Former child magician Andrew O’Connor, co-creator and producer of a variety of magic-related programming including the BAFTA Award winning “Peep Show” series and a slew of documentary-style shows starring English mentalist Derren Brown, listed his custom-designed residence in L.A.’s Brentwood with an asking price of $11.995 million. Screened behind a high fence, an even taller row of mature trees and glimmering stainless steel security gates, the luxuriously appointed and comfortably eclectic two-story contemporary residence sits on a mostly flat, .69-acre canyon-side parcel with five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms in 4,963-square-feet.
At the time O’Connor purchased the property in the spring of 2015 for $6.6 million, the existing residence had been expanded and renovated for the seller about 15 years earlier as a contemporary pavilion designed for easy-breezy indoor-outdoor living by the illustrious, L.A.-based firm Tichenor & Thorp Architecture. O’Connor subsequently engaged the in-demand services of acclaimed vernacular architect Steve Giannetti to transform the residence into one described in marketing materials as “reminiscent of a Napa Valley resort” with reclaimed wood floorboards of varying widths, hand-crafted solid oak doors, vast expanses of steel-trimmed floor-to-ceiling windows and lustrous hand-rubbed smooth plaster walls.
A walled, gated and wind-protected courtyard with outdoor fireplace and shaded patio leads to custom-crafted reclaimed wood doors that are set into a wall of windows and open directly into a cavernous, loft-like combination living and dining space with a double-height ceiling lined with exposed wood beams and a reclaimed brick fireplace. With white marble countertops on sophisticated grey Shaker-style cabinetry and grey-grouted white subway tile backsplashes that extend all the way to the ceiling, the cook’s kitchen offers top end appliances including an imported French range that costs about as much as a used Mercedes along with what listing details describe as a separate scullery. There is also a cozy den and a separate family room that doubles as a screening room with projection system and drop-down movie screen.
Guest bedrooms with en suite bathrooms feature decoratively dernier cri imported brass fixtures while the master suite comprises a lofted office/lounge, a bedroom with floor-to-ceiling windows that glide open to a private, glass-railed deck with open sunset view and an airy, skylight topped bathroom with vintage fixtures including a claw-footed soaking tub between wall-mounted porcelain sinks.
The back of the house opens to a broad, graveled terrace with shaded dining ramada and built-in barbecue plus a wide expanse of lawn and an infinity-edged swimming pool and spa with picturesque, cross-canyon view over misty, fog-licked treetops.
O’Connor previously owned a substantially larger and more traditional 10,300-square-foot clapboard-sided and stone-accented neo-Colonial, also designed by Steven Giannetti, with six bedrooms and seven full and three half bathrooms along one of Brentwood’s most coveted and expensive streets that he scooped up in May 2010 for $11 million and sold not quite five years later for $13.177 million to powerhouse TV producer Brian Robbins.
Listing photos: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
