French shoe designer Christian Louboutin loves houses. And he has a fair number. “There’s Portugal, Brittany, Vendée, Egypt, and Damascus,” he notes, sitting in his Paris kitchen on a sunny summer afternoon. He also has a place in Los Angeles. And there’s Vermelho Melides, the boutique hotel in Portugal, that he designed and opened in 2023, and its new beachside mate, scheduled to be ready this summer. The thing is, Louboutin doesn’t just love owning houses. He loves redoing houses.