In 2020, Joe Rogan’s arrival in Austin made a splash when his purchase of a $14.4 million lakefront mansion became one of the most expensive homes sold in the area. He wasn’t the first famous Californian to relocate to the Lone Star State, but it feels right to blame him for what followed: an epidemic of celebrities putting down roots here, and taking the phrase “everything’s bigger in Texas” like a personal challenge when designing their homes.
Comedians, actors, singers (and former comedians/actors/singers-turned podcasters), have descended upon the state with their own whacked out ideas of what Texas is. We’ve watched in horror at some of their attempts to dress like us, scratched our heads as they tried to eat like us, and, thanks to a steady stream of Architectural Digest Open Door tours and glossy magazine spreads, we’ve also seen them try to live like us.
With seemingly unlimited budgets at their disposal, here are just a few of the absurdly audacious Texas properties these celebrities call home:
Yolanda Hadid
In September, the Dutch model (and mother to supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid) welcomed Architectural Digest into a Fort Worth ranch house straight out of “Yellowstone” wearing a cowboy hat, blue jeans, and chaps. This is a woman whose glass-door fridge became so internet famous that it has its own Instagram account. Clearly, she wasn’t going to half ass this whole “Texan” thing.
The horseshoe-shaped property (yes, really) is nestled above the nearby river, and it’s designed within an inch of its life as a “cowboy’s dream.” With reclaimed wood, Pendleton bedding, Western saddles, cowhide rugs, and massive, moody portraits of horses in practically every room, somehow the most jarring addition to her home is a pantry stocked floor-to-ceiling with glass jars, which doubles as a tornado shelter.
Notable Highlights: Her “Honey Bar” featuring honey from around the world, and the collection of vintage guns sourced from Bunkhouse Designs.
Adrian Grenier
In an interview with Austin Monthly, the “Entourage” star described himself as someone who’s “always been on the cutting edge.” So obviously, while everyone was packing their bags for Austin, he moved… to Bastrop. There, he’s set up a sustainable 46-acre homestead on the Colorado River that feels like the epitome of what the rest of Texas thinks Austin is: a solar-powered farm, where Grenier sips organic wine and grows his own food.
Described by Grenier as “a Spanish hacienda … with a little Moroccan flair,” the exterior of the property looks pretty dang Texan, complete with windmills, cattle skulls, and an outdoor bar.
Notable highlights: Grenier says the property has become a wildlife sanctuary, welcoming bobcats, llamas, donkeys, goats, and chickens.
Jeff Bezos
It’s hard to know where to begin with the Amazon founder’s massive West Texas property, mostly because everything about it raises more questions than answers. After initially purchasing a 30,000-acre ranch north of Van Horn back in 2004, Bezos has since amassed 400,000 acres of land for his Blue Origin launch site on a property he’s renamed “Corn Ranch.” What little we do know of the remote compound is mostly from a Vogue profile of his fiancée Lauren Sánchez, who gave a helicopter tour of the property to the magazine last year. Thanks to Sánchez, we know that the primary residence is a two-story home with floor-to-ceiling windows, while the “Astronaut Village” located at the Blue Origin launch site is equipped with Airstream campers and a space-themed bar.
Notable highlights: The rocky pool built to look like a pond! Just kidding, it’s the “10,000 Year Clock” that cost Bezos an estimated $42 million to build inside a mountain to tick once a year.
Elon Musk
After declaring to the world that he would be getting rid of his worldly possessions (aka most of his mansions) in 2020, Musk moved into a $50,000 two-bedroom house in South Texas to be closer to SpaceX’s Starbase launch facility. The few glimpses we’ve seen of the house, which is reportedly a Boxabl-built tiny home, show a sparsely-decorated living room with a rocket sculpture and sword on the coffee table.
For all his cowboy cosplay, it doesn’t seem like the Texas spirit has done much for Musk’s sense of interior design. Maybe if he spent time with some real Texans?
