Bridgit Mendler sells in Silver Lake
Film and TV star Bridgit Mendler, quietly married a couple months ago to longtime boyfriend Griffin Cleverly, has sold her home in the hills of L.A.’S über-hip Silver Lake area for a sliver under $2 million. Best known for her lead roles on Disney’s “Good Luck Charlie” and, more recently, the short-lived NBC primetime sitcom “Undateable,” the 26-year-old, who co-stars with Dennis Quaid in the upcoming web series “Merry Happy Whatever,” just about doubled her money on the Cape Cod-inspired hillside traditional she scooped up in 2013 for not quite $1.1 million.
Extensively updated by Mendler, the two-story house sits atop red brick retaining walls and a street-level two-car garage with an over-the-rooftops lake view through the picturesquely gnarled limbs of a gigantic tree. It’s a bit of a hike up a gated stairway from the street to a front porch that makes an inviting entrance to the three-bedroom and 3.5-bathroom residence.
There are dark-stained oak floors in the living and dining rooms, the former
a brick fireplace and the latter featuring a couple of built-in china hutches with arched glass doors. A wide archway exposes the dining room to a sun-filled eat-in kitchen. The lake-view master suite includes a small sitting area with decorative fireplace and a vintage-style bathroom flooded with natural light through a skylight.
French doors in the living room, dining room and kitchen facilitate the transition to a slender, raggedly landscaped terrace that wraps around the back of the house with a vine-draped pergola. The property was listed with Sotheby’s Intl. Realty’s Patricia Ruben; the seller was repped by Michael Nourmand of Nourmand & Associates.
The Weeknd Spends Big on Huge L.A. Penthouse
Not only has The Weeknd dropped a couple of hotly anticipated singles from his upcoming album over the past week, but well-placed sources on the celebrity real estate street swear the diamond-certified alt-r&b superstar has also dropped somewhere in the neighborhood of $21 million on a mansion-sized condominium in a posh boutique building along Los Angeles’ tony, heavily trafficked Wilshire Corridor. The full-floor spread, one of several penthouse units atop the 22-story Beverly West building, sprawls across more than 8,200 square feet with four ample, en suite bedrooms and five full and two half bathrooms. Common charges tally up to more than $6,800 per month, a panic-inducing amount for mere financial mortals but more than manageable for the three-time Grammy-winning “Starboy” singer, whom the bean counters at Forbes estimate hauled in an astonishing $92 million in 2017.
Flawlessly executed interior spaces feature ceilings that are more than 11 feet high, walls sheathed in locally fabricated walnut paneling, imported natural-stone floor tiles almost the exact color of sealskin and white oak floorboards stained a dark ashy-brown. With gigantic expanses of floor-to-ceiling windows that provide knee-buckling 360-degree city, mountain and ocean views, the suave penthouse was decked out in high style by interior designer Lisa Garriss of Plum Design West — but it’s unclear if the name-brand collection of furniture is included in the sale.
Floor plans included with digital marketing materials indicate the unit incorporates a great room that spans the full width of the building. The master suite, with open views of Beverly Hills over the manicured greens of the prestigious Los Angeles Country Club, offers a small balcony, a large walk-in closet and a lavish bathroom that includes a soaking tub set against a sheet of glass. The penthouse was represented by Jeff Hyland, Bill Simpson and Susan Pekich, all of Hilton & Hyland; The Weeknd was repped by Angel Salvador of The Agency.
Saoirse Ronan Sells Irish Seaside Hideaway
One of Hollywood’s most in-demand young actors, three-time Oscar-nominated “Little Women” star Saoirse Ronan, has sold her fully rehabbed hideaway in the quaint seaside town of Greystones, about 20 miles south of Dublin in Ireland’s County Wicklow. The just under $2.1 million sale price is a good bit more than the slightly above $1.8 million she paid prominent economist Alan Gray for the property about two years ago and a notable amount higher than the not-quite-$2 million asking price. Invisible down a gated driveway, and dubbed Pine Lodge, the yellow Arts and Crafts-inspired cottage was, according to listings held by Galvin Property & Finance, redesigned and modernized in the past two years. There are four and potentially six bedrooms and five bathrooms over three floors.
To the right of the spacious entrance hall and separated by extra wide pocket doors, ample formal living and dining rooms feature huge sash windows fitted into deep reveals with built-in shutters. A sunroom at the back of the foyer spills out to the backyard, while the kitchen incorwith
porates a breakfast bar at one end of an exceptionally long island and a cozily proportioned family room with fire-burning stove at the other.
Upstairs, there’s a multiroom master suite composed of a small entrance vestibule that opens to a bedroom, a dressing room and a marble-tiled bathroom reminiscent of a five-star hotel suite, with heated towel rack, claw-footed soaking tub and windowed shower area. Two rooms on the top floor are easily put to use as additional bedrooms and/or a home cinema.
In the hedge-privatized backyard, a granite patio is surrounded by an emerald expanse of lawn, colorfully planted borders and a variety of herbs and fruit trees.
Seth Macfarlane Scores Malibu Beach House
Seth Macfarlane, best known as the creator of the long-running and money-minting Fox animated sitcom “Family Guy,” has been identified as the buyer of a 1980s modern home on a blufftop near Malibu’s star-studded Broad Beach. Macfarlane forked over $15.7 million for the property, which was sold by Cindy Landon, the widow of “Bonanza” and “Little House on the Prairie” actor Michael Landon, who paid $7.5 million four years earlier before giving the place a down-to-the-studs overhaul.
According to listing details, Landon hired acclaimed architect Doug Burdge and high-end contractor Scott Halley to reimagine her Malibu project. Inside the boxy finished showpiece, rooms are blessedly free of any overwrought decorative flourishes, with the strikingly minimalist neutral decor meshing cleanly with walls of uninterrupted glass, leaving the visual drama to the aquamarine sea below.
The multilevel contemporary structure sits on a private road and features five beds and six baths in nearly 7,000 square feet of mansion-sized living space. Fully walled and gated for privacy and security, the property also includes an attached two-car garage, wide-plank hardwood floors, formal dining and living areas, a gourmet kitchen with top-notch Thermador appliances and an outdoor in-ground spa.
Sean Landon, then at The Agency but now at Douglas Elliman, held the listing; Edward Fitz, also of The Agency, represented Macfarlane in the transaction.
— James Mcclain
Troy Van Leeuwen Picks Up Woodland Hills Home
Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen has shelled out a smidgen more than $2.3 million for a family-sized home in the somewhat far-flung and relatively unsung L.A. suburb of Woodland Hills. Secured behind gates and privately positioned on a flat plateau high above the street, the vine-encrusted Mediterranean residence measures in at almost 6,000 square feet with half a dozen bedrooms and five up-to-date bathrooms.
Guests are grandly greeted in a tilefloored double-height foyer with a gracefully curved staircase. It’s a couple steps down to a formal sitting room with lustrous hardwood floors, a fireplace and huge windows that frame a twinkling city-lights view. A butler’s pantry connects the formal dining room to a spacious kitchen arranged around a large island with high-end commercial-style appliances. An adjoining breakfast area and family room spills out to the backyard through four sets of French doors. On the upper level, a luxuriously appointed homeowner’s suite is replete with a fireplace, a private balcony and a chandelier-lit bathroom with a jetted tub, steam shower and another fireplace.
Designed for casual alfresco entertaining, the jungle-like backyard offers a stonepaved lounge with outdoor fireplace, a complete outdoor kitchen and a swimming pool and spa set against a curvaceous stacked stone wall with fire feature. The listing agents were Scott and Sherry Walter of Coldwell Banker, while Debra O’neill of Re/max Terrasol represented the buyers.