Meet the woman behind the Barbie-inspired condo for sale in Ann Arbor

By Alexandra Bahou

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    ANN ARBOR, Michigan (WXYZ) — If there’s a Barbie girl living in her own Barbie world, that would definitely be Annie Penta of Ann Arbor.

“I am a huge fan of Barbie,” said Penta. ”I used to be obsessed with going thrifting and collecting Barbie memorabilia, and I never really collected the dolls.”

And over the years, her home on Alpine Drive has been a canvas for her creativity.

“Pretty much pink has always been my favorite color. This is what is different for me is most people are like, ‘oh my god, it’s so much color.’ But I grew up with color,” she said.

But make no mistake, not everything in her abode is pink. In fact, there’s a nod to Scarface in her living room.

“As a creative person, I have multiple things that I like. I don’t just do one thing. I have other parts of me that like other things,” said Penta.

As a professional makeup artist, she’s used to people being in awe when they come into her place.

“I love the reaction out of people when they come down here, because when they first come into my house, they go into the Scarface living room and they’re like, ‘oh, wow, this is great.’ And then I’m like, ‘just wait, just wait.’ And then they go down the stairs and then they see this and they’re like, ‘oh my god, this is amazing,’” she said.

So when her place hit the market just a few weeks ago, she was floored by all the attention. She says her mom is an artist, and so her whole life has been colorful.

“I’ve always seen her doing colorful work. So to me, this is my normal. It’s not that out of the ordinary to me. So to get so much exposure, she’s befuddled. She’s like, ‘ didn’t think your house is that crazy either,’” Penta laughed.

Therese Antonelli of Moving The Mitten Real Estate Group had met Penta a few years prior — and jumped at the chance to help sell the condo.

“It’s not every day you get such a uniquely-curated property, right? I mean, the world of what we live in loves gray-iege,” said Antonelli.

She explained some of the things that caught her attention in Penta’s place.

“The pink kitchen with the pink refrigerator, and the pink stove and her gold dishwasher. And she has a pink knife set … and so when we photographed it, I knew I wanted to get a little creative in the description,” explained Antonelli.

The description boasts a maintenance-free Barbie dream condo that every glam girl or glam guy would love.

The first open house, Antonelli said, brought in about 30 groups of people.

“Everybody’s like, ‘this is my dream house. Oh, my god, a dream. Like, I would never leave here.’ And I kind of had to … talk myself into leaving here because I didn’t want to leave here,” said Penta.

But now she’s got a new canvas, and her Barbie memorabilia, fun furniture and beloved dog Zsa Zsa are coming with her.

“I already have everything, like in my head,” she said. “I was just talking to my sister this morning about what I’m going to be doing to my new bedroom, how I’m going to add to it.”

Penta is moving out of Michigan — and she says we’ll be able to follow along with her design inspo for the new place on social media.

As for her current place in Ann Arbor — it’s still open for offers. No Barbie or Ken included.

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