‘It’s Business in Front and a Party in Back’: Welcome to the Mullet House

Houses in Carmel, Calif., tend to have tongue-in-cheek names, like Cabin-on-the-Rocks and Last Resort. So Marguerite Woung-Chapman and Stan Chapman decided to christen the house they built in this charming seaside community with a name that gives a humorous nod to its contemporary twist on modern architecture.

“We call it Mullet House. It’s business in front and a party in back,” says Chapman, 57, a senior executive at an energy infrastructure company in Houston. The reference, of course, is to the haircut popularised in the 1980s that was short at the front and sides but long in the back.

From the street, the house, a second home for the Texas couple, has an unassuming appearance. The front walls are shielded behind ribbed slats of white painted cedar, almost like a fence. And like a mullet, there is a hint from first glance that something interesting is happening on the other side: A portion of the ribbed slats reveals an entryway’s glass wall that offers a glimpse of the interior and views of the valley beyond.

Inside, the space unfolds into multiple levels, with sweeping views of the beach and mountains seen through glass walls and courtyards.

“People stop when they’re driving or walking down the street to look through our house,” says Woung-Chapman, 57, a former general counsel for an energy company in Houston and currently on several boards. She says she is comfortable being observed and waves if she catches people’s eyes. “They’re usually more embarrassed than I am,” she says.

It was this sense of discreet boldness that drove much of the interior design of the house, says Susan Collins Weir, founding principal of Sausalito-based Studio Collins Weir. She chose furnishings and fixtures that had clean lines but were textured and layered, such as olive-colour leather Poliform chairs with leather-upholstered legs and heavy stitching in a dining room that also has a porcelain art piece on the wall that hangs like a woolly fabric.

“They both have a quiet strength,” Collins Weir says of the couple.

Owners Marguerite Woung-Chapman and Stan Chapman live in both Houston and Carmel.

To immerse the $9 million house in its surrounding nature, it was sited as close to the front of the property line as possible instead of in the middle of the lot, as is typical in this Carmel Meadows neighbourhood, says Daniel Piechota, founding principal of San Francisco-based Piechota Architecture, which designed the house. The other three sides were at the setback limit, allowing them to max out the envelope at the perimeter and then carve out courtyards.

The property has a large courtyard in the middle, spanned by an open-air bridge that acts as a patio for dining and lounging, and connects the two sides of the house. Below the bridge is a sunken outdoor conversation pit, with a fire pit in the middle, that opens to a backyard space with a hot tub. Glass walls give the whole house transparency.

On one side of the bridge is the main bedroom and bathroom, leading to a smaller courtyard through a large shower. On the other side is the main living and dining area and the kitchen. Two of the three bedrooms are on the bottom floor, where a media room opens to the garden level with the conversation pit. There is also a workout room and a wine room at one end of that level.

The kitchen has three islands lined up in a row: two stainless steel ones for cooking and prepping food, and a marble one for dining. Reflecting the couple’s love for meat, there is a Dry Ager, a butcher block and a bone saw.

Chapman and Woung-Chapman, who were both married before, met when they were working at the same energy company in Houston. They married in 1999. An acquaintance joked they were “a train wreck waiting to happen” because they were such opposites. She grew up in Kingston, Jamaica; briefly in Queens, N.Y.; and then in Miami, with a father she describes as a socialist. He grew up in Colonia, N.J., in a politically conservative, Catholic family, he says.

Chapman says he loved how Woung-Chapman challenged him intellectually. “Early on, I thought I’d make her see the light, but I’ve learned not to try anymore,” he says.

Woung-Chapman, whose ancestry includes Chinese, German, Indian and African, says she liked how intensely curious Chapman was about her background. Both their parents were surprised by their union, but she jokes that her father’s heavy Jamaican accent warded off fights because it made it hard for Chapman to understand him. She says they give each other grace from having to attend too many family events.

One thing they agree on is where and how they live. After renovating a house in the West University Place neighbourhood in Houston in 2001, they decided it was too small for the four kids, now ages 26 to 30, they share from their previous marriages. So they built a new house in the same neighbourhood in 2008. Chapman describes it as a Contemporary Craftsman: Prairie style (his preference) on the outside and stark white modern (her taste) inside. “It was a perfect blend. A really good compromise,” he says.

When they started thinking of where to retire, their criteria included wanting to build a house by the water and mountains that was within walking distance of stores and restaurants, and was relatively close to an airport. Their list of potential locations included Nashville, Annapolis, the Jersey Shore, Key West and Savannah. It didn’t include California—or anything on the West Coast.

Still, Chapman had fond memories of a trip to Carmel, so in February 2017 they decided to look at houses while on vacation there. “We said we know it won’t happen, but let’s start there and knock it out,” says Woung-Chapman.

She says the moment they entered Carmel Meadows, which has fairly traditional homes—including the one formerly owned by the late actress Betty White that sold for $10.775 million in 2022, well over its $7.95 million asking price—they knew that was where they would end up. They put in an offer immediately on the neighbourhood’s last remaining open lot with an ocean view and bought it in April 2017 for $1.25 million. “We just wanted it,” she says.

This time, Woung-Chapman says, she wanted a design determined by the site. Cameron Helland, a lead architect on the project who now has his own firm, Helland Architecture in San Francisco, says he came up with the idea of the bridge as a way to maximise the views of the ocean while keeping to the 18-foot, county-dictated limit on height. In response to early opposition from some neighbours, who felt that the aesthetic might not fit with the neighbourhood, Helland says he made the front of the house as unimposing as possible so the street presence would more closely tie in with the scale of the neighbouring houses.

The $9 million cost, including the lot, the architect, interior design, landscaping and building, was significantly higher than they expected, says Chapman. He sometimes thinks about what they could have gotten for the same amount at the Jersey Shore or Nashville. And he sometimes feels he should be spending more time there, as he commutes back and forth to Houston and is in Carmel less than six months a year.

But neither Chapman nor Woung-Chapman has any regrets about choosing Carmel. Their new home offers what they wanted in climate, views and the access to outdoors.

PARIS —Paris has long been a byword for luxurious living. The traditional components of the upscale home, from parquet floors to elaborate moldings, have their origins here. Yet settling down in just the right address in this low-rise, high-density city may be the greatest luxury of all.

Tradition reigns supreme in Paris real estate, where certain conditions seem set in stone—the western half of the city, on either side of the Seine, has long been more expensive than the east. But in the fashion world’s capital, parts of the housing market are also subject to shifting fads. In the trendy, hilly northeast, a roving cool factor can send prices in this year’s hip neighborhood rising, while last year’s might seem like a sudden bargain.

This week, with the opening of the Olympic Games and the eyes of the world turned toward Paris, The Wall Street Journal looks at the most expensive and desirable areas in the City of Light.

The Most Expensive Arrondissement: the 6th

Known for historic architecture, elegant apartment houses and bohemian street cred, the 6th Arrondissement is Paris’s answer to Manhattan’s West Village. Like its New York counterpart, the 6th’s starving-artist days are long behind it. But the charm that first wooed notable residents like Gertrude Stein and Jean-Paul Sartre is still largely intact, attracting high-minded tourists and deep-pocketed homeowners who can afford its once-edgy, now serene atmosphere.

Le Breton George V Notaires, a Paris notary with an international clientele, says the 6th consistently holds the title of most expensive arrondissement among Paris’s 20 administrative districts, and 2023 was no exception. Last year, average home prices reached $1,428 a square foot—almost 30% higher than the Paris average of $1,100 a square foot.

According to Meilleurs Agents, the Paris real estate appraisal company, the 6th is also home to three of the city’s five most expensive streets. Rue de Furstemberg, a secluded loop between Boulevard Saint-Germain and the Seine, comes in on top, with average prices of $2,454 a square foot as of March 2024.

For more than two decades, Kyle Branum, a 51-year-old attorney, and Kimberly Branum, a 60-year-old retired CEO, have been regular visitors to Paris, opting for apartment rentals and ultimately an ownership interest in an apartment in the city’s 7th Arrondissement, a sedate Left Bank district known for its discreet atmosphere and plutocratic residents.

“The 7th was the only place we stayed,” says Kimberly, “but we spent most of our time in the 6th.”

In 2022, inspired by the strength of the dollar, the Branums decided to fulfil a longstanding dream of buying in Paris. Working with Paris Property Group, they opted for a 1,465-square-foot, three-bedroom in a building dating to the 17th century on a side street in the 6th Arrondissement. They paid $2.7 million for the unit and then spent just over $1 million on the renovation, working with Franco-American visual artist Monte Laster, who also does interiors.

The couple, who live in Santa Barbara, Calif., plan to spend about three months a year in Paris, hosting children and grandchildren, and cooking after forays to local food markets. Their new kitchen, which includes a French stove from luxury appliance brand Lacanche, is Kimberly’s favourite room, she says.

Another American, investor Ashley Maddox, 49, is also considering relocating.

In 2012, the longtime Paris resident bought a dingy, overstuffed 1,765-square-foot apartment in the 6th and started from scratch. She paid $2.5 million and undertook a gut renovation and building improvements for about $800,000. A centrepiece of the home now is the one-time salon, which was turned into an open-plan kitchen and dining area where Maddox and her three children tend to hang out, American-style. Just outside her door are some of the city’s best-known bakeries and cheesemongers, and she is a short walk from the Jardin du Luxembourg, the Left Bank’s premier green space.

“A lot of the majesty of the city is accessible from here,” she says. “It’s so central, it’s bananas.” Now that two of her children are going away to school, she has listed the four-bedroom apartment with Varenne for $5 million.

The Most Expensive Neighbourhoods: Notre-Dame and Invalides

Garrow Kedigian is moving up in the world of Parisian real estate by heading south of the Seine.

During the pandemic, the Canada-born, New York-based interior designer reassessed his life, he says, and decided “I’m not going to wait any longer to have a pied-à-terre in Paris.”

He originally selected a 1,130-square-foot one-bedroom in the trendy 9th Arrondissement, an up-and-coming Right Bank district just below Montmartre. But he soon realised it was too small for his extended stays, not to mention hosting guests from out of town.

After paying about $1.6 million in 2022 and then investing about $55,000 in new decor, he put the unit up for sale in early 2024 and went house-shopping a second time. He ended up in the Invalides quarter of the 7th Arrondissement in the shadow of one Paris’s signature monuments, the golden-domed Hôtel des Invalides, which dates to the 17th century and is fronted by a grand esplanade.

His new neighbourhood vies for Paris’s most expensive with the Notre-Dame quarter in the 4th Arrondissement, centred on a few islands in the Seine behind its namesake cathedral. According to Le Breton, home prices in the Notre-Dame neighbourhood were $1,818 a square foot in 2023, followed by $1,568 a square foot in Invalides.

After breaking even on his Right Bank one-bedroom, Kedigian paid $2.4 million for his new 1,450-square-foot two-bedroom in a late 19th-century building. It has southern exposures, rounded living-room windows and “gorgeous floors,” he says. Kedigian, who bought the new flat through Junot Fine Properties/Knight Frank, plans to spend up to $435,000 on a renovation that will involve restoring the original 12-foot ceiling height in many of the rooms, as well as rescuing the ceilings’ elaborate stucco detailing. He expects to finish in 2025.

Over in the Notre-Dame neighbourhood, Belles demeures de France/Christie’s recently sold a 2,370-square-foot, four-bedroom home for close to the asking price of about $8.6 million, or about $3,630 a square foot. Listing agent Marie-Hélène Lundgreen says this places the unit near the very top of Paris luxury real estate, where prime homes typically sell between $2,530 and $4,040 a square foot.

The Most Expensive Suburb: Neuilly-sur-Seine

The Boulevard Périphérique, the 22-mile ring road that surrounds Paris and its 20 arrondissements, was once a line in the sand for Parisians, who regarded the French capital’s numerous suburbs as something to drive through on their way to and from vacation. The past few decades have seen waves of gentrification beyond the city’s borders, upgrading humble or industrial districts to the north and east into prime residential areas. And it has turned Neuilly-sur-Seine, just northwest of the city, into a luxury compound of first resort.

In 2023, Neuilly’s average home price of $1,092 a square foot made the leafy, stately community Paris’s most expensive suburb.

Longtime residents, Alain and Michèle Bigio, decided this year is the right time to list their 7,730-square-foot, four-bedroom townhouse on a gated Neuilly street.

The couple, now in their mid 70s, completed the home in 1990, two years after they purchased a small parcel of garden from the owners next door for an undisclosed amount. Having relocated from a white-marble château outside Paris, the couple echoed their previous home by using white- and cream-coloured stone in the new four-story build. The Bigios, who will relocate just back over the border in the 16th Arrondissement, have listed the property with Emile Garcin Propriétés for $14.7 million.

The couple raised two adult children here and undertook upgrades in their empty-nester years—most recently, an indoor pool in the basement and a new elevator.

The cool, pale interiors give way to dark and sardonic images in the former staff’s quarters in the basement where Alain works on his hobby—surreal and satirical paintings, whose risqué content means that his wife prefers they stay downstairs. “I’m not a painter,” he says. “But I paint.”

The Trendiest Arrondissement: the 9th

French interior designer Julie Hamon is theatre royalty. Her grandfather was playwright Jean Anouilh, a giant of 20th-century French literature, and her sister is actress Gwendoline Hamon. The 52-year-old, who divides her time between Paris and the U.K., still remembers when the city’s 9th Arrondissement, where she and her husband bought their 1,885-square-foot duplex in 2017, was a place to have fun rather than put down roots. Now, the 9th is the place to do both.

The 9th, a largely 19th-century district, is Paris at its most urban. But what it lacks in parks and other green spaces, it makes up with nightlife and a bustling street life. Among Paris’s gentrifying districts, which have been transformed since 2000 from near-slums to the brink of luxury, the 9th has emerged as the clear winner. According to Le Breton, average 2023 home prices here were $1,062 a square foot, while its nearest competitors for the cool crown, the 10th and the 11th, have yet to break $1,011 a square foot.

A co-principal in the Bobo Design Studio, Hamon—whose gut renovation includes a dramatic skylight, a home cinema and air conditioning—still seems surprised at how far her arrondissement has come. “The 9th used to be well known for all the theatres, nightclubs and strip clubs,” she says. “But it was never a place where you wanted to live—now it’s the place to be.”

With their youngest child about to go to college, she and her husband, 52-year-old entrepreneur Guillaume Clignet, decided to list their Paris home for $3.45 million and live in London full-time. Propriétés Parisiennes/Sotheby’s is handling the listing, which has just gone into contract after about six months on the market.

The 9th’s music venues were a draw for 44-year-old American musician and piano dealer, Ronen Segev, who divides his time between Miami and a 1,725-square-foot, two-bedroom in the lower reaches of the arrondissement. Aided by Paris Property Group, Segev purchased the apartment at auction during the pandemic, sight unseen, for $1.69 million. He spent $270,000 on a renovation, knocking down a wall to make a larger salon suitable for home concerts.

During the Olympics, Segev is renting out the space for about $22,850 a week to attendees of the Games. Otherwise, he prefers longer-term sublets to visiting musicians for $32,700 a month.

Most Exclusive Address: Avenue Junot

Hidden in the hilly expanses of the 18th Arrondissement lies a legendary street that, for those in the know, is the city’s most exclusive address. Avenue Junot, a bucolic tree-lined lane, is a fairy-tale version of the city, separate from the gritty bustle that surrounds it.

Homes here rarely come up for sale, and, when they do, they tend to be off-market, or sold before they can be listed. Martine Kuperfis—whose Paris-based Junot Group real-estate company is named for the street—says the most expensive units here are penthouses with views over the whole of the city.

In 2021, her agency sold a 3,230-square-foot triplex apartment, with a 1,400-square-foot terrace, for $8.5 million. At about $2,630 a square foot, that is three times the current average price in the whole of the 18th.

Among its current Junot listings is a 1930s 1,220-square-foot townhouse on the avenue’s cobblestone extension, with an asking price of $2.8 million.