Tuesday Tidbit: Ellen Degeneres

Late last week Your Mama discussed the 26-acre equestrian extravaganza in Thousand Oaks, CA that chat show host Ellen Degeneres and her actress wife Portia de Rossi have on the market with an asking price of $16,500,000.

Celebrity real estate gossips and watchers know the horsey spread in Thousand Oaks isn't the only posh property in the Los Angeles area the Missus Degeneres and de Rossi own but want to unload from their property portfolio. Rumors started to slip and slide down the celebrity real estate gossip grapevine in early 2011 that the couple desired to divest themselves of the deluxe Beverly Hills, CA compound they've spent many tens of millions of dollars amassing and customizing.

In the fall of 2007 the property mad pair coughed up an almost unbelievable $29,000,000 for the main portion of the compound, which they bought from residuals rich Will & Grace co-creator Max Mutchnick. A few months later the compound loving ladies shelled out an additional $8,500,000 for the property next door that they razed and replaced with a serene, watery garden with long views down the rugged, mansion-dotted canyons and over the twinkling lights of Lala Land.

The following June the real estate flip-floppers spent $5,000,000 for an adjacent fixer upper and just a month later they shelled out another $5,500,000 for a hillside house with oblique views into the backyard of the main house. Altogether, according to our ever-present bejeweled abacus, the Missus Degeneres and de Rossi dumped an astonishing forty-eight million clams for the various properties that comprise the compound, not counting renovation and customization costs.

In late May (2011), the swankety-swank Degenere-de Rossi compound finally hit the open market with an undisclosed price that several sources swear was $60,000,000 for the entire multi-parcel, multi-residence compound. A few weeks ago, amid rumors that Formula One Racing heiress Tamara Ecclestone rejected the compound as not grand enough for her grandiose real estate tastes, the property disappeared from the listing agent's website.

Lo and behold, yesterday the couple's compound popped back up on the market with an official asking price of $49,000,000.

New listing information shows the compound contains a total of 9 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms spread throughout a sprawling single-story a main house, a detached guest house tucked into the hillside at the front of the house and and guest/staff apartment, fitness facility and underground parking garage tucked discretely underneath the swimming pool with its adjacent pavilion. The compound includes an additional and separate 3 bedroom house for staff, security, extended family, or whatever.

Listing information goes on to reveal there are more than half a dozen fireplaces on the property, lavishly landscaped grounds that include a meandering pond and grassy back yard with infinity-edged swimming pool and spa, and state-of-the-art security systems.

Certainly the Missus D. and de R. sit high on a mountain of money that would make the knees of ordinary rich people turn to jelly with envy and Your Mama needs a god damn nerve pill to smooth out the bitter agita caused by the financial flabbergast that overwhelms us when we consider the the monetary resources it takes just to pay the taxes and upkeep costs for their high-maintenance Beverly Hills compound as well as their Thousand Oaks horse farm.

It not known where Miz Degeneres and Miz de Rossi would like to reside next but Your Mama has heard–but can not confirm–from someone in a position to know such matters that the couple would like to simplify their real estate lives with the acquisition of an in-town estate/ranchette where they can both live and house their horses. We shall see, puppies, we shall see.

listing photos: Westside Estate Agency

Frances Bean Cobain Buys A West Coast Crib of Her Own

BUYER: Frances Bean Cobain
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,825,000
SIZE: 3,350 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Last week Your Mama received an enlightening missive from The Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Address Aerial who alerted us to a well-maintained Los Angeles, CA residence they believe was acquired–through a trust–by tatted-up teen-aged rock-and-roll heiress Frances Bean Cobain.

In case any of y'all live under a showbiz rock and don't know, Miss Cobain, now a quite striking and decidedly worldly 19 year old young woman, is the only progeny of deceased Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain, who (in)famously did himself in when his daughter was just a toddler, and Hole front woman Courtney Love, a not-particularly-stable-seeming twittering typhoon of a woman who can be counted on as rich fodder for the tabs, blogs and gossip glossies but but isn't, we imagine, on any body's list for Mother of the Year.

Miz Love and Miss Cobain have a wickedly cantankerous mother/daughter relationship. In late 2009 it was widely reported that Miz Love lost legal custody of her minor daughter and that a temporary restraining order was issued that forbid Momma Love from having any direct or indirect contact with Miss Cobain.

On the occasion of her 18th birthday in August 2010, Miss Cobain not only became a legal adult but also the sole beneficiary of a multi-million dollar trust set up in the years after her father's suicide to ensure her future financial security. Now in control of her very own and very substantial mountain of moolah, the former Rolling Stone intern turned pseudonymic artist Fiddle Tim, has indeed busted out and bought herself a home of her own in Tinseltown.

After getting word of the purchase from The Bizzy Boys, Your Mama did some asking around and our frighteningly well-informed friend and informant Lucy Spillerguts quickly confirmed the purchase by Miss Cobain of a vintage Spanish style casa tucked into a quiet canyon in the foothills just above Hollywood. Property records show the deal went down in late July 2011 in the amount of $1,825,000.

Listing information for Miss Cobain's new crib shows it measures a grown up but far from excessive 3,350 square feet with a total of 4 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. The two-story house, built in 1930, was designed by architect Carl Jules Weyl and retains many original architectural and decorative details such as hand-forged iron work, colorful decorative tiles, numerous stained and leaded glass windows, hand-stenciled wood beams, and vintage light fixtures and hardware.

The terra cotta tile floors in the entrance hall turn to restored wood floors in the "formal" living room that features a wood-burning fireplace, vaulted wood ceiling with exposed and stenciled beams, a row of leaded glass windows at the front of the house and a bank of pane-free French doors that open the room to a large tiled terrace at the rear of the property.

Like the entrance hall, the formal dining room has an articulated ceiling treatment and connects to the kitchen/service area through an old-timey swinging door. The fully updated and upgraded kitchen isn't huge but is well-equipped with white Shaker-style cabinetry, open shelving for daily dishes and glassware, high-grade commercial-style stainless steel appliances, and white subway tile back splashes. The kitchen complex also includes a long and narrow walk-in pantry with washer and dryer and an adjoining breakfast room with shallow barrel vaulted ceiling.

A room next to the kitchen is labeled as a "Media Rm" in the listing description of the property but is so exiguous that even a committed and unashamed tee-vee addict like Your Mama would rather scrub terlits with an old toothbrush than be trapped in that claustrophobic cubicle of a room with a blaring boob-toob.

Anyhoo, the wood-floored staircase winds up to the second floor bedrooms that include a modestly-scaled but nicely appointed master bedroom that listing information indicates includes a small private terrace, a wonderfully cacophonous tiled bathroom with separate soaking tub and stall shower, "generous closets," and a separate dressing area charmingly outfitted with built-in vanity and adjustable three-sided mirror.

Although the rear yard is, as per listing information, "pool-sized" there isn't a swimming pool. There are several outdoor areas where Miss Cobain can take advantage of the classic (and somewhat cliché) indoor/outdoor California lifestyle. The main dining/lounging and outdoor entertaining area is a tree-shaded, courtyard-like patio accessible through French doors located in various rooms on the main floor of the residence. A short, gated driveway cuts along the side of house and leads back to a detached garage currently converted to a studio/office.

It unclear how much time Miss Cobain plans to spend in Los Angeles given that she reportedly attends private, pricey and proudly arty-farty Bard College in upstate New York.

Your Mama asks that the children keep in mind that the perfectly banal day-core depicted in listing photographs reflect the tastes of the seller and not Miss Cobain who we imagine (and hope) has far less traditional and more quirky ideas about how to turn a house into a home.

listing photos: Prudential California Realty

EVOLUTION OF A ROOM–Part Three

 

If you read this blog, you know the story well.  A few years ago, after replacing my kitchen’s tile countertop with white marble, my yellow walls looked horrible.  Since all the rooms downstairs open up to each other,  I was forced to paint them all a new color -  Feathered Gray by Pratt and Lambert – which is a warm gray shade that looks taupe in certain light.  But after the walls were repainted, nothing went together anymore.  My yellow silk curtains looked terrible against the new paint color, as did all my other fabrics. 

For the past two years, I’ve been slowly changing out the curtains and the fabrics so it looks more like a decorator with some sense of color lives here.  The last room that finally got its new fabrics was the dining room.    Thinking back on all the dining rooms I’ve ever had – starting with my first single girl apartment -  I realized that I’ve always had a skirted dining table.   This actually surprised me, I hadn’t been aware that I’ve been using the same design element over and over and over again.   Was there a lesson in this?   I suppose if you really love something, you should go for it, regardless of what the current trend is.   If I listened to trends, I would have replaced my skirted table with a Rough Luxe unstained wood table that so many of the young are buying these days.  

So, today, I thought I would bore you to death by looking at the evolution of my dining rooms through the years.  Actually, I probably should say the non-evolution of my dining room skirted table.  Enjoy!!

 

The Rough Luxe table by Restoration Hardware that everyone under 40 wants to buy.

 

 

Twenty two years ago, right after we were married, Ben and I rented this cute, tiny cottage.  For the dining room, I brought my skirted table that had been in my pre marriage apartment.  I updated it with a new, cream faux silk poly-something fabric with a huge puddle that I spent hours arranging “just right.”  I added the set of French chairs that my aunt gave me and a painted secretary from my parents house.   We happily lived here for two years - Elisabeth was born while we rented this house. We loved the two bedroom, one bathroom house, but mostly we were thrilled to be living in West University – our dream location.  I had gone to look at this house after seeing an ad in the paper and when the landlord answered the door, I said “I’ll take it” without even stepping inside.    Not that there was much to tour, you could see everything from the front door.  The rent was $600.  We were so excited to live in our doll house.   My father though, was less so.  He took one look at it and said “I worked my whole life to get you out of a house on concrete blocks.”   He didn’t see the charm of living in a house without a solid foundation like we did.  We left this house to move to Ft. Worth – which was supposed to be for a lifetime.  Instead, we only lasted  1 1/2 years away from friends and family before we moved back to Houston.

 

In Ft. Worth, we bought our first house – a brand new patio style home.  While I copied Dan Carithers taupe and white linen living room, I used my old dining room set up.   I did add an antique chandelier from my parents house and two woodcuts also borrowed from them.  I don’t think we ate one meal in this room, instead we always used the breakfast room where we had a French wood farm table. 

 

And finally, we ended up in our present house in West University.  I don’t have a picture of the round skirted table with the draping cream cloth, but I know I used that same set up when we first moved into this house.  I do have an early picture of a party tablescape.  I had Shabby Slips make up a table skirt out of taupe and white plaid linen to fit over a conference table for when we entertained.  I topped that with a white tablecloth.  Those French chairs were actually from my breakfast room.   Overhead we used the same chandelier.  And here, you can see there used to be a window in this room instead of the French door that we installed a few months after we moved in.  It looks so strange to see the old window there!

 

A few years later and I’m still using the conference table for entertaining.  The French door is now in place instead of the window and by then,  I had bought that antique hutch to hold my newly acquired collection of blue and white transferware.  Of course I stole that idea from design great Carol Glasser.  I bought those vintage cane chairs from Lewis and Maese.  Still no curtains and no rugs.   Elisabeth is modeling her outfit of the hour – my bathing suit sarong which she turned into a long skirt.  NOTE:  After this party, everyone went home with red knees from the cotton table cloths!  Be sure to wash those cottons that come from India first.

 

Sorry all these pictures are no bad!  I had no idea I would have a design blog when I took these photographs all those years ago.  Here, I had finally started to get somewhat serious about my dining room.  I had an oval table custom made to fit the room and seat 8 – so, now I could finally quit dragging out the conference table whenever I entertained.  For the skirt I splurged on a Bennison fabric which cost more than a dining room table would have.  But, as you can see, I’ve always just preferred a skirted table in the dining room over a wood one.  There something so romantic and soft about a beautiful skirted table – and I’ll probably never have a proper wood  table.  Over the years, the puddling hem was drastically shortened, and the glass top was eliminated.   When this picture was taken, I was still using those old German woodcuts which I later replaced with more plates.  And, I had put up sconces – that today are in my office.

 

 

About six or seven years ago, I decided to change the Bennison cloth out for this silk plaid in yellow.  At this time, I also painted all the walls a soft golden yellow with gray trim.   Along with the paint, we finally got silk ticking curtains in the living room and dining room and custom cut seagrass throughout.   The curtains and the seagrass made a huge difference (as did a new camera.)  My parent’s antique chandelier went to the breakfast room and I bought this fixture from a friend who was redecorating her house from English country manor to Swedish.   New sconces from Tara Shaw were added. 

 

Finally, I changed out my blue and white transferware for some creamware – trying for a quieter look.  I honestly thought I would keep this dining room setup forever.  I still love the way it looks, but the yellow just didn’t go with the gray walls or the new ivory linen slipcovers in the living room or the white marble in the kitchen.   So, new curtain and tableskirt fabrics were ordered to tie it all together.    Here’s how the dining room looks today:

 

 

 

The biggest change to the room were the new fabrics – gray taffeta for the curtains and a white matte taffeta for the table.   The only expensive fabric was for the table – from Rogers and Goffigon -  but the draping and the matte look were important to me and I couldn’t get that look with a cheaper fabric.   The silk taffeta at the windows is Schumacher and that fabric was very reasonable.

 

The chair slips are actually two pieces, one piece covers the back and one covers the seat.  There is a down cushion inserted into the bottom slip to make the chairs look and feel softer.   Ties run down the back of the slips.  The skirts are double pleated for extra frill.   The checked linen is Chelsea Editions and is very, very reasonable. 

 

The view of the hutch with the creamware collection.   I wonder if I should trade this out for a gray painted Swedish hutch.   Maybe in a few years!

 

A closeup of the back of the slip with the ties.

 

Here you can see how pretty the seat crowns with the attached down cushion. 

 

We left the wood arms exposed on the host chairs.  I like that small touch of wood showing through.

 

On the table, I added some creamware plates to make it look casually styled.  Where is Eddie Ross when you need him????

 

Two of my favorite things in the room – the sconces from Tara Shaw and the antique barometer I got for a steal on 1st Dibs.

 

While all the changes made a big difference, the slipcovers made a huge, huge difference.  I am really happy with the way they turned out.  They make the room look dreamy and feminine and so soft.  Right now, I am in love with them!!! 

So, that’s it.   It took a while to update all the fabrics downstairs.  They always say, when you change one thing in your house, it all dominoes and that was true with me.  The white marble countertops dictated the way my entire downstairs looked – something I hadn’t really thought about when we made that initial change, but truthfully,  I probably was just in denial.  Changing out the fabrics room by room made is easier on the pocketbook.  Plus, Ben wasn’t really aware of what it all cost in the end since it was such a drawn out process.  He loves the way it all looks now, but if I would have come to him and said – I’m redoing every room next month, he would have had a heart attack and had me committed.  It was more subtle this way.   He likes my decorating style, he just doesn’t like what it costs.  AND, he is under the misguided impression for some unknown reason that slipcovers are cheap!  SSSSHHH – let’s keep it a secret, ok?  Thanks!

I’m wondering if I’m alone out here, using the same design element over and over and over again – like the skirted table?   That’s really the only thing I can think that I’ve used since I had my first apartment up until my current house – over 30 years of using skirted dining room tables.   Do you have an element or style you use over and over again?  Something you have loved since you left college, married and had children?  Let me know what it is – I would love to hear what you are addicted to!!!

 

 

FINALLY:

If you are a Rachel Ashwell fan, you will love her new book.  It’s really beautiful – filled with flowers everywhere and gorgeous shabby chic styling.  It features the home of many European friends this time – a switch for the Californian Rachel.  It also shows her new Texas property, The Prairie.  It’s totally heavenly.  So, if you are a Shabby Chic lover, I highly recommend it  HERE.