CHOW: Music Digs Rule!

TGIF! It's time to choose our Celebrity Home of the Week. Once again, we have three candidates. Only this week, they're ALL musicians. Purely a coincidence, we swear! (Forgive us Bryan Batt!)

First up, John Mayer . . .


and his SoHo digs:


Pros
*He's cute, so we don't give a crap about what his place looks like.
*He thought enough to hire a big name designer (Georgio Armani) to design his digs.

Cons
*Georgio Armani doesn't know d*ck about interior design!
*John couldn't "man up" enough to fire Armani midway through the project.



Next up, John Legend . . .
and his East Village Digs:

Pros
*His sexy voice is pure velvet, so again we don't give a crap about what his place looks like.

*His place is truly SPECTACULAR!

Cons

*It's not like he had anything to do with the interior design. He doesn't even own it yet.

*His place is not in SoHo.

Finally, Lenny Kravitz . . .

and his SoHo digs:

Pros
*He is cute AND has a sexy voice, so . . . well, you know the drill by now.
*His condo was actually graced by his presence and reportedly had personality at some point in the past.

Cons
*His place matches his album cover! Does that mean Lenny has lost his personality too?
*Any place that can't sell in SEVEN years is jinxed!

Our verdict? We were almost ready to declare this week another three-way tie. But we went back to look at the slideshow of John Legend's place. We were simply blown away by the views and everything else. F*ck SoHo!

Congratulations, John Legend! You have the Celebrity Home of the Week! Ciao!

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Lenny Kravitz's Digs Up for Sale AGAIN!

Well folks, Lenny Kravitz has been trying to unload his SoHo penthouse for a long, long time. According to the Curbed blogger, Kravitz first tried to sell it in 2002 for $17M. Apparently, back then, his pad reflected a little more of his personality -- dark, wild, and sexy!


Since then, it has undergone extensive renovations and been placed back on the market. Now it's light, tame, and devoid of any personality! The only cool feature left is that groovy glass and shag carpeted stairway.

This time he's asking . . . just under $15M.

Yes, we're scratching our heads too! This is probably the first time we've heard of anyone performing major renovations, only to ask for less money than before. Geesh, tough market in NYC!


His place was obviously sterilized for resale. But the kitchen above is nice enough (though we liked Whoopi's SoHo kitchen better).

The "bones" are clearly still there. For example, we really like this atrium dining area, even if the table and chairs are truly yawn-worthy:


And one of the perks of having a penthouse is a rooftop patio (below). But would it kill him to add a pillow to that generic catalog faux-wicker patio furniture?!!!


Sigh. At least there's a hint of Kravitz's wild-streak in those leopard print chairs (or are they snakeskin?!) in the living room:



Note to Kenya Davis and Alan Jackson, this is how you do animal prints with flair!

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Real Housewife Lynne Curtin Behind on Rent, Facing Eviction

From Zillow's Blog:

Real Housewife Lynne Curtin Behind on Rent, Facing Eviction

John Legend to Buy Manhattan Condo Listed for $2.3M

Photo: Nico Arellano

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that sultry soul singer John Legend just signed a contract to buy this gorgeous condo in New York's East Village.

This unit has one bedroom, two baths, 14ft ceilings, and "views in every direction." This place is a Manhattan dream! We're ready to go right now . . . .

For more photos of this beautiful property, you MUST see the slide show. You won't be disappointed. Plus, you get the added bonus of a few shots of director Spike Lee's former Brooklyn brownstone immediately thereafter.

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Roy Blunt sells his G-town manse, once belonged to JFK

We've just learned that President John F. Kennedy's first home in Georgetown was recently put up for sale for $1.595M and is apparently now under contract. JFK lived there with his sister Eunice Kennedy (whose funeral service was last Friday) while he was serving as a congressman during the 1940's.

The home currently belongs to Republican congressman and former party Whip Roy Blunt, who put it up for sale so he can return to his home state of Missouri to run for the U.S. Senate.

Nice digs!

More info and photos here: POLITICO: Shenanigans: The lighter side of politics - Roy Blunt, runs for Senate, sells his G-town manse

Jenny Sanford's Comfortable Home on Sullivans Island

Photo by Jonathan Becker

South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford is back in the news today as she recently granted an interview to Vogue magazine, in which she shared her views on her husband Governor Mark Sanford's scandalous affair with his South American "soul mate."

As you may recall, Jenny took their four kids and moved out of the governor's mansion into the family's home on Sullivans Island, outside of Charleston. Well, it turns out that the Sanfords had placed their home up for sale earlier this year, prior to the scandal.

We turned up some MLS photos from the expired listing!

From what little we can see, it's a nice home with traditional decor and that perfect screened-in porch (above) to capture the view and breezes of the Atlantic (below):



According to Charleston media, they were asking $3.5M for the 4,474s.f. oceanfront home, which has 6 bedrooms and 5 baths.

But for the embarassment of the scandal, we'd be jealous. Heck, we're jealous anyway! But after all that, she deserves to live in this kind of comfort!

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Fellow Blog Love Day: Julia Child's Home

As you know, we're a very new blog and we're working on growing our readership. So, today, we thought we'd start a new trend. We'll share links to other blogs whenever they post about celebrity homes. Hopefully, they will share the love back whenever they can!
First celebrity home on Fellow Blog Love deck: Julia Child's "little house in Cambridge" Massachusetts.

We've always had a thing for Julia's nastalgic kitchen. When the movie Julie & Julia (starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, and Stanley Tucci) came out, we thought it would make for a great post. The kitchen as recreated for the movie is pictured above.

In scouting around for photos, we found two excellent blogs --The Peak of Chic and Hooked on Houses -- that beat us to the punch.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that PoC and HoH had recently featured not just her kitchen, but her whole house. You can find their posts here and here.

We were wowwed by both and hope you will be too!

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A Look Inside John Mayer's SoHo Loft

In its September 2009 issue, Elle Decor magazine visits John Mayer's SoHo loft, freshly designed by none other than famous clothing designer Georgio Armani.

We finally fell in love with Mayer after his beautiful instrumental rendition of Human Nature at the Michael Jackson memorial in July. And although we've long admired Armani's "chic and understated" approach to designing clothes, we couldn't help but wonder how it would translate to interior design.


After viewing the photos, we'd have to say . . . eh. But for the awkwardly placed guitar above and the photos of Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk below, we'd question whether this is even a musician's place, much less Mayer's place.


The loft is definitely "chic and understated" . . . just like Armani. Hard to see much of Mayer's personality here at all. Or does he not have much of a personality?


Our conclusion: If Alan Jackson is aiming for the ginormous luxury hotel look, then Mayer and Armani are most certainly aiming for the small New York boutique hotel look.

Dare we say it? Maybe Armani should stick to his day job!

Thus far, Ralph Lauren is still the only clothing designer who really could have been an interior designer. Maybe we'll take a look at some of his interior design work soon.

Country Star Alan Jackson's Whopper of a Mansion For Sale for $38M

Okay, we're still trying to figure out if country music legend Alan Jackson was going for Graceland or Gone With the Wind with this Franklin, Tennessee mansion. We'll leave it up to you to decide:

While you mull it over, we'll refrain from showing you the inside of his house. By now, dear readers, you ought to have a good feel for what all of these mega mansions look like inside.

Need a reminder? Here ya go:

That's right, his living room looks like a hotel lobby. (Did Kendra Davis help select that leopard bench?) You can go to the actual listing to see more if you want.

Moving on, we must admit that a few bonus "rooms" attached to his house are straight dope!!! Like this boat house:

And especially this basketball court, which puts Antonio Davis' court to shame:

We even liked the garage:

If we didn't know better, we'd swear we were checking out a baller's digs on MTV Cribs or something!

Mad Men in Real Life: Bryan Batt at Home

Okay, we watched the season premiere of AMC's Mad Men last night. O-M-G! It was soooo good!!!

Totally racy! Totally sexy! Totally gay!

And, in Bryan Batt's case, totally all of the above!

SPOILER WARNING: Batt (above, right), who plays closeted gay ad executive Sal Romano, gets busy with a hotel bellboy while away on a business trip.

It was all so juicy (not literally!) that we decided to see what we can find out about Mad Men stars' homes.

We ran across this New York Times article from a couple of years ago. Turns out he shares a home in New Orleans with his partner Tom Cianfichi (above, left).

Of course, we dig it! What can we say, it has a stylish vintage flair that has always appealed to us. We love, love, love those painted white chairs in the dining room.

And we especially love the weathered Barcelona chair in the cozy little nook (below). Even the dog looks cool:

Photos by Cheryl Berger for the NY Times.
FYI, Batt and Cianfichi also operate a home decor store in New Orleans called Hazelnut. Cute stuff there too!

Of course, we're still on the hunt for more "Mad Men in Real Life" digs. We'll keep you posted!

Former NBA-er Antonio Davis' Atlanta Digs for sale at $4.2M

Former NBA player Antonio "Don't mess with my wifey" Davis and his wife Kendra are selling their 16,000sf Atlanta mansion. Technically it's in Roswell, Georgia, a very nice suburb of Atlanta.

Some of you may recall that Davis, while playing for New York Knicks in a game against the Chicago Bulls, was ejected and later suspended after running into the stands to confront an allegedly drunk Bulls fan who was allegedly harassing Davis' wife.

Naturally, the fan threatened to sue. And the fan happens to be Michael Axelrod, son of President Obama's campaign manager, David Alexrod. After a summit of sorts (So that's where Obama got the idea!), they settled the matter out of court.

Back to the house. Well, it has the usual nondescript baller digs look: nice kitchen . . .

. . . and generic oversized showroom furniture.

Kendra, who is reportedly an interior designer with her own firm, claims responsibility for the design. Is THAT the reason why all baller digs look alike? Seriously, are they ALL hiring her?!!

Nevertheless, we like that she tried to mix it up a bit with the cool Good Times murals on the walls of the gameroom and kids' bedrooms:

And the basketball court out back is a nice (albeit expected) touch:

Photos: Elite Real Estate Properties