Having upgraded to a considerably more spacious Barbara Bestor-designed contemporary home in L.A.’s perennially trendy Silver Lake neighborhood, OneRepublic bassist and cellist Brent Kutzle has hoisted his former home, also in Silver Lake, on the market at $3.5 million. The veteran rock musician, who has also written scores of songs for pop divas like Beyoncé, Ellie Goulding and Kelly Clarkson, purchased the boxy modern almost three years ago for $2.425 million.
Described in listings held by Jenna Cooper and Caroline Wolf of Compass as an “urban oasis,” the clean-lined contemporary organic-meets-vintage-glam property includes a four bedroom and three-and-a-half-bath main house plus a detached studio-style guesthouse converted to a black-walled screening room that’s complete with a kitchenette and bath.
With the assistance of Night Palm’s Tiffany Howell, Kutzle and wife Jackie Leslie filled the 3,200-square-foot two-story home with what Lonny magazine described as “modern metallic accents, vintage furniture, printed wallpaper and statement light fixtures,” such as the delicate glass pendant hanging over the stairs.
The main floor living and entertaining spaces, which include a simple but chic midcentury modern-inspired kitchen, are tucked away at the back of the house, behind the street-facing two-car garage and long entrance gallery. Both the living room and kitchen spill out through glass sliders to a curtained dining terrace enveloped in mature plantings.
Upstairs, one of the three average sized guest bedrooms has a private bath, while the other two share a hall bath and the primary bedroom has a small bathroom of its own, along with a good-sized walk-in closet/dressing room and glass sliders to a sun-splashed deck.
The property’s real draw, however, just might be beguiling gardens, which were created in conjunction with The Tropics Inc. Bougainvillea frames the the glass sliders on the small deck outside the living room, like flaming fuchsia eye brows, and mature olive trees mix with spiky succulents, delicate palm trees, and small bits of lush grass. Beside the guesthouse/screening room, a cushioned built-in bench alongside the dark-bottom swimming pool and spa makes for a sweet spot to dry off and soak up some sun, while raised bed planters let the urban gardener exercise their green thumb.
Married in 2017, Kutzle and Leslie have been making all kinds of real estate moves over the last few years. During the summer of 2018, they dropped about a million bucks on a big house on 21 semi-remote acres in rural central Washington, and the spring of 2019, around the same time they bought the Silver Lake house they are now selling, they shelled out $2.1 million for a secluded hilltop spread in Topanga, Calif., that they lickety-split sold about 1.5 years later for $1.85 million, a notable quarter-million-dollar loss not counting improvement expenses and real estate fees. And finally, not quite a year ago, the couple upgraded — and more than doubled their square footage — with the 7,200-square foot Barbara Bestor-designed home they bought for $5.7 million from actress Katie Aselton and Hollywood polymath Mark Duplass.
