carpenters thought us a bit strange, I think they liked it.”

In one of her books, Ms. Zerner wrote that before the large wooden beams for the floor arrived, she and her husband put crystals and jewels in the holes of the cinder blocks. “We wanted my studio to be a consecrated temple to the Goddess,” she wrote in the “Soulmate Path.”

The focal point of the colorful space is a powerful and hypnotic 12-foot-by-9-foot tapestry, “Mid-Life Isis,” which Ms. Zerner created after her beloved mother passed away in the house.

“It really helped me heal and re-empowered me,” the artist said.

A combination work and living space, the room contains racks of Spiritual Couture jackets for Ms. Zerner’s next Bergdorf Goodman show; color-coded plastic bins loaded with fabrics and embellishments; workout equipment; a 52-inch flat screen television; a case crammed with hundreds of DVDs and a case of Enchanted World jewelry and perfume. Hanging on the wall are many of Ms. Zerner’s tapestries, including the first piece of art she created at age 4. A framed photographic tribute to Ms. Zerner’s mother hangs in the hallway.

“And this is our ‘ego altar’ [a play on alter ego],” said Mr. Farber playfully of the bookcase holding the more than 40 books the couple has published since 1988. Their two new books, “Healing Crystals” and “Tarot Secrets,” will be published in March.

Through the tour of the house and the time spent talking, it’s obvious that the unique couple practices what they preach.

“We wake up every morning knowing we are lucky to be alive and in love,” Mr. Farber said. “We gratefully acknowledge our luck and whatever divine forces have helped us create our life together.”