SELL BUY PROPERTY

Nobody loves a celebrity-owned home more than the well-dressed editors over at Architectural Digest. In the March (2012) issue not only did they publish a fawning article about the Beverly Hills mid-century modern Sir Elton John had worked over but good by Million Dollar Decorator Martyn Lawrence Bullard, they also have an article and cache of photographs of the New York City pied-a-terre owned by actor/comedian/screenwriter Will Ferrell and his Swedish auctioneer wife Viveca Paulin-Ferrell.

Mister and Missus Farrell—who live primarily in Los Angeles behind the electronic gates of semi-secluded Hollywood Hills compound they purchased in early 2006 from chat show queen Ellen Degeneres for nine million bucks—scooped up their nearly 2,699 square foot Greenwich Village loft in May 2010 for $4,200,000.

The bi-coastal couple hired designer/decorator Shawn Henderson to do up their Big Apple digs and do them up but good he did. He ripped out all the nonsense but retained the good stuff like the original rough-hewn wood beams on the ceiling, replaced the kitchen and bathrooms and painted all the walls white white white to harness sunlight and set off a small but serious collection of contemporary artworks—think Sol LeWitt and Roy Lichtenstein. The deft decorator created several sitting and dining areas including one centered around a minimalist fire box and flat-screen t.v. and furnished with a Hans Wegner Papa Bear chair and a grouping of variously sized boulder-like poufs and pillows that ought to remind anyone who knows a damn thing about decoratin' history of legendary California decorator Michael Taylor.

photo: William Waldron for Architectural Digest