Inside a $22,000,000 Mansion in Bel Air, Los Angeles

Hello Luxury Home Show, I'm Melanie Marlowe, I'm a property developer and I'd love to show you around my home in Bel Air. And then one of the lovely things about this house is that we have 30 foot wide openings on both sides. It actually took me about 8 years to build this house, it wasn't for the faint hearted I'll tell you that. So in here I kept the neutral colour but I brought in Roberto Cavalli wallpaper. This property is located in Bel Air within walking distance of the hotel. It's approximately 10,000 square feet, set over 3 floors and a guest house. And as you can see we have a very oversized driveway that can host 14 cars. But come with me, let me show you inside. As you walk inside the property you'll see here I've got an indoor outdoor fish pond which is really lovely at night. It lights up and it has a very zen feel about it, very relaxing. We have a double entry height entry and you've got an architectural overhang here just to break up the squareness and the boxiness. When we walk through you'll see the formal living on this side and the formal dining here. And I purchased all of the furniture myself, this is not staged. So for example this 14 foot dining table came over from Europe. It took about six months to get here but I was very resolute that it wouldn't have the joins to get the length, I didn't want the leaves on either side. And then one of the lovely things about this house is that we have 30 foot wide openings on both sides. So this truly is an indoor outdoor space and everything here is automated. So either on your phone or on the wall you just hit a button and everything opens up. And then when they're both open you'll really feel the flow of the house and the space and how super it would be to host a dinner party here or a party. It actually took me about eight years to build this house, I had a lot of hurdles along the way. It took me three years to get the permit, then we had two year delays with Covid. So it was a very extended process, it wasn't for the faint hearted I'll tell you that. When I designed this house it was really important to me to have this flow of energy. So you'll see pretty much everywhere in the house you can see everybody and you can hear everyone unless you don't want to. And a perfect example of bringing the outside in here is having this pool abutting the house which is really unusual but again at night when it's all lit up it does really bring a sense of peace in the house. I've been building this house for so long that my nine year old actually helped me build it, the entire thing. I have videos of him actually drilling the piles that I needed to extend the land out. I've yet to see an island quite as large as this and it's just a beautiful space to work and cook and fully engage with the family room. Everything is Gaggenau, all of my appliances are Gaggenau. And then just to finish it off with something really special, you'll see here I have a glass lift, and this is a private lift, it comes in from the garage to the kitchen up to the primary suite. And I'm going to take you in here and you'll see how fun it is, but before I do that let me take you back the other way. This is very much an entertainment house, as you can see we have a bar here and then we have a 450 bottle wine wall, which I like to think is a piece of art. And I'm going to take you into the gym, it's not a normal gym, it's my kind of gym. And I had to put a Pilates machine in here, it's absolutely my favourite workout. I like to create different spaces around the house, so you can see this shower doesn't have a wall here, but of course for privacy I needed to tint it. So again, when we walk around the house you'll see different design elements that were really important to me so it didn't look like a cookie cutter house. Let me show you how that works. Can you see me? So you've noticed this house is quite light and bright, but in here I wanted to make things a little bit more moody. I call this the party powder room. And in here you'll see there is a custom wallpaper, it's a mural, it was made to measure for this wall. And then this lovely sink, and the reason I picked this, it just reminded me of a female body. I thought it was lovely. In the office I have these bi-fold doors that fully open the space, and my thought behind that was when you're sat in your office working for hours on end and you need a break, you just literally step outside and take a seat and look at the beautiful canyon. I love it out here, it's so peaceful. At night you light your fire pits, I have another one on the other side, so when those doors are fully open and you've got both fire pits on, it's really, really a soothing place. When you're building a modern home, the issue that you're always fighting with is not to make it look like a white box. So when I started designing this, it was very important to me to have elements of not looking so boxy. So you'll see here the wood siding that I have on the outside, I ran that all the way through the inside. So when we talk about indoor-outdoor living, it truly is, because you can't quite see where the outside starts and where it ends, and that was really important to me. This is a canyon, I wanted to bring in organic materials, an organic look, and just really feel that we could embrace that view inside the house. I came to Los Angeles on a two-week holiday and absolutely fell in love with it, because coming from England, we live in a grey box, and when we talk about indoor-outdoor living, that's the epitome of it for me, it's the sun. Living here has been very pivotal for my career. In England I used to renovate old properties built from stone, but here, having that lifestyle of the warmth of the sun and the indoor-outdoor living, it allowed me to develop and design homes that I could never have done in the UK. I got into property developing because I was a bored housewife. Not bored with the husband, but bored with living in Italy where everything's very sleepy. And he asked me what I would like to do, and I said I'd like to renovate houses. And he said, what do you know about renovating houses? And I said nothing, but I know I can do it. And so he took a chance on me, and this was over 20 years ago, and my first property was in the north of England, and it cost $50,000. And I did a lot of the work myself. I was painting, I was caulking, because I was really, really scared not to make any money, and I knew it was really my only chance to start this career. And here we are, over 20 years later. I call this the sunroom. This is such a lovely space because it gives you the best view of the canyon. And I even like how we've got the rooftops of that old Spanish house across the road. You'll notice here I did this doorway extra wide, and the reason I did that was because I wanted these two spaces connected, so it actually felt like a hotel room. So now I'm going to go into one of the guest bedrooms, and again, you'll see the little nuances that I do that just make these spaces different. And here, I left the space open to go into the bathroom. I didn't just want a bathroom where you open and close the door. And what's really lovely, when you're laid in this bathtub, you just feel very, very spacious and not closed in. And also, if you have someone here that you're comfortable with, you can have a lovely chat. If, however, you don't want to be on such display, just close the doors. And here we have another guest suite, and now straight into the primary. So I decided it would be a very good idea to have the two of everything, so there's no squabbling in my house. Here we have the bedroom, and then off to either side, you have a closet and a bathroom, and they're both very different. So let me show you the light side, as we call it. So in this side, we have an oversized bathtub. Be prepared, it will take about 20 minutes to fill, but it's really good for sharing. And then the shower here, I've yet to see a shower head that large. So again, really good for sharing. See where I'm going here? And then over here, again, trying to break up the squareness of the spaces. So when you start incorporating curves everywhere, that's really helpful to, again, make it feel just a little bit more organic. And then walking into the closet, it was really important to me to make this space feel like a Rodeo Drive designer store. So I've got the shelves that are all lit everywhere. You have the open space, you've got the mirrors, you've got natural lighting, and everything here just feels very luxury. And a fun fact, these are from England. As a developer, we're always mindful of keeping things more of a neutral palette. So in here, I kept the neutral color, but I brought in the wallpaper, Roberto Cavalli wallpaper, to bring a little bit more of masculinity in here, and a bit of moodiness too. I always find that in the primary, it's nice to have a moody feeling. Welcome to the dark side. When I was designing this space, again, keeping that open feeling, I made a glass closet, which is not the norm, but it's great. And it leads you into the steam room and the sauna, and this really will be a shared space. I do envisage that the couple who own this house will take a sauna, take a steam together, grab a book, and lay on these chaise loungers and enjoy that view. And then here we are. Here's the private lift. Fancy. Let me take you down. Bye. This house is three stories, so it's really important that you have a lift going on every floor. The reason I chose this lift is because I personally get quite claustrophobic when those doors close. And particularly in residential homes, the lifts are really small. But I love this lift. I love to go up and be able to see everything. And when you get to the next floor, you can see outside. I think it's really special. Out here, you'll see this fabulous piece of art. It's called bird feathers. And I implemented this purely to break up this big retaining wall that I had to put in. But I do like it. I think it works really well in this space. Come with me to see the guest house. When I was designing this house, I wanted to bring in a guest house. And a true guest house. A one bedroom with kitchen, with dining, and with living. It's a true extension of the house. If you look at the way that I've built this, and how it leads into the formal house. And when all the doors are open on either side, it just feels like an extension of the main house. But in actuality, it's where you put your mother-in-law when she comes to visit. And finally, we end on the rooftop. And the thing that I love most about being up here, is that you're immersed in nature. You don't actually feel like you're in the heart of Los Angeles at all. You're just surrounded by canyons, and trees, and birds. Thank you so much for joining me on Luxury Home Show. This house is available for sale. You know where to find me. Hey, Luxury Home Show. My name is Kim Lapine. I'm an interior designer in Los Angeles. Welcome to my home. So we are in my entryway. And when we first came to look at this house,