Jennifer Aniston does not just buy houses. She often transforms them completely. The actress bought a run-down Beverly Hills property in 2006 for $13.5 million and spent the next few years transforming it into a private retreat she called "Ohana." According to Forbes, which landed the first interview with her listing agent, the finished home went on the market in 2011 for $42 million.
A house that needed a rescue
The house was designed in 1970 by architect Harold "Hal" Levitt. According to HGTV, the actress had been considering buying the house for seven months before it was sold to her. By the time she bought it, the house was already falling into disrepair. In 2006, after purchasing the house, she hired interior designer Stephen Shadley, a longtime collaborator known for his work on Hollywood homes, to lead the rebuild.
Two years, a full rebuild
Shadley hadn't merely redecorated the place. Forbes' reporting notes that he and his team spent the next two years extensively renovating the 1970 structure, adding square footage and basically reworking the house from the inside out. Aniston moved into the finished home in 2009, per Forbes' reporting. The home then appeared in the March 2010 issue of Architectural Digest, in which Forbes quotes Aniston, from that interview, saying the house "vibrates with the love that created it." Aniston wanted the house to feel like an escape, not a showpiece. The Joyce Rey real estate archive mentions how the completed house had a Balinese flair, with koi ponds built into the living space, heated travertine flooring outside in the lanai, and Brazilian cumaru wood eaves, which are a durable wood renowned for its deep brown color. The same source adds that Aniston called the home "Ohana," a Hawaiian term for extended family, and it was a fitting name given how often she hosted her friends there.
