Lena Dunham's Gorgeous New Home Happens to Be Located in Her Parents' Backyard: 'Just As I Always Wanted'
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Lena Dunham's Connecticut home is whimsical, colorful, and very close to loved ones.
In an essay for the December issue of Architectural Digest, the Girls creator writes about her family ties to her Connecticut home — mainly, how it's right in her parents' backyard.
"When I was a little kid, I used to dread the idea of ever leaving my parents' home. I hated leaving for the day to go to school, much less the idea of going to college or getting married," she writes in a feature that showcases the maximalist space.
Dunham recounts her New York City upbringing, moving from apartment to apartment. But her parents didn't find the "perfect place" for them until they moved into their Connecticut home. A former boarding school, the compound of a brick home and stucco barn have "become the most lasting landmark of our family, an ode to our eccentricities and to our bonds."
Dunham, who says she lives between Connecticut and London, called the renovation process her family's "most maddening real estate project yet."
Lelanie Foster/Architectural Digest
With the help of their friend, architect David Bers, contractor Rick McCue and her parents, they dreamt up Dunham's home, which consists of one and a half bedrooms and one full bathroom.
Dunham recalls her father saying of the finished project, "It looks like a kindergartner drew a house. And I mean that as a compliment."
Lelanie Foster/Architectural Digest
The star used her creativity to help design a whimsical and vibrant interior. From "parrots and turquoise-backed flowers in the primary bedroom" to colorful couches and checkerboard floors in a seating room, each space is imaginative and fairytale-esque.
Along with rosy accents and floral wallpaper, the home is also functional for what Dunham calls her "chronically ill body," with a low staircase that caters towards her arthritis and a bathtub that has a pull-up bar.
The actress and writer's office is also representative of her cozy, yet productive workflow with a "cushy chair" and footrest. Playing into Dunham's creative side, the basement doubles as a watercolor studio and contains her "most treasured possession: a custom painting table" designed by her father.
Lelanie Foster/Architectural Digest
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Dunham was not able to be there during the makeover process as the pandemic kept her from traveling home. When she reunited with her family for their first Christmas "post-pandemic," she describes how she found her mother unpacked all of her 112 storage boxes.
"She had shown me her deepest feelings by setting up this house, running her lean, silver-manicured fingers along every object I'd hauled through my 35 years, showing me just how well she knew me," she says.
Lelanie Foster/Architectural Digest
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She added: "I felt a shocking amount of gratitude—taking in the full blast of my good fortune—to have these parents and this home, to have a home at all."
Dunham closed out her heartfelt piece by recounting her answer when people ask if she seriously lives "10 feet" behind her parents.
"Yes, literally. Just as I always wanted," she writes.
For more on Dunham's home, visit architecturaldigest.com
