Kelly Clarkson Buys in Los Angeles, Still Seeks Buyer in Tennessee
By Mark David
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Though they’ve shelled out a whopping $8.5 million for a brand new, spec-built mansion of not quite 10,000 square feet in Encino, Calif., — a bit more on that in a minute — crossover pop/country superstar Kelly Clarkson and talent manager Brandon Blackstock have yet to sell their more than 20,000-square-foot lakefront mega-manse in Hendersonville, Tenn., about 45-minutes outside of Nashville, that remains available after more than a year on the market at $8.75 million. The steeped-in-showbiz couple, she a three-time Grammy winning winner of the first season of “American Idol” (2002) and he the step-son of country music icon Reba McEntire, purchased the just over four-acre spread and it’s by almost any standard conspicuously gigantic 20,121-square-foot, brick-built three-story behemoth in the fall of 2012 for $2.86 million. Listing details, which make no secret of the estate’s owner, indicate there are seven bedrooms and eight full and three half bathrooms.
Furnished in a manner that casually mixes unabashed decadence and glamour with country-luxe finishes, the house opens to a grandiose double height foyer with twin curved staircases flanked by a petite sitting room/library with black marble fireplace and a spacious formal dining room that features a solid wall of acid etched mirrored panels and two Toyota-sized crystal chandeliers. A double height great room highlights Corinthian columns, a towering wall of windows and a carved stone fireplace over which hang several taxidermy buck heads and a full bear standing on a mossy rock while the colossal, cook-ready kitchen, fitted with polished concrete countertops on custom barn-wood cabinetry, opens to a window-lined breakfast bay and a family room with raised hearth stone fireplace.
A games room with a wet bar where authentic saddles have been repurposed as stools is joined in the sprawling finished basement level by a home theater with tiered seating for ten or more in deep-cushioned black leather theater recliners and a children’s bunk room with built-in bunk beds. The estate’s variety of outdoor recreational amenities includes extensive terraces and loggias that give way to manicured gardens and thick lawns that roll down to the lake’s tree-shaded edge. There’s also a sand-pit volleyball court, a children’s playground, a private boat dock and a swimming pool and spa overlooked by an open air poolside dining cabana.
At 9,839 square feet, the Clarkson-Blackstock’s newly acquired Los Angeles homestead, behind gates in the affluent foothills south of the San Fernando Valley community of Encino, Calif., is unquestionably huge yet still more than half the size of their titanic Tennessee mansion. With eight bedrooms and eleven bathrooms, the brand new, spec-built modern farmhouse-style residence features hand poured sinks, artist-commissioned light fixtures, barn-style doors handcrafted from reclaimed wood and a mix of wide plank hardwoods and custom blended brick floors and the roughly half-acre, resort-style grounds offer an outdoor lounge with built-in daybed, a swimming pool, several fire features, manicured lawns and a two-level guesthouse with living room and complete kitchen.
listing photos (Tennessee): Parks Realty ; listing photos (California): Keller Williams
