The maximalist makeover took two years and added a Housewives lounge, 14-foot sofas, gold, marble and plenty of family-friendly glamour.
ByBernadette Giacomazzo
September 15, 2026
Key Takeaways
- Shamea Morton and husband Gerald Mwangi spent $1.5 million renovating Sterling Hall, the 20,000-square-foot Atlanta mansion they bought for $9 million in 2022.
- The maximalist makeover features custom Versace wallpaper, 14-foot sofas, a pink-and-white Housewives lounge, and a glass elevator connecting Morton’s two closets.
- Designer Jennifer Kole spent roughly two years making the home camera-ready for RHOA while keeping its family spaces comfortable for Morton’s children.
Shamea Morton apparently decided that if The Real Housewives of Atlantacameras were coming into her home, they’d have something worth filming.
The RHOA star and her husband, HVAC entrepreneur Gerald Mwangi, dropped $1.5 million renovating their sprawling Atlanta mansion, adding everything from custom Versace wallpaper and 14-foot sofas to a dedicated Housewives lounge. And then there’s the detail that pushes it over the top: Morton has a glass elevator connecting her two closets.
Morton and Mwangi purchased Sterling Hall, a 20,000-square-foot mansion in Atlanta’s Kingswood neighborhood, for $9 million in 2022. At the time, Morton was still making occasional appearances on Real Housewives of Atlanta rather than holding a full-time peach. But she enlisted Chicago-based designer Jennifer Kole to transform the home, with several spaces specifically designed to accommodate filming.
Minimalism wasn’t happening.
“When we started, everybody was on this wave of doing modern minimalism, and I was like, ‘That is so not me,'” Morton said to The Wall Street Journal. “I wanted it to be over-the-top—I need gold and marble—jaw drop!”
Kole spent roughly two years working through the house, prioritizing the rooms most likely to appear on RHOA along with private family spaces. Just off the foyer sits the parlor where Morton films her confessionals, outfitted with enormous custom sofas.
Upstairs, a pink-and-white lounge lets the Housewives gather during shoots, complete with curved sofas and a white grand piano.
The entryway, meanwhile, announces itself with custom Versace wallpaper.
“We do have Versace wallpaper as you walk in,” Kole said, while noting that simply piling designer logos into the house wasn’t the goal. Instead, she said the home’s extravagant look came from layering materials and letting Morton’s taste dictate how far the design could go.
“My biggest challenge was reminding myself that I could just go for it and that I didn’t have to pull back,” Kole said. “And when I thought that I went for it, I needed to go extra.”
Then came the closet problem.
Morton’s primary walk-in was sizable, but apparently not sizable enough for her wardrobe and the glam squad handling her hair, makeup, and styling during RHOA filming.
The solution was to take over a tea room directly beneath it and turn that space into a second dressing room. The home’s original builder then installed a small glass elevator between the two closets, which Morton compared to a bank’s pneumatic tube system.
The finished product got exactly the reaction she wanted when her castmates finally saw it.
“When the ladies came over to film for the first time, they were all in awe of the home,” Morton said. “They were like, ‘Who the hell has Versace on the walls?'”
The lavish reveal comes after a turbulent stretch for Morton on RHOA. Her longtime friendship with Porsha Williams disintegrated after Morton became a full-time cast member, eventually spilling into an ugly Scotland confrontation involving accusations about both women’s mothers. Their feud continued online, where the former friends traded allegations and competing “receipts.”
Morton has since tried to distance herself from the chaos. During a recent appearance on Watch What Happens Live, she admitted the Scotland dinner went too far.
“The dinner was not the appropriate time to do it,” Morton said, explaining that she apologized to the other Housewives for making them uncomfortable.
Her mansion, at least, was designed for considerably more glamorous RHOA drama. And despite spending $1.5 million making Sterling Hall camera-ready, Morton insists the $9 million property isn’t some untouchable television set.
“I never want to make my children or my family feel like they can’t touch or do or be comfortable at home,” she said.
