SELLER: Dianna Agron
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1.595 million
SIZE: 2,494 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms plus guesthouse
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: Though we first caught wind of it from an eagle-eyed informant we’ll call Tommy Hawk, it was the plugged-in celebrity property gossips at the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) who were the first out of the gate with news of the Hollywood Hills micro-compound that “Glee” star Dianna Agron hoisted on the open market this week at $1.595 million. Miss Agron, engaged over the 2015 winter holidays to British musician Winston Marshall, the shaggy bearded banjoist for the au courant Grammy-winning folk-rock band Mumford and Sons, purchased the property in November 2012 for $1.05 million and has opted to sell, her real estate representative told the WSJ, because she spends the bulk of her time in London and New York City. Well, lah-di-dah, lucky lady. Anyhoodles, poodles…
All but completely obscured in quintessential celebrity style behind a thick and high hedge, the modestly sized and dapperly turned-out house, a 1926 faux-timbered French Normandy cottage painted pea soup green, has three bedrooms and two bathrooms in 2,494 square feet, according to current listing details. We don’t particularly care for how the front door is secreted under the porte cochère that extends off the side of the house or how the front door opens directly into the main living room because, generally speaking, we’re of the mind even the tiniest of entry vestibules is better than none at all. However, once inside, the capaciously proportioned living room more than makes up for the clunky and disconcertingly abrupt entry with a handsome assemblage of original and/or re-created architectural details that include wide plank floorboards, stained glass window accents, a kiva-style corner fireplace, and a vaulted ceiling tightly ribbed with wood beams. The forcefully idiosyncratic but hardly haphazard furnishings include a comfortably lumpy pair of navy blue quilted sofas, a glittery and probably antique crystal chandelier, a carefully selected mélange of glass, metal and stone end tables, and a gigantic, organically sleek wood-crafted media/bar cabinet set below a massive, arched mirror that reinforces the magnificent height of the ceiling. A turreted dining room has possibly original, diamond pane leaded glass windows and stylishly utilitarian white, hexagonal floor tiles that continue into the arguably somewhat small and absolutely austere but sumptuously outfitted kitchen that some might say the kitchen looks like the inside of a cold freezer feels with slab marble countertops and backsplashes, ice blue cabinetry, and a complete array of fashionable top-grade appliances that include a designer-brand glass-fronted fridge and a terrifically spendy imported French range.
In a petite office wrapped in high-glam silver and gold foil wallpaper, a fur-cushioned window seat is piled with a whimsically mixy-match and ever-so-slightly camp collection of decorative cushions. One shows the face of a tiger, another is leopard print, and several others riotous floral prints. The two guest/family bedrooms are both on the wee side. Miss Agron has decadently wrapped one in bordello-worthy silver and black brocade pattern wallpaper, and the other benefits from charming, space-saving built-in wardrobe and storage cabinets. It appears the hand towels are, in our humble and utterly meaningless opinion, pestiferously placed in a woven basket on the floor next to the pedestal sink in the hall bathroom that imperfectly doubles as a powder room. The master bedroom, just commodious enough to accommodate a small sitting area, has an angled ceiling, itty-bitty window seat tucked into a dormered window, and a couple of tall and narrow closets behind louvered doors lacquered in high-gloss black paint. The spare master bathroom provides classic claw-footed bathtub with antique or vintage-style brass fixtures and a marble-topped vanity.
A long, electronically gated drive passes through the aforementioned porte cochère on its way to a detached two car garage positioned behind the house and topped by a studio-style guesthouse with fantastically high-pitched ceiling, over-sized windows, a convenient kitchenette, and complete bathroom. A small private deck outside the guesthouse links up to the generous, cypress-ringed terrace that surrounds a rectilinear swimming pool sunk into an elevated terrace behind the garage at the extreme rear of the slightly up-sloped 0.2-acre parcel.
This property gossip hasn’t a clue where Miss Agron and Mister Winston shack up when in London, but in New York City we have to assume they’re snug as two lovebirds in a sleeping bag in the 2,000-ish-square-foot Nolita neighborhood loft the banjo picker picked up last year for $3.2 million. Probably the loft, with 11.5-foot ceilings and nine over-sized sash windows in an exposed brick wall, has had at least a little bit of if not extensive attention by a team of savvy architects and/or decorators. But at the time it was acquired, the loft was configured with a 31-foot-long living room, an open kitchen, three bedroom — two of them windowless interior spaces — and just one, albeit quite large, bathroom.
Listing photos: Sotheby’s International Realty
