Celebrity Homes: Step Inside John Mellencamp’s Montecito Home

Today we’re headed to Santa Barbara County, California where we can take a glimpse into the life and home of legendary singer John Mellencamp. His Montecito home is a romantic getaway with breathtaking views.

It is a remote oasis and a former ranch, perched above the clouds on one of the peaks of Santa Barbara’s Toro Canyon. As a result, the views are incredible. In fact, you can see all the way out to the Pacific Ocean. Simple mesmerising!

An artist’s life

John’s home is situated on six acres of land. As an all-around creative, John transformed the home and ensured that there were spaces to do his favourite things. One of which is to paint. The makeover took three weeks and included repainting the interiors in fresh white (including the brick and the wood beams).

A storage room was reimagined as an art studio, where John gets to paint every day. His paintings explore Americana through a lens influenced by the German expressionists of the 1900s. He told Architectural Digest in an interview: “That’s what I do, I paint,” he says. “I’m a singer-songwriter, that’s my real job, but I paint every day. I’m very lucky, I’ve lived an artist’s life.”

As with his other homes (which include residences in Indiana and New York), John collaborated with his friend of 45 years, Trevor Goff. Here, Goff recreated his signature lived-in interiors: masculine, shabby furnishings with scatterings of industrialized references. The Ridley motorcycle in the living room is a prime example.

Some of the pieces were sourced from John’s three warehouses of furniture in Bloomington, Indiana. Others were purchased from purveyors such as L.A.’s Big Daddy’s Antiques. “They have really odd, old, one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture,” John explains. “Stuff you don’t see everywhere, [and] Trevor knows what I like.”

Dark details and modern living

John is particularly fond of his Montecito living room. It is decorated with brown leather chairs and tattered rugs. Dark details, like hanging steel lights, punctuate the space. Some of the musician’s works can be seen on the walls too. This is interspersed with softer pieces of art. For example, a modern impressionistic painting by Donna Schuster can be seen above the mantle. But the defining characteristic of the interior is a projector and screen setup. “It’s fantastic,” he says. “I spend a lot of time watching old films.

The primary bedroom subsequently nods to the house’s Spanish influence, in part thanks to the iron canopy bed. This room’s items were sourced from John Mellencamp’s three warehouses in Bloomington, Indiana, Big Daddy’s Antiques in Los Angeles, and The Well in Santa Barbara.