She sold her designer-done loft in Brooklyn’s famously hyper-hipster Williamsburg neighborhood almost two years ago for nearly $275,000 less than the $2.9 million she paid for the Manhattan-view aerie just over a year before. However, eight-times Emmy nominated “Girls” creator and star Lena Dunham has recouped most of that loss on the recent sale of her West Coast abode, a 100-year old bungalow in the historic and sought after Spaulding Square neighborhood on Hollywood’s western edge that went for close to $2.95 million, nearly $225,000 more than the $2.725 million she paid six years ago and, equally notable, $150,000 above the not-quite-$2.8-million asking price.
Tax records indicate Dunham, who gave Vogue’s 73 Questions a peek around the then whimsical and eclectic home back in 2017, actually bought the property with her now ex-boyfriend, indie-pop musician Jack Antonoff, but bought him out in 2018, the year following their amicable late 2017 split.
The body positive showbiz polymath (and social media exhibitionist) has been on a roller-coaster journey of health issues over the last few years, about which she’s been vociferously public about. She had a hysterectomy due to severe endometriosis, which she wrote about in detail for Vogue, suffers from the rare connective-tissue disorder Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and, shortly after she celebrated two years of sobriety from anti-anxiety drugs last year, she revealed that she had been down-for-the-count (thought not hospitalized) with Covid-19.
Despite her ongoing wellness issues, Dunham, whose little-loved post-“Girls” series “Camping” lasted but a single season, remains busy as a beaver with a number of projects in various stages of production. She’s an executive producer on the HBO series “Generation,” one of the many unnerving explorations of teenage sexuality and the toxicity of social media now airing on cable channels, and she’s shooting (or about to shoot) what’s been called a “longtime passion project,” the Billie Piper and Bella Ramsey starring film “Catherine, Called Birdy,” adapted from Karen Cushman’s 1994 children’s novel of the same name, which Dunham has not only scripted but will direct and executive produce.
The listing for Dunham’s Hollywood home was jointly held by Ali Jack of Compass and Boni Bryant of Bryant/Reichling at Compass, both of whom also represented the buyer in the transaction.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com All but invisible behind thick hedges, secured by locked gates and protected with a camera-equipped security system, the meticulously maintained property includes a charming two-bedroom and two-bathroom main house, a fully restored and upgraded Greek Revival-style bungalow that dates to 1919, plus a self-contained one-bedroom and one-bath guesthouse fashioned out of what was once a detached garage.
Updated to maintain the home’s vintage character, there are wide-plank wood floors imported from Sweden, an antique brick fireplace in the living room and original wood-trimmed casement windows throughout.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com Dunham’s personal belongings, and just about every inch of the colorful, design-savvy kitch she filled the place with, were removed and replaced with a rigorously neutral array of staged furnishings and milky white paint. Gone is the multicolored geometric wall mural in the living room, while her collection of queer and feminist resistance art and ephemera that once filled the bookshelves of the cozy den, which she called “the lady room,” was replaced with a few generic baskets, a plant and a bunch of short stacks of coffee-table books.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com Once painted a brazen shade of lime green, with a rustic antique table at its center, the dining area sits between the living room and kithen under a bead board-clad raised ceiling.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com French doors open the casual dining space to a pint-sized screened porch and grassy side-yard patio.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com Lightly updated and stripped of personality since Vogue’s 73 Questions came through — the orange window trim over the sink has been painted a much less spirited white, for example — the high-end eat-in kitchen is arranged around a large island with lightly veined marble countertops and commercial-style designer appliances.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com French doors open the sunny kitchen to a spacious covered porch that overlooks the backyard and swimming pool.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com The main house’s lone guest bedroom, where Dunham once had a small walk-in closet converted to a tiny hobbit-hole of a home office, is in convenient proximity to a hall guest bath wrapped in delicately patterned blue and white wallpaper with original wood built-ins.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com The main bedroom is tucked away at the back of the house with French doors to the covered porch outside the kitchen. The floor plan shows there’s a walk-in closet, a niche for the TV and a not-especially big but stylishly appointed bathroom where Dunham’s cheeky vermillion-colored cheetah pattern wallpaper remains in place.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com Perfect for a work-from-home situation, Airbnb income or a separate cute-as-a-button hideaway for long-term guests, a two-story poolside structure incorporates a roomy lounge, a simple kitchen with high-end marble counters, a bathroom, and a lofted bedroom under a cathedral ceiling.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com The backyard isn’t particularly large but, in addition to the porch, comfortably accommodates thick carpets of lawn bordered by knee-high boxwoods and a small swimming pool verdantly set against towering hedges.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com Tax records suggest Dunham owns another home in L.A.’s trendy Highland Park neighborhood, which last changed hands about 1.5 years ago for $865,000, though it appears the loft-style single-family home is occupied by her younger, non-binary writer/actor/activist sibling Cyrus Grace Dunham.