In several episodes of the FXX comedy Dave, pop hitmaker Benny Blanco welcomes the titular rapper Dave Burd (a.k.a. Lil Dicky) into his cavernous Los Angeles mansion and the two spend some quality time talking shop and goofing off in its expanse. It’s depicted as a glassy modern estate—fitting for a successful super producer like Blanco, who plays a version of himself in the show—but the down-to-earth music maven’s IRL Casa Blanco is a warmer, brighter abode than its TV stand-in.
Blanco chose the 1939-built LA dwelling primarily for its convenient location near his studio, where he routinely writes and produces popular tunes, like “Special” from SZA’s Grammy-winning album SOS and “Single Soon,” a dance-pop track by multihyphenate superstar (and Blanco’s girlfriend) Selena Gomez. Despite its proximity to his work, he wanted the house to represent a peaceful retreat from the daily grind. “I need separation,” Blanco tells AD via Zoom while posted up in his bedroom. “Otherwise, I’m waking up at 3 a.m. and going to the other room to make a song.”
He snapped up the pad in 2019 and made himself at home bit by bit, with the help of Rachel Leigh Ward and Dana M. Vitrano of BonVivant Interiors and designer Keefe Butler of Studio BAD, who describes his involvement in the house’s reimagining as more of a supporting role to Blanco’s creative lead. The resulting space certainly looks like the fruit of Blanco’s all-play, no-work design brief, with an alfresco dining paradise out back; a dreamy, Mariah Carey–worthy dressing room (as Blanco quips, “Don’t we all want to be Mariah?”); and a guesthouse-turned-movie theater, outfitted with crimson velvet-tufted walls and the candy bar of Blanco’s childhood fantasies—a big hit with friends’ little ones. “All the kids call it ‘the candy room,’” he says. “They run out with candy bursting from their pockets, and they’re screaming [because] they’ve eaten so much sugar. Their parents probably hate me.”
Butler explains that Old Hollywood and Paris’ Odéon theater were among the references he used for the home cinema. Blanco nods to similar themes in different words, envisioning the theater as “a Parisian brothel,” aesthetically speaking. It’s an undeniably sumptuous room, though Butler, who has worked with Blanco on several projects over the years, notes that “luxury not for the sake of luxury, but for the sake of hospitality” is the musician’s modus operandi. “He’s so much the host,” the designer says.