Covid-19 quarantines have just about everyone everywhere, including L.A’s rich and famous Tinseltowners, antsy for a change of scenery. While most make due with a day-trip up the coast or a stolen weekend in the desert, those with pockets deep enough can more momentously scratch that itch with a new house. Case in point: “Modern Family” star Ariel Winter, who has switched up her mid-pandemic residential circumstances with the slightly more than $2.8 million sale of a modern farmhouse-style home in L.A.’s increasingly celeb-favored Studio City community and the $3.5 million purchase of a somewhat larger (though not-so-dissimilar) modern farmhouse-style spread a short distance away.
Winter, who has grown up in front of TV viewing audiences from a mousey pre-teen to a bona fide bombshell, didn’t likely realize much (if any) profit on the house she’s just sold, which she bought about 3.5 years ago for a smidgen under $2.7 million. Obscured behind a tall hedge and equipped with a home automation system that incorporates a comprehensive security apparatus with eight cameras, the contemporary-minded traditional was newly built when she bought it and contains five bedrooms and five and a half baths in close to 5,100 square feet.
A serene courtyard entry and a double-height foyer give way to adjoining formal living and dining rooms, the former with an elegantly spare fireplace and both with eye-catching contemporary light fixtures that hang from coffered ceilings. A butlers pantry complete with a wine cabinet lined in whitewashed bricks links the dining room to a spacious gourmet kitchen that gleams with marble counters on sugar-white Shaker-style cabinets set off by stainless appliances and trendy brass sink fixtures. The kitchen is completely open to an informal dining area as well as a family room with a pale-grey polished marble fireplace between built-in storage cabinets as its focal point. Glass sliders vanish into the walls to merge the room with the backyard. A games room, guest suite and home office complete the main floor.
Upstairs, a second games lounge, this one with a pool table and built-in desks, is surrounded by a couple of family bedrooms with boldly tiled private baths. The principal bedroom faces the rear for maximum privacy and includes a fireplace, two fitted walk-n closets and a lavishly appointed bathroom large enough to comfortably accommodate a cherry red lounge chair and ottoman alongside the soaking tub and steam shower.
High hedges ensure the grassy backyard is completely private, while a covered patio and built-in grill amp up the al fresco entertainment options, as do the de rigueur swimming pool and spa.
The listing was held by Matt Epstein of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties; The buyer was repped by Duk Hoon Chang at New Star Realty & Investment.
At 22 already a veteran actor whose extensive voiceover experience includes the titular character on Disney’s animated series “Sofia the First,” Winter has already picked out and spent about $3.5 million for her next home, a 5,400-square-foot modern farmhouse-style dwelling with five bedrooms and six bathrooms plus a poolside guesthouse with another bathroom. Though young, Winter is becoming old hat and buying and selling homes in the San Fernando Valley. Several years ago she sold a contemporary home in Sherman Oaks for $1.525 million, an unfortunate tetch below the $1.575 million she paid just a year earlier.