Here's How North West Was The Inspiration For Kim And Kanye's House
Long-time fans of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" will be intimately familiar with the eerily empty, museum-like space Kim Kardashian and Kanye West called home. Prior to their shock divorce announcement, the celebrity couple and their four children resided in a spacious mansion memorably described by Buzzfeed as "terrifying" and a "purge pad." The Kardashian-Wests' "morgue" is filled with achingly open, echoing spaces done almost entirely in bland neutrals, typically white.
As Buzzfeed notes, the family actually did a total revamp of the house, remaking it in their own image so that the pad didn't say "regular rich person home" so much as "abandoned convent." Although viewers have watched the KKW Beauty founder eat meals and play with her children in the $50 million property, it's still borderline impossible to imagine anybody feeling comfortable spending time there, let alone small children. As it turns out, however, North inspired the design.
The Kardashian-West kids were a focal point of the design
In an interview with Vogue, Kim Kardashian described the family home, which is located in swanky Hidden Hills, California, as a "minimal monastery," seemingly believing that's a normal descriptor for somewhere she's raising kids. What's even stranger is that the minimalist, hyper-modern look of the place was the vision of her eldest child, North West. In a 2020 interview with Architectural Digest (via YouTube), Kardashian and then-husband Kanye West discussed the particulars of the unique property. At one point, the rapper declared, "North was the inspiration for the design." West clarified that the couple removed the stairs from the backyard to ensure the kids were "able to ride their scooters or skateboards around and not have to stop at the stairs."
The steps were taken out elsewhere wherever possible, too, which may explain why the house seems so flat and loaded with wide open spaces. In fact, as the controversial rapper stated confidently, "Kids are the inspiration for all our designs now moving forward." Clearly, that didn't turn out to be the case, since the couple ultimately broke up, but it was a sweet thought nonetheless. According to Page Six, the couple spent $20 million on renovations, alongside Belgian designer Axel Vervoordt. The property was slated to be one of the biggest issues in their divorce proceedings as a result.