“I’m entering a very exciting phase of my life, if I may say so myself,” Ellen Pompeo says at the beginning of her feature in Architecture Digest. Spotlighting Ellen, 53, and husband Chris Ivery‘s “teak clad modernist structure” in Malibu. The couple bought the home, which was designed by mid-century architects Konrad Buff and Donald Hensmanout friends co-creator Marta Kaufman a decade ago, but Ellen tells ADVERTISEMENT“I like to say that I manifested this house.”
The house is described as “modest in size” at 3,000 square feet. It was “designed more as a living machine than a Mughal mansion,” per ADVERTISEMENT, but makes up for intimacy and drama “thanks to its central courtyard and phenomenal sea views.” Due to the proximity to the sea, the property was damaged by the sea salt and humidity. “It had to be rebuilt,” Ellen said in the appropriate ADVERTISEMENT Video. “So I completely took the house to the studs and redid it.”
The exterior has been repainted in fresh teak and the weathered doors and windows have been replaced with black powder coated metals. Most, if not all, of the existing walls have been replaced with glass, allowing for stunning views no matter which room one is in. “Some people want a sterile home that feels like they are in a spa. But I love design that tells a story,” says Ellen.
Ellen examined the house when it was originally for sale Grey’s anatomy just started. “I knew I couldn’t afford it, but I didn’t tell anyone,” she said. Although it was “perfect,” she had to walk away because of the price. When she relaunched in 2013, she was one of the highest paid actresses on television. And her husband, an executive at sportswear company Sergio Tacchini, also did banking. A transaction later, the house finally belonged to her.
“We get into a lot of trouble together,” Ellen says of her friend and “partner in crime.”“, Martin Lawrence Bullard, in the accompanying video about her home. Pompeo and Bullard have worked together to transform the property and make it a suitable home for her, Chris and their children – sienna, 8th, Stella, 13 and 6 years old Eli. “We’ve been in each other’s lives for so long that we know what the other person is going to like before we even show it to them,” says Bullard, saying this is her fourth project with the Grey’s anatomy Star.
The walls of the living room, dining room, and master bedroom are sheathed in “a richly veined, rare Brazilian marble known as Blac Agatha,” per ADVERTISEMENT. The swimming pool is also lined with pristine white marble.
Expect more from Pompeo and Bullard. Ellen and her husband have bought the lot behind their house and Martyn is already designing a tennis court.