MW Comedian Heather McMahan on remodeling her Atlanta childhood home, including a black-lacquered martini room

By Karli Mullane

When not on tour, McMahan lives with her husband and her mother in the house she grew up in.

Comedian Heather McMahan might be used to a life on the road while taking her show on tour, but she's made sure that when she can return home, it's to a very familiar setting: her childhood home in Atlanta.

McMahan, 38, who is on the road for "The Bamboozled Tour," called New York and Los Angeles home for many years while honing her comedic chops, but moved back to Atlanta when her father died in 2015.

McMahan's self-deprecating and relatable humor has earned her a loyal fanbase, and demand for the entertainer to travel and perform only increased after the debut of her weekly podcast, "Absolutely Not with Heather McMahan," and back-to-back comedy specials: Netflix's $(NFLX)$ "Son I Never Had" and Hulu's "Breadwinner."

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Yet McMahan has chosen to remain close to her Southern roots, revealing to Realtor.com that she lives with husband Jeff Daniels and her mother in the same house she grew up in: a 7,000-square-foot Georgian-style abode.

However, while she appreciates the comfort that her childhood home provides, she has made sure to update it with some special touches that are better suited to her lifestyle now that she's a grown-up-including the addition of a "martini room" where she can relax with a drink.

"There's a real soft spot in my heart for this house," says McMahan. "There's been many moments that I could've moved [and] we have other properties where we get away, but this is like our home base."

McMahan describes the family residence as "comfortable and beautiful," and notes she tries to keep the exterior true to its architectural origin so she can feel free to experiment with the interior.

"I personally love a traditional home on the outside that is timeless forever, and then you walk in the door, and it's modern and funky and [has] lots of color," she says.

"We have big, giant, heavy black custom doors that look kind of like something you'd see on Hyde Street in London.

"It is very much animal print [and] gold. I like you to feel like you're at a cool, funky, modern hotel in Italy. That's our aesthetic.

"My mom's an incredible contemporary artist, so we have her pieces all over the house. I love huge, giant paintings.

"My home office, I have crazy art all over. Because I got married in Italy, all the napkins were hand-painted, and so I have those framed. I have a giant poster from when I played Radio City framed. I have all sorts of knickknacks and stuff fans have gotten me.

"My husband, every golf course that he goes to, he collects flags from that specific club. So we've given him one area, which is like our home gym in the basement, that he can put the flags everywhere because I was like, 'Honey, there's a hundred of them!'

"I love to entertain, so we have a big setup in the back. We have a great pool-my dad put in this giant pool years ago, and it was the best investment we ever [made]."

While McMahan says she most misses her cozy bed when she's away from home, there's another spot in the house the FRESCA Mixed ambassador finds sanctuary in when she returns from working on projects, including the new limited-run online talk show, "What's the Tee?"

"I built a martini room," she explains. "It's got these cool, low Italian couches, art hanging on every square inch. It's lacquered black. It's got a mirrored ceiling. And it reminds me of being at a fabulous hotel somewhere in Rome or in Paris.

"I sit in there with my two French bulldogs, and I have a glass of wine, or my coffee in the morning, or my Fresca Mixed, of course, and that is like my little safe haven."

However, McMahan never sits still for long-in her martini room or elsewhere.

"Because I'm on the road so much, when I do sit at home for more than 46 hours, I'm like, 'Oh, I want to do that room. Oh, we should paint this closet. Oh, we should wallpaper this bathroom.' It's simply once you sit in the space, you're like, 'Why not change some things?'

"My husband's like, 'You've got to get back on the road because if not, you're going to end up repainting this house for the 10th time.'"

Indeed, McMahan reveals she is investing in a few house upgrades right now. In addition to a "new she shed," she's got a couple of major renovations on deck.

"I'm redoing an old room upstairs. I'm turning it into my cool tour room/hangout spot," she says. "I've painted everything Setting Plaster from Farrow & Ball, and then it's lacquered red cabinets. And I'm just, like, I'm just going for it.

"We're about to have to redo the pool, which I'm sure is going to cost an arm and a leg, so I'll be on tour forever paying that bill!"

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Clearly, the comedian uses humor to help her through the challenges of homeownership. And in a reference to the title of her stand-up tour, she describes the endless responsibilities that come with maintaining a home.

"It's all a bamboozlement! There's always something," she jokes.

"Now that we've bought a home and we've bought other properties, now [I] know what I'm doing, but the first time you're like, 'I'm signing my life away.'"

"I just bought a new roof-I didn't even know I needed a new roof. The HVAC [technician] just left-that's going to cost me a pretty penny. [I] need new siding. The concrete's cracking in the back by the pool, and you're like, 'What is happening?'

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"If you're traveling, you've got to think about, 'OK, I've got to shut this down, got to make sure that there's not a bunch of old chicken in the fridge.' You constantly have to be proactive, because if not, you'll come home to something with fur on it in your fridge!"

Feeling overwhelmed by what it takes to own and keep up a property is something McMahan experienced from the very start of her homeownership journey.

"I bought my first home in Mississippi," she explains. "I bought a home in Oxford, where I went to college, and it's my husband and I's little getaway.

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"We love going back for football games and just to be in this great little town, but we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

"You go to the closing, and I'm like, 'Oh, wait, I was supposed to have all these different documents?' People are not as open and honest about how scary buying a house can be. You don't know until you go through it."

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And as McMahan continues to improve the first home she ever called home, she's letting herself daydream about the next one she hopes to add to her property portfolio.

"I would love to buy a place in Italy. We're not there yet, but my dream is to have a house in Tuscany where I spend half the year, and I just kick my feet up and eat pasta all day. That's the dream."

This story originally ran on Realtor.com.

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June 04, 2025 05:01 ET (09:01 GMT)

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