- A two-bedroom apartment in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is available on the market for $315,000 — and it is a real-life Barbie dwelling.
- The 1,280-square-foot home comes with a customized pink kitchen, pink loos, and even a pink make-up studio.
- Annie Penta, the proprietor, says that she was impressed by classic love inns and their eccentric interiors.
Hidden behind the plain, unassuming facade of a Michigan apartment is a bubblegum-pink Barbie dwelling that is each maximalist’s dream — and it is on the market for $315,000.
The 2-bedroom house is a part of the Alpine Condos, a 59-unit improvement positioned alongside Alpine Drive in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Annie Penta, an entrepreneur {and professional} make-up artist, purchased the 1,280-square-foot property in October 2014 for $156,500, per property itemizing data.
“This was my first dwelling ever. I bought it after I turned 21 and I’ve spent the final 9 years — all through my 20s — residing right here and doing it as maximalist as I can,” Penta instructed Insider.
Coincidentally, the star-studded and extremely anticipated “Barbie” film can be launched in theaters this summer season.
The kitschy, over-the-top inside decor is closely impressed by classic love inns from the ’80s, which Penta says she loves.
Love inns are catered to vacationing {couples} they usually often have themed bedrooms with retro decor resembling mirrors and heart-shaped tubs. Specifically, Penta has been to the novelty love inns within the Poconos in Pennsylvania.
Though most rooms in Penta’s place are pink, the very first thing that anybody sees after they enter the home is a red-and-black themed lounge with leopard print accents, Penta stated.
“Everybody assumes that I like pink, so all the things must be pink, however I’ve completely different components of me that like completely different designs,” Penta stated. “I additionally actually like the colour crimson — that is my second favourite colour.”
In distinction to the opposite areas, the lounge has a way more masculine really feel, she stated. It is also partially impressed by the film “Scarface,” in line with the itemizing.
Beneath the framed TV is a wine bar with a Pharoah’s head motif on its aspect that Penta purchased off Craigslist.
“The Pharaoh head is definitely a bar that I simply put underneath the TV to look extra like a mantle, but it surely truly has a full bar arrange behind it with a wine rack, drawers, and stools,” she stated.
Penta thrifted a lot of the furnishings and decor from secondhand shops and even DIY-ed gadgets to make them distinctive.
The one new items of furnishings that Penta purchased had been the black sofa in the lounge and her mattress.
“The whole lot else I just about purchased secondhand and did one thing to it myself to make it my very own. Just like the black chair in the lounge was white — I painted it black and added crystals to it,” Penta stated.
Adorning the home with DIY initiatives turned a passion through the years, she stated.
“It turned an outlet for me. If I used to be going by way of one thing unhealthy in my life, I’d do a home venture that will assist preserve my mind targeted,” she added.
Penta’s mom usually helped her along with her DIY initiatives and gave design recommendations on what she might do along with her house.
“She’s an artist as properly, so if there’s one thing that I did not have expertise in, like placing up wallpaper, she would come and assist me try this,” Penta stated.
The black gallery wall within the eating room was her mom’s concept, and the 2 of them managed to thrift all of the classic frames and mirrors for the house collectively.
“We had an enormous pile earlier than I even had the keys to maneuver into the place, with the concept we had been gonna put all of them on one wall,” she added.
The kitchen was the primary venture that Penta labored on when she moved in. The cupboards had been initially white, however she painted them pink and added gold appliques.
When Penta purchased the house, she did not have a transparent plan for the way every room was going to look, nor was she anticipating it to have such a pink, maximalist theme.
“I did have the pink kitchen from the start — that was my dream and the primary venture that I did,” she added. “However through the years I saved including extra to it. If I bought a inventive concept in my head, I’d simply do it.”
Penta’s mom lives out of state, and it is develop into a factor for the 2 of them to work on initiatives collectively every time she comes to go to.
“She got here final summer season and our venture was my little half-bath with flowers and the pink wallpaper,” Penta stated.
A number of the decor initiatives had been accomplished not too way back, and that is as a result of she wasn’t intending to maneuver till not too long ago.
“I had a possibility fall in my lap, and it is one thing that I have been interested by the previous few years,” Penta stated. “I haven’t got any household right here presently in Michigan, so I am transferring out of state now to reside my desires and be close to my household as properly.”
She declined to share particulars about the place she’s transferring to, preferring to maintain that info personal.
Penta says that her bed room ended up being one in all her least favourite rooms in the home due to her selection of wall paint.
“I selected a really, very mushy pink,” Penta stated. “To me, the pink that I selected was like a impartial. It was very gentle, it wasn’t in your face. If I did not have the massive pink cover, my bed room could be loads much less pink-looking.”
She felt that she ought to have chosen a brighter shade of pink, however delay redecorating the house as a result of there have been too many issues within the room.
“My dream could be to have a heart-shaped jacuzzi in my bed room,” Penta added.
Whereas the inside decor may appear a little bit an excessive amount of for some folks, Penta would not see the way it ought to have an effect on the sale of the home.
Penta says that she’s conscious of the eye that her home has gotten on-line, particularly because it went viral on Zillow Gone Wild. She has additionally been sharing photographs of her dwelling on Instagram as early as 2018.
“Persons are like, ‘How are you gonna promote this? There’s a lot happening, a lot to color.’ However after I go and purchase a home, I do know it is not going to be how I need it. I do know I will have to color it anyway,” Penta stated.
When she first purchased the home, it did not appear to be that both, she stated. The earlier proprietor had blue partitions and tiles, and a crimson kitchen.
“She did have colour in right here, it simply wasn’t my colour,” she added. “I did not understand that the web anticipated each home on the market to be white.”
That is the primary time that Penta is placing her pink Barbie home available on the market.
Homes in Ann Arbor, Michigan have a median itemizing dwelling worth of $499,000, per information from real-estate platform Realtor.com. There are presently 107 condos on the market within the space, with costs from $149,000 to $1.49 million.
The $315,000 Barbie-inspired house is on the decrease finish of the value spectrum.
Therese Antonelli from Transferring The Mitten Actual Property Group holds the itemizing.
Like the remainder of the home, Penta’s workplace is decked out in pink furnishings — together with a stiletto heel chair and a furry rug.
The workplace additionally doubles as a studio from which she operates her reworked classic retailer, Classically Plastic.
Penta sells classic baggage that she customizes with crystals, along with different clothes and niknaks from the Y2K period. The pink backdrop and ring gentle are the setup she makes use of for taking itemizing photographs of her gadgets.
“Juicy Couture is my primary vendor,” Penta stated. “I’ve tried different baggage however everyone needs the Juicy baggage. I’ve develop into so overwhelmed from having to retailer so lots of them.”
As knowledgeable make-up artist, Penta additionally has a hair and make-up studio within the basement.
The partitions have alternating stripes in various shades of pink, whereas the ground is roofed in leopard print carpet, photographs present. A lone make-up chair stands in the midst of the house, in entrance of a conceit mirror surrounded by gentle bulbs.
“I’m a make-up artist and about 60% of my purchasers come to me. That is the place I’d take my purchasers,” Penta stated.
The hair and make-up studio is strictly for purchasers solely; Penta retains her personal make-up separate in her bed room.
Penta initially wished to lease the basement out for photoshoots, which explains the flowery furnishings within the house — together with a large cardboard cake that her mom made.
“I like taking birthday footage of myself yearly and I made a decision I wished to come out of a large cake in my photographs,” Penta stated. “My mother made me the cake, but it surely’s with the plan to lease it out for photograph shoots too.”
Most of her make-up purchasers are shocked after they first step into her dwelling, Penta stated.
“I am at all times catching them attempting to take little sneak selfies however I inform them to go forward. Like I need you to take footage — because of this I’ve it like this,” she added.
Whereas Penta is holding the small print of her transfer underneath wraps, one factor’s for certain: Her subsequent dwelling could be “simply as loopy,” she stated.
Her future dwelling already has lots of pink in it, and he or she plans so as to add extra pink.
“When folks ask me why I am promoting this home, I preserve telling them to not fear. If I had been to ever conform to promote my present home, it could solely be for one thing higher,” Penta added.
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