rachel ashwell

Shabby Chic, the lifestyle brand founded 20 years ago by Rachel Ashwell is back with a new line of furniture. The Guildmaster Shabby Chic Collection continues the casual soft vintage style of the original pieces that become popular with stars like Pamela Anderson and had millions looking for charmingly aged antiques to create a similar look.

The new designs are based on actual antique and vintage designs that Ashwell found while doing her own antiques digging at places like the famous Brimfield antique shows and other flea markets. The pieces are being made by Guildmaster and come in four basic finishes-- light gray, white, darker gray and simple white with several finishes that offer the look of a delicately aged patina. Home Accents Today has a couple images of the new pieces, tables, chairs and cupboards in classic designs that seem very in tune with the Shabby Chic aesthetic.

From the LA Times:
The Tuscan-style villa in the Beverly Hills Post Office area used to film the VH-1 show "Ochocinco: The Ultimate Catch," starring Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco, is on the market for $13.5 million. The home has a great room with 28-foot-high coffered ceilings, a drop-down projector and a 15-foot retractable screen (shown above). The listing is here.
--A Beverly Hills home owned by entertainer Dean Martin in the 1980s has come on the market at $4.495 million.
--Designer Rachel Ashwell, the creator of the Shabby Chic brand, has sold her Malibu cottage for $3.55 million.

From the NY Post:
--Lady Gaga has been spotted checking out the same $21,000-a-month penthouse rental at 304 Spring St. that other celebs including director Baz Luhrmann have visited recently. The listing is here.
--Joe Torre's former Westchester residence is up for auction. The six-bedroom mansion in New Rochelle, New York had originally been listed at $2.695 million. It is being auctioned off by Bidonthecity.com on July 20.
--Bidonthecity.com is also auctioning off a piece of music history, the Pelham, New York childhood home of Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Felix Cavaliere. Cavaliere's band, The Rascals, wrote and performed classics like "Groovin' " and "Good Lovin'." The five-bedroom home was originally listed at $1.095 million. It is also up for auction on July 20.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Software-company founder Frank Pritt has relisted his Orange County mansion for $49.6 million, down from the $75 million he originally sought in 2006. We've been following the story of Pritt's Portabello mansion since 2006. The 22,000-square-foot beachfront estate in Corona del Mar, California has even been seen on "Oprah." It was pulled off the market last year.

--A Massachusetts estate once listed for $23.5 million has been sold, divided, for $11.45 million in total. A carriage house on the property sold last year for $2.25 million. In June, the rest of the estate sold for $9.2 million. It was our estate of the day in 2008.

From the LA Times Hot Properties:
Four-time Olympic gold medal winning swimmer Lenny Krayzelburg has put his bright white modern Sunset Strip-area home, shown above, on the market for $5.675 million. The virtual tour is here.
--Talk-show host Leeza Gibbons and her estranged husband, actor and architect Stephen Meadows, have listed their house in the Hollywood Hills at $7,395,000. We first saw this home back in 2006 when it was listed for just under $8 million. The eight-bedroom Mediterranean was built in 1926 and was once owned by Joan Crawford. The listing is here.
--Director Wolfgang Petersen has listed his Santa Monica home for sale for $3.95 million. It is our estate of the day later today.
--Milwaukee Brewers catcher Jason Kendall has listed a house he owns in Manhattan Beach at $7.3 million. The listing is here.
-- Rachel Ashwell, who created the Shabby Chic style, has listed her Brentwood home for sale at $4,395,000. Check out the Shabby Chic style at the listing here.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--The unnamed buyer of PH2001 is suing the Plaza residential limited partnership, developer El-Ad, the marketing arm of Stribling & Associates and others for breach of contract. That means that two of the six penthouses originally offered at the Plaza are in litigation. Right now about 25 Plaza residences are for sale.
--Freddie Mac CFO Anthony Piszel has put his Easton, Maryland home on the market for $4.975 million. It was our estate of the day on Friday.
--Nightclub boss JE Englebert says he and other residents in the new Gramercy Starck building on East 23rd Street aren't thrilled that the tenant in the retail space of the pricey building is McDonald's. He plans to sue.
--NASCAR Chairman Brian France has flipped his 15 Central Park West condo for an $8 million profit. He bought unit 34A a year ago for $10.793 million and has sold for $18.8 million.

From the Real Estalker:
--The Real Estalker Mama has heard a rumor that Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife Ann spent $8.5 million for a duplex in Manhattan's West Village.
--Lingerie model and Surreal Life star Caprice Bourret has put her home in London's Notting Hill neighborhood on the market. It was our estate of the day on Saturday.
--The Goldwyn mansion has just been listed. For $24 million you get nearly 11,000 square feet of Hollywood history. The Georgian style mansion on Laurel Lane was built in 1934 and entertained many of Hollywood's greats. The listing is here.
--Former Lehman's boss Joseph Gregory has put his Hamptons hideaway on the market for $32.5 million. I'll be checking it out as an estate of the day on Monday.
--"Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis has been seen checking out La Villa Serena as a potential new playground for himself and his bevy of babes.
--Tina Sinatra has listed her home in the Beverly Hills post office area for $2.45 million. The listing is here.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Actress Marsh Mason has put her New Mexico herb farm back on the market for $7.95 million which is about 30% below the original listing from last year. The listing is here.
--The Plaza Hotel's "Astor" suite has been listed for $55 million.
--Richard Holbrooke, who served as ambassador to the United Nations sold his Connecticut house for $1.125 million which is 25% less than the original listing.

From Newsday's Real LI:
--Jets coach Eric Mangini has sold his Garden City home for $2.225 million, taking a $75,000 loss on the property, he purchased the home for $2.3 million in 2006. Mangini and wife, Julie, purchased a six-bedroom Colonial in Morris County for $4 million.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Warner Music Group chairman-CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. and his wife Clarissa have paid $28.5 million for the "Muppet mansion" an East 69th Street mansion was bought by Jim Henson in 1977 and turned into Muppets headquarters. It was on the market for $32 million, only three years after the current owners bought it from Jim Henson's estate for $12.4 million.
--Hedge fund manager Ray Iwanowski, just bought a 4,184-square-foot apartment at 823 Park Avenue for $13,567,500.
-- Some of the biggest multimillion-dollar real estate purchases in New York were made by executives at Lehman Brothers: In January 2007, the firm's chief executive, Dick Fuld, and his wife paid $21 million for a Park Avenue co-op, and a bunch of Lehman people bought in at 15 Central Park West: the co-head of Lehman Brothers Real Estate Partners, Raymond Mikulich, paid $17.9 million; Lehman CFO Erin Callan paid $6.48 million; the head of Lehman's European fixed-income sales, David Bizer, paid $5.3 million; and managing director Arthur Estey bought one of the building's biggest non-penthouse units for $16.9 million. Lehman's global head of investment management, George Herbert Walker IV, one of the president's cousins, paid $13.95 million for a townhouse at 6 East 10th Street in Greenwich Village.
-- Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander is picking up a place at Superior Ink, Robert A. M. Stern's new brick-and-stone, townhouse-and-apartment development on West 12th Street for around $25 million.
--Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers owner Ed Snider just sold his 36th-floor apartment at 15 Central Park West for $12.4 million, three weeks after he bought it for only $7.34 million.
--Zinc magnate Bill Flaherty and his wife, Tina Santi Flaherty, put the 10-room apartment on the market for $43 million. The listing is here(no good pics yet).

From Berg Properties Celebrity Big Time Listings:
--Madonna's former house in Beverly Hills is listed for $17.495 million. The eight-bedroom mansion, shown here, is a Wallace Neff showplace that Madonna bought in 2000 for a reported $6.5 million from Diane Keaton, who had bought in 1996. Madonna listed the house in 2003 for $10.9 million and then reduced it to $8.9 million. The current owners recently refurbished the home. The listing is here.
--Spice Girl Melanie Brown has paid $3 million for a home in the Hollywood Hills, and has sold her Los Feliz home for an undisclosed price (the home she sold was listed at $1,499,000.
--Joely Fisher has reduced the price on her Encino home, down to $3.999 million. It was our estate of the day back June when it was listed at $4.75 million.
--Charlie Sheen's fiancee Brooke Mueller has sold her four-bedroom house in the Hollywood Hills for $2.317 million.
--The official purchase price on Anne Heche's house sale to Matt Olmstead was $3.66 million.
--A Mediterranean-style mansion in Los Feliz area that was owned by actor Lorenzo Lamas from 1996 until 1999 has sold for $4,150,000.
--A three-bedroom house in Beverly Hills that once was owned by the Monkees' Mike Nesmith has been reduced from $5,450,000 to $4,995,000. The property website is here.
--Jack Black has sold a 1,959-square-foot home in the Hollywood Hills for $1,210,000
--Former baseball star Hideo Nomo has sold his condo on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles for $1,200,000.
--A Bel-Air home once owned by Farrah Fawcett is listed for $4,195,000. The listing is here.
--The price for Ursa Major, the architectural beauty once owned by Wilt Chamberlain has been reduced from $11.5 million to $8,950,000. It was our estate of the day last December.
--Model Rachel Hunter and her hockey-player boyfriend Jarret Stoll have paid $3,645,000 for a house in Hermosa Beach.

From the Real Estalker:
--The Shabby Chic home of interior decorator Rachel Ashwell is for rent for in Malibu for $20,000 a month. The listing is here.
--It looks like designer Vera Wang's $35 million Park Avenue apartment has already gone to contract.
--Nic Cage has listed his Bel-Air manor for $35 million.
--Alex Band, of the band The Calling, has put his home in the Outpost Estates are of Los Angeles on the market for $2.995 million. The property website for the very charming for bedroom is here.
-Brad Garrett has dropped the price on his Hidden Hills home to $8,790,000.
--Damien Wayans, actor, director and nephew of Damon Wayans, has put his Los Angeles home on the market for $2.050 million. The listing is here.
--Linda Evans has listed her Beverly Hills home for rent for $14,500. The listing is here.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--As we previously learned, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne sold their Beverly Hills home to Christina Aguilera and hubby and have moved to Hidden Hills.
--Actress Denise Richards is also in Hidden Hills in a new home which had been listed for about $4.6 million.
--More Hidden Hills news, Melissa Etheridge already lived in the community but recently bought a larger house for $5.1 million.
--And one more Hidden Hills story, Graeme Revell, the award-winning film-music composer, just sold his home there for about $8 million.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters has bought a five-story townhouse in New York for $14.995 million from Coach leather goods president Reed Krakoff.
--News anchor Campbell Brown and her political strategist husband Dan Senor are close to closing on a three-bedroom home in lower North Haven.
--Grey's Anatomy actress Chandra Wilson is buying a three-bedroom residence in Fifth on the Park, the 30-story condo complex going up in Harlem.
--Ex NFL player Tiki Barber is spending about $6 million to connect four adjacent condos at the Miraval complex at 515 East 72nd St.

Also from the NY Post:
--Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have listed their Nashville home for $2.5 million. It is our estate of the day later today.



From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--New York Rangers hockey player Scott Gomez has paid $3.2 million for a duplex penthouse at the Chelsea Mercantile on Seventh Avenue.
--Architect Thom Mayne has paid $2.675 million for a two-bedroom loft at 85 Mercer Street.
--Nobel-prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk has paid $1.8 million for an apartment at 355 Riverside Drive.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Atlanta Hawks rookies Al Horford and Acie Law have both bought homes listed at about $1 million in gated communities on opposite sides of Atlanta. Horford bought a four-story Georgian-style townhouse in norther Atlanta. Law picked up a European-style single-family house in the southern part of the city.
--Actress Arlene Dahl's husband has listed their Sparkill, New York home for $8.5 million. The home was our estate of the day back in January.
--Professional golfer Justin Leonard has a tentative deal to sell his Dallas suburban home for close to his $6.8 million asking price.