Two-time Olympic freestyle skier, budding actor and LGBTQ+ activist Gus Kenworthy, one of the first openly gay American athletes to compete at the Olympics, and the winner of a silver medal at the 2014 games in Sochi, is ready to part with his celebrity-tinged penthouse in the heart of West Hollywood, Calif., that has come up for grabs at $2.25 million.
Kenworthy, who was cast a few years ago as Chet Clancy on the ninth season of “American Horror Story” and popped up last year as Slutty Steve on the final season of “Will & Grace,” hopes to realize a tidy profit on the house-sized penthouse pad he picked up not quite three years ago for $1.6 million from “Desperate Housewives” and “Chesapeake Shores” beau hunk Jesse Metcalfe. (Metcalfe had bought the unit less than a year earlier for $830,000 as a fixer-upper project.)
Though the duplex unit had been extensively overhauled by Metcalfe, Kenworthy nonetheless quickly engaged the services of designer (and HGTV home makeover host) Orlando Soria to freshen and customize the almost 1,800-square-foot two-story unit with built-in window benches and bespoke bookcases. Kenworthy’s ex-boyfriend, actor Matthew Wilkas, whose credits include RuPaul’s short-lived Netflix dramedy “AJ and the Queen,” applied the hand-scraped plaster to the walls and, at great effort and numerous hoops, the unit’s roughly 1,500 square feet of private outdoor spaces were transformed into comfortable alfresco dining, grilling, lounging and sunbathing areas.
Listings held by Justin Alexander and Jeremy Lingvall of Compass describe the duplex aerie a “celebrity retreat” with showroom quality finishes and a glossy spread in a recent issue of Architectural Digest.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Zeke Ruelas An antique case in the foyer between the living and dining room is where, according to A.D., Kenworthy keeps his 2014 Olympic silver medal, along with a smattering of fossils and other ephemera such as a carved ostrich egg.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Zeke Ruelas Kenworthy collects artworks from LGBTQ+ community and bits of his collection animate in the bright and airy double-height living room that sports cotton-white walls, giant windows with treetop vistas and a sleek two-way fireplace.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Zeke Ruelas Curvy, seafoam-green chairs around an iconic Eero Saarinen Tulip table mirror the linear swoop of the light fixture in the dining area, while the kitchen, just large enough to float a tiny breakfast table/work island in the center of the room, has trendy brass fixtures, clean-lined cabinetry and an array of designer appliances.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Zeke Ruelas Dark teal walls enhance one guest bedroom, which has glass sliders to a terrace, and the other, painted a peachy shade of pink, is cheekily butched up with bull horns mounted over the upholstered headboard.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Zeke Ruelas The primary bedroom is a darker, moodier space with charcoal-colored walls and a tufted emerald velvet sofa at the foot of a king-sized bed that’s monochromatically dressed in luxurious light grey linens.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Zeke Ruelas All three of the penthouse’s bathrooms are modern and up-to-date, but the main bathroom’s oversized shower is of particular note with its multiple shower heads and dynamically book-matched stone wall.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Zeke Ruelas Spacious enough to comfortably accommodate a dining area and a roomy lounge space with fire pit, the penthouse’s two levels of roof deck include a huge terrace on the lower level with an over-the-foliage view of the historic surrounding apartment houses.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Zeke Ruelas -
Image Credit: Courtesy Zeke Ruelas A high-end outdoor kitchen and grilling area is set into an external staircase that leads to a second and also huge roof deck with wrap-around mountain and city views.