The Santa Clarita Valley has officially earned the bragging rights of having Barbie’s very own dreamhouse right in the SCV.
HGTV recently premiered its four-episode series, “Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge,” where stars from the home design channel and the Food Network worked against one another to create decade-inspired rooms in bringing a Barbie dreamhouse alive.
The series’ designers couldn’t get to work without a house first. This is where real estate agent Sabrina Roberts came in, officially becoming “Barbie’s Realtor.”
“Who wouldn’t want to?” said Roberts. “I mean to find Barbie’s dream home for HGTV, I mean that honestly, in my book, that’s a dream come true. It was a dream project. I could not have been more excited to be a part of it.”
Roberts toured over 100 homes in the pursuit of finding the perfect dreamhouse; She toured in Yorba Linda, Claremont, Glendora, Upland, Chatsworth and Calabasas before finally finding the house that checked off all the boxes in Santa Clarita. Specifically, a $2,049,995 five-bedroom, five-bathroom, 4,456-square-foot house in the 15300 block of Michael Crest Drive.
It met all the criteria of being two stories, over 3,500 square feet, having four-plus bedrooms, a pool, a big lot and no homeowners association.
“This is perfect because it kind of looks like a dollhouse,” said Roberts about first finding the house.
The competition consisted of eight pairs of competitors, each competing for their promoted Barbie superfan to win a stay at the dreamhouse and a donation to Save the Children in their name.
Each room had to have the following on top of being Barbie-inspired: Represent the decade given and have a “toyetic” element (a surprise, special, dual feature item).
“The dreamhouse is a little bit of fantasy and a little bit of reality brought together,” said Kim Culmone, SVP Barbie head of design for Mattel in episode one of “Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge.”
In week one, or episode one, Mike Jackson and Egypt Sherrod created a 1990s entry way, living room and dining room against Antonia Lofaso and Jasmie Roth’s 1960s kitchen and family room.
In week two, Alison Victoria and Ty Pennington brought to life “Ken’s ’70s den” against Kristina Crestin and Jonathan Knight’s Barbie ’80s bedroom and bath.
Keith Bynum and Evan Thomas in week three decorated the entire front of the house to represent the ’90s, and on the flipside Mika and Brian Kleinschmidt decorated the backyard and pool to fit the early 2000s aesthetic.
In the final week both teams had to bring to life Barbie’s past, present and future. Michel Smith Boyd and Anthony Elle decorated the office. Christina Hall and James Bender decorated the closet.
Many, including Roberts, were invited to walk down the pink carpet, tour the dreamhouse and cast their vote for the winning area.
“It was pretty phenomenal,” said Roberts. “I was in awe of how they transformed it.”
“A couple days later I got to bring my kids back to look through Barbie’s dream home, which was absolutely just the most amazing experience for me because I got to see it through their eyes and it was just an amazing, spectacular moment, really, as a mom.”
The dreamhouse pulled out all the stops from Barbie’s 60-year career – a replica of the original ’60s dreamhouse couch, a Barbie pink waterslide, a hat conveyor belt, a ceiling flip-down TV, a kitchen island appliance pop-up, a giant hairbrush, a disco floor, an aquarium desk, pet elevator and a carrying handle right on top of the house.
*SPOILER ALERT*
Despite Roberts’ vote for the closet, in the end, Mika and Brian Kleinschmidt won the challenge and the opportunity for superfan Marcos Acosta to have a pink-filled vacation in the dreamhouse.
Many of the dreamhouse features have since been disassembled as it made its way back on the market, but a minority of the dreamhouse’s features still remain such as the ceiling slip-down TV, the brand-new kitchen appliances and Ken’s Den’s wallpaper.
To view the Zillow listing for the Barbie dreamhouse home, visit tinyurl.com/3ppd9tz7. To view the “Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge” gallery, visit tinyurl.com/58v2w6d9.
