“My fave room in my house,” wrote Kim Kardashian on an Instagram post. The picture shows her living room, with an asymmetric wooden table between a pale, cream-coloured sofa and set of chairs. The carpet is cream. The walls are cream. The empty hearth is cream, and the artwork above it —a small white square with three vertical slashes— is the only adornment in sight.
Kim is famous, among many things, for her love of minimalism. “I don’t think I started off so minimal, but after being with you I became way more minimal,” she says to her ex-husband Kanye West in an Architectural Digest video about their minimalist mansion in Calabasas, Los Angeles. “For me it’s how I organise and how I get things done. I know where every last thing is; there’s a place for everything, even if it’s hidden in the wall in a cabinet that you can’t see.”
Kim and Kanye hired Italian architect Claudio Silvestrin and Belgian designer Axel Vervoordt to turn their home from a “McMansion” to an “otherworldly oasis of purity and light” as Architectural Digest put it. For those who have lusted after the house, there’s good news. You can own a property just like it — not in Los Angeles, but here in London.
Located on Cannon Lane in Hampstead, a refined, LA-inspired mansion designed by Silvestrin is currently on the market with Beauchamp Estates for £17.5 million.
Silvestrin, considered a master of contemporary minimalism, also designed Kim and Kanye’s 2,427 sq ft New York loft, which they listed for sale in 2019. Other fans of his clean interiors include Georgio Armani and digital art heiress Caroline Neuendorf, for whom he created “a lean, geometric, architectural configuration” in Mallorca in 1991.
Despite being neither a sunbaked Los Angeles villa nor a holiday retreat in Mallorca, the Hampstead house shares the refinement of Kim’s Calabasas mansion, with simple, open living spaces, clean lines and geometric shapes. There’s the same neutral, earthy palette too, thanks to the yellow-ochre rock slab walls and flooring (sourced from the Dolomites).
Covering 7,940 sq ft spread over five storeys (plus a “sub-basement” with extra storage space), the house has five bedrooms, five bathrooms and two huge reception rooms.
At basement level, there’s a swimming pool, treatment area, gym, sauna and steam room, while the ground floor is made up of one large entertaining space, leading onto a large outdoor terrace.
There’s more space for parties on the floor above, with another large reception room, kitchen and cinema room. The five bedrooms occupy the top two floors, with the master suite having a walk-in dressing room, ensuite, balcony and separate terrace.
“This trophy home is truly unique in London, created by an architect who is admired by both international architects and designers and A-list clients who want a home that is a piece of architectural artwork alongside being a beautiful residence,” says Gary Hersham at Beauchamp Estates.
Built in 2016, the mansion is packed with other luxury features, including full staff quarters and a two-car garage with a Bond-style car lift. London may lack California’s sunshine, but, like the LA mansion, the house has been designed for indoor-outdoor living, with floor-to-ceiling windows and a glass balustrade balcony for each principal room.
Outside, the garden is divided into two levels, with the mature gardens at ground floor level designed by RHS Chelsea Flower Show gold prize winner Chris Beardshaw. The lower terrace, meanwhile, comprises a private space for entertaining.
“The Claudio Silvestrin villa in Hampstead is an iconic residence, like a piece of contemporary artwork. The cool minimalist interiors and the beautifully designed upper and lower gardens provide the perfect retreat for a family wanting a London base,” says Rosy Khalastchy at Beauchamp’s St John’s Wood Office.
“Over the last few years, the villa has been rented out to a series of major Hollywood stars who have wanted to reside in an LA style pad whilst they have been working in London. Now the vendor has decided it is time to list this very special property for sale. With its celebrity connections, we anticipate a lot of interest in this residence.”
