ON a warm and breezy Georgia morning, a tall, toned and down-to-earth Tyler Perry swaggers onto the front porch of his grand palace, dressed to the nines. The 34-year-old new-school playwright, who has, he says, made over $50 million writing and producing plays for the urban theater circuit, says that his 12-acre estate, nestled some 25 minutes outside of Atlanta, is a brick-and-mortar testament to the rewards of faith. Perry should know; in the not-too-distant past, he was jobless, penniless and homeless.
"I wanted this house to be vast. I wanted to make a statement, not in any grand or boastful way, but to let people know what God can do when you believe," he says. "I don't care how low you go, there's an opposite of low, and as low as I went I wanted to go that much higher. And if there was an opposite of homelessness, I wanted to find it."
The estate he named the Avec Chateau, a French phrase meaning "with home," is the opposite of homelessness and a lot of other things.
Valued at approximately $5 million, it perhaps can be best described as 16,000 square feet of paradise. The rear of the Chateau houses two "prayer gardens," a man-made waterfall, tennis court, amphitheater and a negative-edge pool that offers the illusion of crystal blue waters flowing into a stream.
Inside the Chateau, visitors encounter powerful, unpredictable decor that plays a melodic homage to the classic, contemporary, and even the medieval era.
The dominant theme in the foyer is medievalism with a life-sized knight in shining armor "guarding" the large double doors, and an equally threatening armored warhorse peeking around the corner.
An aristocratic marble floor, spiral staircase and square interior columns make a seamless segue into the front room where a cool gray wall blends easily with the blossoming crystal chandelier and the mahogany floor. Perry says the gray hue, like many of the other colors (and wood stains) throughout the house, was achieved by accident.
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