Sophia Bush Explains Why Her Interior Design Obsession Didn’t Make It Into Her New Memoir

Actress Sophia Bush is opening up about her personal life, career milestones, and evolution in her new memoir, “And I Will Tell You Mine: Notes from a Life in Progress.” However, readers diving into the book will notice one glaring omission: the “One Tree Hill” star’s lifelong, consuming obsession with interior design.

During a recent appearance on the Oct. 22 episode of her podcast, “Work in Progress with Sophia Bush,” the actress dug into the details and passions she ultimately left out of the literary project. She was joined by longtime friend and guest Elizabeth Kott, who shed light on a side of the celebrity that many fans might not fully appreciate.

“Everyone should know that Sophia has an insane eye for interior design, and I don’t know if people really know that about you,” Kott told the actress during the episode.

Kott admitted that as she read through Bush’s memoir, she found herself eagerly looking forward to reading details about the star’s home design philosophies and projects. The conversation quickly shifted to how natural Bush’s eye for aesthetics really is, with Kott suggesting that the 44-year-old actress could easily pursue high-end design as an alternate career given all of the gorgeous spaces she has conceptualized and brought to life over the years.

The “Grey’s Anatomy” cast member readily agreed, acknowledging that home styling is genuinely her favorite thing to do. She even mused about what her path might have looked like had she chosen a different creative route. “I would love to have that ‘Sliding Doors’ moment with my own life and see what it might be if I were doing that for a living,” Bush shared with listeners.

Reflecting on where her deep-seated passion for spaces originated, Bush speculated that it likely stems from living in a wide variety of residences throughout her two-decade-plus entertainment career. Juggling homes and moving across state lines for various projects forces an intimate relationship with architecture and layout.

“I’ve had so many places and spaces in other states. And when you live across state lines in multiple places at the same time, you kind of lose track,” Bush explained. “I really respond to the place that I live in terms of the way my home is put together. The style of the building, the style of the town, you know, whatever it is.”

While Kott playfully and affectionately remarked that Bush is a “serious shopper,” the actress conceded that her enthusiasm for collecting decor has reached a tipping point. After years of acquiring furnishings, art pieces, and accents, she has found herself with a massive surplus of items and very little idea of what to do with them all.

“Like, what am I going to do with all this sh–t?” Bush questioned on the podcast. She shared that a friend recently gave her some outside-the-box advice: “I think you need a Joanna Gaines-style warehouse, and then people should shop it for their clients.”

Joking that tapping the legendary HGTV star might actually solve her inventory dilemma, Bush quipped that she might slide into the design mogul’s direct messages. “I should just DM Joanna, honestly, and be like, ‘Hey, girl, I’ve got to figure out what to do with all this stuff. I think you might want it,’” she joked, adding that a sprawling, historic estate in Los Angeles could serve as a fitting permanent home for her extensive collection of decorative objects.

Bush frequently refers to her hoarded home decor items as her “treasures and tchotchkes.” Meanwhile, her wife, retired Olympic soccer player Ashlyn Harris, takes a much more humorous and grounded approach to her partner’s extensive collections, affectionately calling the accumulated inventory “trinkets and trash.”

Despite interior design being such a monumental part of her daily life and creative outlet, Bush ultimately decided it did not belong in her memoir. When evaluating whether to write about her aesthetic choices, the actress admitted she experienced a moment of hesitation.

“I just caught myself cringe, because I’m like, ‘Ooh, I don’t know that I would write about my own good taste,’” she explained. “I think that would be hard for me. But maybe I should figure out how. Maybe that’s a problem. Maybe it’s like, I need to learn to accept a compliment.”

Bush’s acute design acumen appears to run deeper than she can consciously recall. During the podcast, she reflected on a period a couple of years ago—likely referring to 2023, when she filed for divorce from her ex-husband, Grant Hughes—when she spent a summer visiting local flea markets alongside her mother while navigating a major life transition.

While touring properties and discussing potential renovations, Bush found herself analyzing structural elements with professional precision. “I was talking about, ‘Oh yeah, this looks cool, but they should move this wall, and windows should go here,’ and somebody was like, ‘How do you know that?’ And my mom goes, ‘Oh, she’s been like this since she was a little kid,’” Bush recalled.

According to her mother, Bush’s critical eye for architecture was apparent even in early childhood, making visits to friends’ houses an entertaining challenge for her parents.

“We’d walk into somebody’s house, and here comes my 6-year-old being like, ‘Your door is in the wrong place,’” Bush said, laughing at the memory. “And I’m like, ‘I did? I don’t remember that, but I’m so sorry.’”

Beyond designing spaces, Bush loves the communal aspect of housing them, noting that she genuinely relishes hosting and keeping a house full of people. Yet, even with her public-facing career, the actress heavily values privacy for certain major life milestones.

She recently opened up about her decision to marry Harris in a secret backyard ceremony held in upstate New York during the summer of 2025. Moving away from massive, highly publicized events allowed the couple to focus entirely on intimacy and family.

“When you get to this stage in your life, you begin to unpack what’s yours and what’s always sort of been for everyone else,” Bush explained in an interview with Vogue.

The intimate wedding allowed them to celebrate surrounded by their closest loved ones, including Harris’s children, 5-year-old Sloane and 4-year-old Ocean, whom Harris shares with her ex-wife and former teammate, Ali Krieger.

Describing the day, Bush noted how comforting it was to avoid the rigid demands of a traditional celebrity wedding. The kids spent the afternoon running around happily, gathering wild flowers directly from the property while young Sloane proudly held a freshly picked bouquet.

“It was so fun for them, because it wasn’t this pressure-filled day that’s too much for young kids. It was so precious, and zero pressure. I will never forget it, and I think wedding days sometimes aren’t like that,” Bush shared.

The low-key celebration wrapped up with a cozy evening marshmallow roast under the stars, after which Bush and Harris shared the happy news of their marriage in person with their broader circle of friends and family.