When Vogue’s 73 Questions stopped by Tracee Ellis Ross’s Los Angeles home in 2017 for their characteristically fun and friendly peek around, the effervescent actress and hardcore fashionista described the relatively modest and carefully cared for 1930s Spanish residence in the foothills above Hollywood as, “warm, safe, and fun.”
At that point, her 25-foot-long step-down living room, with its original fireplace and over-the-tree tops view, was painted a warm shade of navy and comfortably appointed with a massive bluish-grey linen-covered sectional sofa. (Not one to just toss the old out for the new, Ross told the Financial Times last year that the sofa is from her college days, and has been “reupholstered about 63 times.”)
Over the years, the sartorial risk-taker, who walked this weekend’s Oscar’s red carpet in a daring red Carolina Herrera gown with tiny, gravity defying breast cups, has given her 10.8 million Instagram followers oodles of tantalizing peeks of her longtime home. While preening and posing in designer outfits, and grooving to music in her kitchen, she’s offered eye-candy glimpses of the home’s simple graveled courtyard entry, the original encaustic tiles that adorn the stairs, the main bath’s marble tub, the lower-level gym that opens to the backyard, and many times, the fabulous blue living room.
However, now that she’s put the place up for sale at just under $2.3 million — about 2.5-times the $910,000 she paid almost a decade ago — the once eclectically appointed home has been cleared of personal belongings, painted almost entirely white and furnished with a bunch of generic rented furniture. Yep, that’s right folks, the Insta-famous blue living room is no more.
The fire engine red retro-style stove and classic black-and-white checkerboard floor remain in situ in the pint-sized kitchen. So do the vintage cabinets and vintage ceramic tile counters, though the Golden Globe that Ross won in 2017 for her role as Dr. Rainbow Johnson on the acclaimed series “Black-ish” that once stood on the windowsill, along with a Buddha statue and a quartet of salt cellars, each with a different kind of gourmet salt, is long gone. Unusually, especially in a house in this price range, the kitchen does not have a dishwasher, which means Ms. Ross or one of her assistants had to hand-wash everything! There is, though, a sunny cute-as-a-button adjacent breakfast room, as well as a separate dining room with built-in china cabinet.
Listings held by Brett Lawyer at Hilton & Hyland indicate there are three bedrooms and three bathrooms in 2,540 square feet. The main part of the three-story hillside house has two bedrooms, both on the upper level, and two bathrooms, one upstairs and the other just off the kitchen on the main floor. The home’s third bedroom and bath are part of a self-contained studio-style apartment on the lower level, which offers an outside entrance and a second vintage kitchen.
Ross told Vogue there are four lemon trees on the property — she said she is serious about her lemons — and outside the guest apartment and the gym, either of which is easily converted to a media room or home office, the private and terraced backyard has several sunny flagstone terraces for entertaining and relaxing, not to mention serving as lovely backdrops for Instagram-friendly photos.
With her flawless run on “Black-ish” coming to an end this year after nearly 200 episodes and six Emmy nominations, Ross seems much in the mood to switch up her living situation on both coasts. The worldly yet down-to-earth daughter of music legend Diana Ross and music executive Robert Ellis Silberstein, Ross grew up between Paris and Switzerland, along with New York City, where until recently she long kept a small apartment in trendy Tribeca. Acquired in 2007 for close to $780,000, the 600-square-foot alcove studio, and its 290-square-foot private terrace, were sold at a loss a bit more than a year ago, for $675,000.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism