Touring an $8,995,000 Tuscan-Inspired Estate in California

Hi Luxury Home Show, I'm your host Ariana and today we're showing you an absolutely magnificent estate here in Laguna Niguel, California. We'll be talking with the homeowner herself on what makes this property so special and later on we'll meet up with Phil Caruso, the agent on the property, to tell us how incredible this location is right here in Southern California. Let's go. Talk about a view for your backyard. Honestly one of my favorite views aside from the private hillside is looking back and seeing the King Palms. This is arguably one of the most beautiful views of the entire home. This feels like an absolutely regal Tuscan estate. Before we head inside let's talk about this entrance. A gorgeous wraparound driveway welcomes you with red brick herringbone directly underneath your feet and that immediately sets the stage for the design of the entire estate. The red brick gives touches of history and richness throughout the entire design, even echoing the Spanish tiling on the rooftop. There's a very generous front yard where you could run around, potentially have some friends over, kids running around, even a dog, but that doesn't even touch the grandness of the backyard which we're going to get to in just a few minutes. But first why don't we take a look inside. Hi, great to see you again Ariana. Thank you for coming. Absolutely. We've been so looking forward to this. Look at this foyer. I know. So tell me more about the history of the home. So it was built in 1997. Ed Lorbach was a renowned Laguna Beach architect who has since passed away and when we bought it I actually contacted his office because I wanted to do some slight renovations and I wanted to make sure it was done in keeping with the house and with their intention. So I spoke to who was then a junior architect on this project and he described the intention of it. And you can tell there is so much intention to it from the neutral colour of the floors all the way up the walls and then this oval shape is so unique. Yeah. And the play of light with the skylights is really incredible. Different times of the day there's a massive custom skylight up there and there's several others throughout the house as well. So the architect when you spoke with him what was the original design thrust for the home? Was it based on a certain region of the world? It was actually. They referred to it as a Pasadena estate. So I haven't spent a lot of time in Pasadena obviously but it's very reminiscent of that. And also he has some newer versions of that down at Strands Beach which he worked on recently. So what's your favourite room in the house? Favourite room honestly is the view from the front door where you go down through looking through these beautiful archways into the dining room and then out to the fountain in the back. I just think that that's such a stunning visual line. But inside I really love the library. I would love to see. How charming is this? I can just imagine having some really rich conversation with friends in here. Exactly. It's so cosy. I mean this is a 7,700 square foot house and yet it feels so intimate in so many of the rooms. It's just beautiful. And this particular with the coffin ceiling and all the beautiful woodwork it just it feels like you would want to sit here with a liqueur after dinner and intimate conversations. It's a very special room. I hear this room is a little nostalgic for you. Is that right? It is a little nostalgic. I grew up on a ranch in Australia and so I have the cowhide in here. For some reason it reminded me of that and you know just the furnishings that I've put in here. There's little touches of Australia throughout the house. The art in the former living room over there and various other places throughout the house. Well what should we keep in mind as we tour the home? I think the thing to keep in mind is just to enjoy the serenity of this guard-gated community. And even though it's a really large home it's just warm and it's been a beautiful place to raise our two daughters and launch them successfully into the big wide world out there. So it's definitely a beautiful family home and it's wonderful for entertaining. From the Juliet balcony up there to having family and friends line the staircase and take photographs. It's a really special house. Beautiful for entertaining or just living in privately as well. Well thank you for having us. We can't wait to look around. Thank you so much for coming. This dramatic double high oval shaped foyer immediately sets the tone for the home. Introducing its sense of scale and architectural sophistication. Soaring ceilings, abundant natural light and a sweeping curved staircase that serves as the centerpiece of the home. Plenty of space for a piano so you could just imagine the music echoing through this beautiful foyer. Let's say you were having an event entertaining some guests you could absolutely have this piano playing. And of course as Jackie mentioned I absolutely love this double arc way. As soon as you walk in it just sweeps you into that formal dining room and right out to the gorgeous gardens out there. But before we move deeper into the house let's check out the formal living room. And just off to the right you have a formal powder room so perfect for your guests when they come over. And welcome to the formal living room. As you walk down a couple of steps you're immediately transcended into a completely different feel. This feels both elegant and comforting. A very dramatic fireplace and mantle sweep your eye upward to the cockward ceilings. Beneath my feet though this is the first carpeted area that we've seen in the home and it immediately changes even the sound of the room. Dramatic floor to ceiling windows as well as drapery just really enhance the feeling of stateliness of this entire home. And now moving deeper into the home off to the side here there's a hallway that leads to this other side of the house but we're going to get to that in a little bit. A couple more steps down lead you into the formal dining room. This is as elegant as it gets. This is a separate space for hosting whether you have family or friends perhaps even a special event here in this room. Plenty of space for this long dining table to have your guests as well as a gorgeous drop crystal chandelier just hovering directly over the dining table creating this real sense of regalness throughout. Behind me you see not only gorgeous open french doors and windows but above here this is one of my favorite design pieces. This is a large circular shaped window that lets in so much light from the back side of the house. On the walls plenty of space for mirrors or artwork and of course the regal drapery falling and cascading to really frame the sides of the room. Just beautiful. And speaking of dining let's move this way into the kitchen. And of course when you're hosting your guests you need to have your butler's pantry so it's a convenient access right through here if you're serving your guests for dinner. Lots of great storage space of course a sink and plenty of storage underneath as well as a cooler fridge down here and then I'm going to walk through to meet you in the kitchen. Very thoughtfully designed so that there is never going to be any kind of stuck places or friction points especially when you're hosting a large gathering. Here is a gorgeous generously sized kitchen island directly with the sink facing outward these huge windows to the back gardens where I can see mature landscaping heritage olive trees. Imagine just doing your dishes day to day and enjoying it with such a view like this. Beautiful polished stone countertops reflect a lot of that light to be able to kind of bring that airiness of California right into the kitchen. The light polished stone contrasts just beautifully with this deeper wood here in the kitchen that's wrapped around with plenty of storage. A panel ready sub-zero fridge and freezer behind you and right here we have Thermador appliances both a stovetop as well as plenty of oven space. I can just imagine hosting a Thanksgiving here and let's say that you want to be doing homemade rolls and pies all at the same time. Perhaps even bring in a professional chef or a team to help you cook to feed all of your guests. This is such ample space to be able to cook delicious meals and make lots of memories. A natural extension of the kitchen is this additional dining table here that could be used for everyday meals. Breakfast overlooking that backyard. Plenty of lighting and bookended on this space are two desks so that you could sit and read your morning news or perhaps write down the schedule for the family for the day. All being swept in this beautiful natural abundant light around you. And once you've had your breakfast now it's time to spend time with your family. Let's head into the family room. This is such a comfortable family room. I would imagine you could throw up the game or a movie right here on the entertainment center and over here on this wall is a beautiful wood framed fireplace perfect for hanging your art. And really this room just creates such a feeling of everyday living. It feels very accessible, very comfortable while still feeling stately connected to the rest of the house. And here just off of the family room you of course want to entertain with a wet bar and as promised let's say hi to Phil. Hi Phil. Hey I knew you'd find me at the bar. I had a feeling. Yeah this is a comfortable spot for me. Absolutely. I really love how they incorporated both this copper hammered sink as well as the stonework and just a really regal bar setting here. It's just beautiful. Yeah it's special. All right off the living room into the kitchen and then of course leads you outside. So I know you've been here for a little bit. Have you had a chance to go out yet? I've been saving that for our conversation. Oh perfect. You want to head out there? Let's grab a drink and go. Let's do it. Talk about a view for your backyard. Right. You don't see this very often. These type of grounds. This is like a private park right above San Juan. So you have the retail and then you have the history of like old San Juan Mission, River Street Market, which I think you might have had dinner recently. We've been to. Yeah absolutely. It's not amazing. It's like amenities that you'd see in LA and Laguna Beach but you're right in town. So that kind of dichotomy is really rare to find. And then when you look around I don't see any other homes. Not at all. Just perfectly clear view all the way through the valley and those hills over there. Wow you can see for miles. And then as the seasons kind of change here you get the wildflowers. Those are beautiful little yellow flowers that grow into the hills. So it's really special. Wow. What a charming pathway under here that you can just really feel and hear that texture under your feet. It's almost like a zen garden. Yep. Decomposed granite. It's hard to see a home like this where you have no neighbors on one side, mature landscaping that would take. When you look back you see all the notability of Annette Lorbach who is the architect here and has done a ton of homes in Pasadena and then some recent stuff along the beach. But this kind of feels like it was dropped right in from LA. Yeah. With the same type of land because you don't really see this land you know in South County like that. Absolutely. Or Orange County to be honest. Or even Orange County. You're right it's such a unique place that you still have the best of both worlds. Exactly. You have access to retail that reminds us of LA but you have those open quiet streets, private gated community. And I also really noticed that the architecture and landscaping designer brought in such a combination from various parts of the world. Pasadena but also you're inspired by Tuscany with the heritage olive trees. You have the palm trees that are of course very Southern California. Just really the best of the best. Yeah. So we made it to the back of the yard which again super private but there's tons of entertainment areas. I kind of like this at night. It's so amazing intimate. You get the fire pit going and then you look back at the house and you can kind of see the scale right. Absolutely you can see just the scale of this yard how it feels like it's it's quite a journey from the home. So like you said you could feel like you have this really intimate private area back here for just having conversation around the fire. And just amazing to me that from even this vantage point you basically can see absolutely no neighboring structures. Right. It's just so open it feels like you kind of have your own private little estate right here in the hills. It's like a park a little park. Yeah. These gardens feel inspired by both Tuscany and perhaps English gardens is that right? Yeah you're right and this cellar is from abroad so they also have a really beautiful eclectic style and she was attracted to the home by these grounds and the fountains and some of the like I would call it perfect symmetry as you walk through it and then almost feels like you're walking through like a wine garden so to speak. I mean look at this we got shade we have our pool and then honestly one of my favorite views aside from the private hillside is looking back and seeing the king palms. Oh yeah wow. When you get a little bit of the beautiful Spanish roof lines and then some of these trees it's just special. Well I feel like I could spend hours out here in this backyard but you know what we haven't had a chance to see the upstairs yet. Oh amazing that's just as special and honestly thank you really lucky to have you on site. I know you had a chance to chat with the owner and kind of get her love for the home too so have fun and I'll see you soon right? All right see you soon. Thank you Ari. Thanks Phil. Coming back inside to finish off this ground floor before heading upstairs we're passing by that family room that we looked at earlier and right here is the hallway that wrapped just off of the foyer that we mentioned earlier. Beautifully connected for a seamless flow throughout the house. Off to the side is a powder room you have the laundry room here very generously sized so you can take care of all of your laundry in one space of the house. A door to the garage as well as an additional bedroom back here but let's take a look upstairs. Now I could go up this second staircase very easy access for the family from anywhere in the home but of course we want to use that beautiful grand staircase. Let's go. This sweeping grand staircase is definitely an architectural focal point of the home. This is one of those moments that you will dream of as a little kid where you come down in your soaring dress whether it's for prom or being picked up for a major award event. Definitely a dramatic entrance downstairs. Here at the top of the staircase first you have this beautiful view looking down into the foyer and being just above this gorgeous stunning crystal chandelier draping down from the ceiling. Above here you can see that oval shaped skylight just drifting down through and across is that Juliet balcony. Behind me is a very thoughtful moment with this sort of counter height cutout so that you have the formal dining room that you can peer over into. You can see that chandelier draping all the way down in but most importantly across from me is that beautiful circular window just letting in light and creating almost an art piece as you walk past it up here in this upper hallway. In the hallway here is ample linen storage which is perfect because most of the family bedrooms are up here kind of tucked away into its own family suite. Let's start with the primary. This is a sizable very elegant primary. As soon as you walk in you have a coffee bar here as well as a refrigerator so you don't even need to leave your primary suite in the morning. You can have your own kind of moment before sweeping down into the rest of the house. What I love about this primary is that there are various areas that you could have experiences in your daily life. So for example here in this area you could wake up having gotten your coffee from the coffee bar and you could just sit here and read your morning news or book and look straight out that gorgeous window to the backyard. Right here plenty of space for a king-size bed and off to the side here is yet another seating area. This one's extra special because it faces the fireplace. This is a Tuscany inspired fireplace that you could have on at any season of the year. It's propane driven so it doesn't produce too much heat keeping it really comfortable all year round. Behind you here is these gorgeous side-to-side picture frame windows that look out over the garden and yet from this upper level you can see even beyond the backyard. I can see all the way down into San Juan Capistrano below these gorgeous silhouettes of hills that are just absolutely breathtaking from this view. And now get ready for this primary bathroom suite. You know it's going to be an impressive bathroom when you have to walk down a hallway just to enter the space. Welcome to the primary bathroom. Plenty of areas for you to get ready for your day and enjoy and relax. Right here we have a standalone surrounded tub with this gorgeous detailed stone surround. You have this beautiful fluted glasswork behind it to let through not only light but also be able to see that this bathroom expands even beyond this initial generous space. You have multiple sink areas as well as a tay so you could sit and do your makeup, get your hair done, get ready for those events that you're planning on. And back here is the shower. I always love a shower that you feel like you're kind of exiting the rest of the home and entering your very own spa. I love this beautifully striated gorgeous color on the stonework here. Absolutely seamless. Rather than having tile they decided to have a seamless slab of stone. It's very dramatic really beautiful and honestly quite expensive looking. You also have the wainscoting down here with a stone and then the checkered tile stone on the floor as well. This brass detailing as well as another skylight just above me so this while it feels like a serene spot it still feels light and airy. We're now on the other side of that fluted glass so again that air and light just kind of move right through all of these rooms. Wow what a balcony. This is just off of the primary bathroom there and you are swept up directly into this backyard. This is arguably one of the most beautiful views of the entire home. You're perched directly over this crystal clear blue pool. You get to see all the lounge chairs, the spa, the hot tub, but most importantly you get to see far beyond the grounds over into that valley of the San Juan Capistrano area, the hillsides. I see a bird sweeping through the skyline just now and it's absolutely breathtaking. This feels like an absolutely regal Tuscan estate. So the primary sort of sits in its own special space over here and then you have three secondary bedrooms. One off to the left here, one to the right, and this one here at the end of the hallway. You can see from this queen-size bed here the scale of even the secondary bedrooms. It's quite sizable, plenty of space to move around. You could even potentially have a friend in here, you could have a seat over here to read a book at the end of the day, maybe study. Individual ensuite bathrooms also offer the opportunity for everyone to have their own space to get ready and wind down at the end of the day. Here's another example of a patio just off of one of the bedrooms to where everyone can have their own experience connecting to the outside of the home. From this one these French doors open up to the front yard seeing the gorgeous king palm as well as the beautifully manicured front yard. In addition to all of these bedrooms there is the guest house that you can exit right through here conveniently for all of your family and friends that you want to host overnight. Let's go check it out. Easily connected to the main house this has its own kind of separate feeling. To get to the guest house you actually walk across this beautiful balcony so that you can see both the front yard and the backyard and even from this view I can see out into the rolling hills beautiful greenery off to the side there. In addition to being connected to the main house it also has a separate staircase so that they could enter privately. Stepping into the guest house just off to the side you have a double vanity sink, a bathtub as well as a shower and a really generous amount of space in here. The current homeowner is actually using this as an office so you could either use this as an office and all-purpose kind of space for your family or of course as a guest bedroom. On both sides you have plenty of light coming in through the windows so no matter the time of day whether it's east facing that morning sun or the west the even the sunset coming through just really beautiful light just sweeping all the way through the space. Plenty of space for seating having a morning coffee and yet another balcony. Stepping out onto this private balcony you have a beautiful view of the pool the backyard those hills and you are just tucked right into some of this mature greenery it almost feels like you're in a little escape in the hills all by yourself. Thanks Luxury Home Show we hope you enjoyed this episode if you have any questions just check out the description below and we want to know in the comments what your favorite room in this house was. If you enjoyed this episode you're definitely going to love the next one. Welcome back to the Luxury Home Show I'm your host Ariana and today we are exploring the one and only Sur House designed by JH2 Architects here in the coveted Crystal Cove of Newport Coast.