French artist Claire Tabouret is known for abstract portraits that have been featured in shows around the world, from New York to Paris to Japan.
But in 2020, she undertook a personal project: her home. Tabouret set up scaffolding in the living area of her Los Angeles property and got to work painting her ceiling. On 19 tiles, she hand-painted a different tarot card.
“When you pull tarot cards, they’re really interpretative, and you can kind of align them with whatever experience that you’re going through,” said agent Sara Kaye, who shares the listing.
“The ones that she chose for this particular house, there are aspects of her and her personal life that show up in them," Kaye added in an interview with Homes.com. For example, the moon card features Tabouret’s dog. Another has a painting of her baby.
Now, Tabouret’s personal masterpiece is up for sale. The Los Feliz three-bedroom, three-bathroom is on the market for $2.9 million, according to the Homes.com listing. Kaye holds the listing alongside Rob Kallick. Both agents are with Compass.
Kaye said the artist left her Los Angeles home to move to France, where she’s been commissioned to create stained glass for Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Selling a personalized home can take time
It’s not uncommon to find homes that their artistic owners have personalized, especially in East Los Angeles, according to Kallick, but Tabouret’s designs were “next level.”
“What Claire did to it, you could never re-create,” he said of the house in an interview with Homes.com. “It’s her own artistic vision.”
On the one hand, the unique art is a draw, but at the same time, the degree of personalization could turn some buyers off the home, Kallick added.
“There are lots of people who come through and are like in love with it and they would be excited to live in that environment of an artist’s vision,” he said. “But, for other buyers who are like, ‘Well, I want a kind of a blank palette to do whatever I want,’ this house might pose a challenge to them because part of the identity and appeal of it is Claire’s prints.”
Already, though, Kallick said there’s been interest in the 1924 property, especially because it also features Spanish architecture and it’s in Los Feliz.
“Patience is key,” he said. “Homes like this are special and deserve to be put into the world and connected to the right person — whenever that is.”