It is primarily his business manager’s responsibility. Lee Daniels, an Oscar-nominated director, writer, and producer (“I’m a New Yorker,” he says), never wanted to establish a permanent residence in Los Angeles (“I’m a New Yorker”). However, he eventually realised, with the encouragement of his business manager, that buying a home would be the more economical option.
The co-creator of Empire understood he did not want a large home even as he was house-hunting last year. “So many of my friends’ homes are pretentious or are merely large for the sake of being large,” he says. “The skeleton of this house appealed to me because I knew I would be able to furnish it — the more basic, the better.” When he moved in last spring, he says, “it felt like I was putting on a pair of jeans,” and he furnished the entire place in a month with the assistance of his friend Roxy Sowlaty.
Daniels filled the four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bathroom boxy house in Coldwater Canyon with exact replicas of some of the furnishings in his Manhattan apartment, including the piano, where Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz play when they visit, and the emerald velvet sofa in the living room. Similarly, the majority of the artwork in his New York residence has counterparts in Beverly Hills, including works by Obama portraitist Kehinde Wiley and New Orleans-based painter Harouni.
The calming colour scheme of charcoal, white, black, and wood was deliberate. “I was so worried about adding anything that would detract from the home itself,” he explains, so he only added houseplants that mimicked the foliage seen through the enormous windows.
Daniels has begun to recognise the advantages of having a West Coast residence, particularly in terms of entertaining. He is an avid cook (though he admits he’s still learning how to use his French convection oven), and he now has the space to host a proper party. “I’ve never hosted a large party because I’m so terrified,” he adds. “The 30-year-old in me envisions a massive celebration from the third floor to the patio, similar to an Oscars party or something. My 60-year-old self, however, would panic if my white carpet were soiled.” Until now, he has held the majority of gatherings in the TV room or on the expansive veranda, where he also works during the day.
Moreover, a hotel could never provide him with the same sense of tranquilly as this location. “I was just searching for the right spiritual connection, the right place,” he explains. I knew the moment I walked in that I belonged here.
