August 20, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/chrissy-teigen-john-legend-beverly-hills-home-11597932919

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend List Beverly Hills Home for $23.95 Million

The celebrity couple’s decision to sell comes after they discovered Ms. Teigen is pregnant with their third child

By Katherine Clarke

Musician John Legend and model and social-media celebrity Chrissy Teigen, are listing their Beverly Hills home for $23.95 million.

The couple and their two children, 4-year-old daughter Luna and 2-year-old son Miles, have been sheltering at the property during the coronavirus pandemic.

During this time, Mr. Legend said he has participated in a number of projects at the home, including writing new music, filming his appearances for “The Voice” television show and participating in numerous virtual performances including a massive Global Citizen event in April. “It’s made us appreciate it more,” Mr. Legend said of the house.

Mr. Legend said they would not be moving were it not for the fact that Ms. Teigen is pregnant with the couple’s third child. As a prospective family of five plus Ms. Teigen’s mother, who lives with them, they simply need more space, he said.

The design of the roughly 8,500-square-foot Beverly Hills house, located just north of Sunset Boulevard, is inspired by Ms. Teigen’s Southeast Asian heritage, with an intricate hand-carved wood ceiling in the great living room imported from Thailand and teak wood detailing. The home is also decorated in the couple’s laid- back style, with a mix of comfortable vintage and more modern furniture and brass and bronze finishes.

“We like modern with still some edge to it and some warmth and some coziness,” said Mr. Legend, 41, noting that the couple doesn’t like design that’s too clean or sterile.

The couple bought the seven-bedroom house for $14.1 million in January 2016, records show. It had been formerly owned by the singer Rihanna, and was more contemporary in style, with bright white and glassy finishes. They tapped their longtime interior designer Don Stewart, who had designed their previous homes in Los Angeles and New York, to reimagine it.

Mr. Stewart suggested the hand-carved ceiling. “It was something we would never have thought to do ourselves, but Chrissy’s mother is from Southeast Asia, so we try to find ways to work her heritage into our houses,” Mr. Legend said.

They also completely redid the kitchen, outfitting it with professional-level equipment for Ms. Teigen, who has published two cookbooks. “We like the kitchen to be part of life, so it’s not cordoned off from the rest of the house,” Mr. Legend said, noting that the new kitchen has three ovens, an indoor and outdoor grill and two full stovetops. While Ms. Teigen is better known for her culinary exploits, Mr. Legend said he uses it frequently too. “I’m usually in charge of breakfast,” he said.

The couple also recently redid the master closets. Mr. Legend called them the “pièce de résistance” of the house, especially Ms. Teigen’s, which is much larger than his.

Mr. Legend said the house is the perfect place for hosting parties because of its dramatic entry and high ceilings. His grand piano is positioned in the center of the grand living room, where it is handy for entertaining. The property also has a movie theater and a gym.

Mr. Legend, whose best-known songs include “Ordinary People” and “All of Me,” is among only a small group of entertainers ever to have won an EGOT, an acronym for an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. Ms. Teigen has appeared on the covers of magazines such as Sports Illustrated and Vogue, and is known for her dedicated social media following. She has more than 13 million followers on Twitter and nearly 31 million on Instagram.

Before the pandemic, the couple were splitting their time between California and New York, where they recently purchased a unit to expand their Nolita penthouse.

Marshall Peck of Douglas Elliman has the listing.