Historic Greystone Estate

Hello dear readers! I'm back from my trip to Paris which was wonderful. I'd like to thank my daughter and hubby (and my other kids who stayed behind and let me go) for such a lovely holiday.

I'd also like to thank all of you for your patience as I haven't posted for a whole week, but I'll make it up to you starting right now.

Veranda presented its third show house at the Greystone estate with 28 of the country's top designers who participated in the event to benefit restoration of the English-gothic revival 1920s manor in Beverly Hills.

It has been seen on the silver screen many times: Jack Nicholson in its grand living room in The Witches of Eastwick; Jude Law and Cameron Diaz in the comedy The Holiday; and the house's bowling alley appeared in There Will Be Blood, starring Daniel Day-Lewis. Greystone played a role in The Bodyguard, Death Becomes Her, What Women Want and two of the Spider-Man movies. The mansion has also provided settings for Jerry Lewis 1964 comedy The Disorderly Orderly, television's Entourage, The Gilmore Girls and General Hospital as well as for Elton John's music video I Want Love, featuring Robert Downey Jr.

Greystone has also been a destination for many celebrated visitors. Bill Clinton enjoyed the mansion during a political fund-raiser hosted there by the director Steven Spielberg in 2000 and another in 1999, which featured the singer Andrea Bocelli. Barack Obama held a campaign fund-raiser there with singer Barbra Streisand, and veteran actor Kirk Douglas renewed his vows with Anne, his wife of half a century, on the grounds of the historic landmark. Actor James Woods, along with many others, tied the knot at the estate as well.

Standing on a 429-acre estate this fifty-five room baronial castle is the largest family estate ever built in Beverly Hills, above Sunset Boulevard. It was a gift from oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny to his son and daughter-in-law. London-born American architect Gordon Kaufmann designed the mansion in the English-Gothic Revival style.

Located at 905 Loma Vista Drive in Beverly Hills, the mansion is not open to the public, but visitors can tour the grounds.

Interior designers scoured Europe for eighteenth-century antiques, marble fireplaces and interior furnishings to fill many of the rooms and complement the outstanding features — high ceilings, parquet floors, stone archways and, in some cases, floor-to-ceiling leaded-glass windows.

Let's take the tour.

Indiana limestone for the facades and Welsh grey slate for the roof.


Italian-style allée with cypress trees.


Large reflecting pool.


A polished concrete table anchors the grand entry, and a pair of palms in 1950s slag pots flanks the doorway. Chinese chairs on one side of the pillars balance ferns in urns on the other side.


Black and white Carrara marble for the main hall's checkerboard flooring, arched doorways in hallway decorated by Jack Fhillips.


Salle de Réception designed by Waldo Fernandez. Grand Palladian windows and polished marble floors.


A bold painting and a capricious cluster of sheep add elements of surprise to the Salle de Réception.


Jack Fhillips' designed the Grand Ballroom.




California designers Richard Hallberg and Barbara Wiseley decorated the Solarium.


An eighteenth-century faience lion presides over an antique French limestone console.


Morning Room also designed by Richard Hallberg and Barbara Wiseley.


Anchored by four polychromed cabinets, the room is reminiscent of a European breakfast room, set with eighteenth-century French porcelain, antique and new silver and gleaming crystal.


Richard Shapiro decorated the Drawing Room with a mix of antique furnishings and museum-quality art, including an antique Italian torso. On opposing walls, a contemporary photograph counterbalances a hard-edge tondo.




Greystone's Library decorated by Rose Tarlow and David Phoenix with antiques and overstuffed seating in a monochromatic palette.




The feminine Garden Retreat designed by Suzanne Rheinstein. Porcelain botanicals line the window that overlooks the rose garden. Garden books, a writing desk for sketching plantings and images of oversize roses by photographer Jim McHugh.




Eclectic style Salon de Thé by Ames Ingham.


Salon d'Art designed by Katie Leede-McGloin.


A palette of blue and beige in the Family Room decorated by Nathan Turner.




Martyn Lawrence Bullard transforms what was once a gunroom into a Cabinet de Curiosité with treasures collected from the Grand Tour of Europe and the East.




Designer James Lumsden decorated the Gentleman's Atelier.


Mary McDonald designed the Lady's Bedroom.

The Guest Room was designed by Elizabeth Dinkel

Master Bedroom by Windsor Smith.

Hot pink in the Master Bath adjoining the Master Bedroom and Dressing Room.


Michelle Nussbaumer designed the Master Suite Hall.

Kathryn Ireland's design of His Guest Room.

Family Kitchen by the Veranda Editors.

Designer Ann Getty decorated the East Foyer.

The Writing Room by designer Andrew Virtue Kravet.

The Petit Salon.

Tower Gallery by Tim Clarke.


The Recreation Wing by Tim Clarke.


The Guest Terrace designed by Joe Lucas and Parrish Chilcoat, its furnishings include iron seating, a zinc-top dining table and wicker dining chairs.

English boxwoods thrive in Phoenician Stone's Fontana di Campagnia, and dwarf Italian cypress trees stand tall in Authentic Provence's citrus boxes, first fashioned in seventeenth-century France and made of oak with cast iron posts today. (By the way, identical boxes are used as trash bins in the gardens of the Versailles Palace which I had the pleasure of visiting last week).

Greystone's Reflecting Pool. Inspired by classical gardens of France and Italy, the landscaping by Burks Hamner marries classic architecture with potted olive trees and formal hedges.

Lots of rooms, lots of different styles, I hope you enjoyed this tour.

All images and information (and believe it or not, even more pics) right here.