Being fascinated by the ‘craziness’ of the Big Apple, actor Gerard Butler bought this medieval castle-style double-story loft in Chelsea, Manhattan’s West Side neighborhood, noted for its art galleries, fantastic nightlife, great shopping spots and recreation at the Piers.
The loft is sprawled over the sixth and seventh floors of a once manufacturing warehouse which was gutted by architect Alexander Gorlin and almost completely renovated except for two old support beams. A single interior wall was put up to hide the bedroom, the office and the laundry room.
Over four years Butler and designer Elvis Restaino turned the digs into a modern vintage home – it was only then that he actually moved in. Fire-resistant metal doors are thrust within the entrance portals, there is a ceiling mural painted on plexiglassed movie-poster paper, poultry netting and wood are the materials that the apparently timeworn columns are made of and layers of expertly tinted and textured plaster have rendered the walls’ ancient appearance. There is a dining area with an oversized mock medieval wood-and-iron table, a snug living area with brick-framed windows, a kitchen with a backsplash from leftover floor tiles and a home theater temple-insipred with top of the line screen.
Highlights of the luxury digs also include fabulous 13-ft-tall mahogany doors which dignify the roles the actor magnificently played like those of Atilla, Dracula, the Phantom of the Opera and Beowulf, a ceiling fresco, aging plaster walls, limestone lions resting on imposing columns, crystal chandeliers, wooden beams and posts, arched windows overlooking the Empire State Building, comfortable armchairs and settees and hardwood flooring throughout. The actor describes his bachelor pad as “as bohemian old-world rustic château with a taste of baroque.”
