Keyshawn, the aesthete

KEYSHAWN JOHNSON is not at all pleased with his grill -- not the cooktop, but an unevenly painted heating duct in a zebrawood-paneled wall of his Westwood condo. The 34-year-old Carolina Panthers wide receiver and celebrated USC alum prowls his 3,300-square-foot pied-a-terre, chugging bottles of water while an NFL official sits in the sleek, white marble kitchen waiting for a urine sample as part of the league's random steroid testing. At Johnson's side is Christos Joannides, a principal of Idea Space Design, the Beverly Hills firm that crafted Johnson's swank quarters.

"Where are the toe kickers?" the football star asks, noticing missing baseboards. Joannides dutifully scribbles it on his ever-expanding to-do list.

"When you're an athlete, most people think you don't know or care anything about design," Johnson says. "That's like saying all actors are on drugs and crazy."

Having invested in spec homes and decorated personal residences in New York, Florida, North Carolina and multiple spots in L.A. since he went pro in 1996, Johnson has become as confident in a furniture showroom as he is on the gridiron. He developed an interest in design when he first became a homeowner, he says, and life experiences have since shaped his tastes.

"I've stayed in some of the best hotels in the world. I read House & Garden and Casa Vogue," says Johnson, adding that he's a fan of Fendi's and Armani Casa's home collections. "I spend hours at Hennessy + Ingalls in Santa Monica looking at architecture books like some weirdo."

Richard Landry, a Los Angeles architect working on a mansion for Johnson in Calabasas, refers to his client as not just an athlete but an aesthete and an entrepreneur, one who has a solid understanding of how design can enrich lives and bank accounts.

"Keyshawn can actually read architectural plans and see the finished work," Landry says. "He strikes me as a guy with a vision who is open to the process."

Other athletes may invest in cars, clothes and diamonds, but Johnson has developed a real estate portfolio -- and acquired a hands-on education in design along the way. Whether he is building a Mediterranean mansion, as he is doing in Calabasas, or collaborating on the interiors of a modern high-rise, Johnson has a sensibility informed by two elements, Landry says.

"He thinks about what his family needs as well as his own style, which is clean and uncluttered."