R&B chanteuse Ella Mai burst onto the international music scene about three years ago with “Boo’d Up,” her social media-propelled smash that went top five and 5x platinum stateside. Since then, the 26-year-old protégé of top hitmaker Mustard has scored a Grammy for Best R&B Song and three trophies at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards. And the English import has gotten competitive on L.A.’s residential real estate front, too, having recently paid $2.4 million for a upgraded “starter” house in the suburban Tarzana neighborhood. Not too shabby, especially for a 2013 “X Factor” reject.
Originally built in the early 1970s, the once bedraggled and downright unattractive house underwent a full-scale contemporary remodel last year, courtesy of a local flipper. The whitewashed showpiece now flaunts an attached two-car garage with a smoked glass door, and a two-story house that incorporates all the latest design trends — open-plan living spaces, recessed LED lights, oversized windows, and a soothing neutral palette with creamy white walls and wide-plank oak floors.
Some of the gated structure’s highlights include two downstairs guest bedrooms and an enormous great room that combines the dining, living, and family gathering spaces all in one. Floor-to-ceiling glass doors allow plenty of natural light to filter inside, and the grassy backyard surrounds a classic kidney-shaped pool with its own spa.
The kitchen, which the listing aptly describes as “larger than most,” incorporates a train car-sized island with a breakfast bar for six diners and enough Shaker-style cabinets to hide away half of Fort Knox. There’s also pricey stainless appliances, including a separate wine refrigerator, and “striking imported custom countertops,” again per the listing, that do an admirable impersonation of black marble.
Upstairs are the three family bedrooms, each with its own ensuite bath. For its part, the master is additionally kitted out with a spa-style bathroom — slathered in a lookalike white marble stone — a walk-in closet with custom built-ins, and a bedroom with its own sitting area and fireplace, plus glass pocket doors that open to a wraparound balcony with faux grass and wide views over the San Fernando Valley skyline.
Additional amenities are not limited to a multi-zone Nest thermostat, a sophisticated security system, eco-friendly solar panels, a sound system, and a laundry room.
Born in England to a Jamaican mother and an Irish father, Mai is incorporating her international flair into an upcoming second album, from which she released the sultry “Not Another Love Song” single this October.
Dennis Chernov of Keller Williams held the listing; Dalton Gomez of the Aaron Kirman team at Compass repped Mai.