Only someone like Ellen Pompeo could take a ballroom and turn it into a relaxed, family-style living room. The “Grey’s Anatomy” star gave a tour of her mid-century style Malibu beach house.
“I like to say I manifested this house,” she told “Architectural Digest.”
She went to check out the home when it originally went up for sale, at the beginning of the “Grey’s Anatomy” journey. The moment it went on the market in 2013, she had to grab it.
The Inspiration Behind the House
The piece of furniture they got their hands on was the couch. Her long-time friend and designer, Martyn Lawrence Bullard, found an original Sede sofa from the 1960’s. These pieces of Swiss furniture are widely celebrated for their handcrafted, thick bull-hide leather and avant-garde design. They also became very popular among rock stars upon their inception. Pompeo wanted to build all of the inspiration around the sofa.
GettyElton John, several members of the Kardashians and Cher have all worked with Bullard.
Pompeo wanted a “midcentury utilitarian chic with the compact, gleaming white kitchen, an apt match for the house’s modernist spirit.” That wasn’t quite Bullard’s background, but he couldn’t wait for the challenge. He wanted to make sure the interior matched her personality.
The black marble walls tie the room together. “It’s so dramatic,” she said. “It really is art itself.”
The kitchen, where her children eat, has a table that originally was at Yves Saint Laurent’s studio, used as a cutting table.
“The kids have a lot of fun at this table throwing food at each other,” she smiled. “And then I scream at them from over there.”
That same book-match marble runs through an opening where you can look into the kitchen.
The extra-big bed in the primary bedroom is big enough for the entire family to lie in. Next to it, the master bathroom where the marble theme continues, but as pretty as it is, Pompeo said it doesn’t retain heat that well, so she doesn’t recommend it.
The kitchen is “very small,” Pompeo said. She doesn’t like anybody in the kitchen when she’s there.
The Kitchen Built for One
The kids’ room is simple, with purple-colored accents, but the David Hicks-inspired grasscloth wallpaper on the ceiling really makes the room unique.
Outside is the pool area.
“Typically this house is not very peaceful,” she laughed. “When you have a beach house, a lot of people wanna come and visit. This place, we always have the music blasting…”
The home, built in 1979 by Buff and Hensmen, isn’t the gargantuan mansion many think of when a television star buys a house. She built it from the studs after the original house was damaged by the sea and the salt air. It’s estimated that the renovations and the expansion total $25 million. It sits on only 3,000 square feet, but it offers the most beautiful view of the ocean.
