1091 Laurel Way, Beverly Hills, California
For sale: $18.95 million
When Natalie Glosman was designing her dream home on a hillside lot above Sunset Boulevard, she didn’t ask anyone’s opinion.
“I would have been swayed,” she said.
Instead, she found inspiration in the things she loves: her family, her extensive travels through Europe and her collection of antique furniture.
The resulting home — really more of a castle — melds baroque, rococo, art deco and art nouveau styles into an eight-bedroom, 12-bath masterpiece. On three floors of 5,000 square feet each, Glosman considered each detail, blending her favorite styles into one of the more magnificent homes in a neighborhood full of magnificent homes.
"I used all of what Europe has to offer," she said.
The exterior is inspired by a wing of The Louvre that was never completed, with a Louis XV replica door — in blue, Glosman’s favorite color — and an exterior staircase inspired by the Chateau de Fontainebleau in Paris.
The entryway is dominated by a huge, sparkling chandelier, with 30-foot ceilings and pink marble floors Glosman traveled to a Verona quarry to choose herself. The dual staircase was poured in place using 5 tons of bronze.
Allegorical oil paintings of her family sit high above the staircase, and everything from the etched glass to the mahogany doors was custom-designed by craftspeople. The empire-style dining room displays antique blue china, and whimsical fish sculptures form fountains around the pool.
The home is listed by Jade Mills and Linda May of Coldwell Banker Previews International.
On her smartphone, Glosman, a warm, slight woman who works in her husband’s dental office, flips through photos of various celebrities in her home when it was used for film shoots: Danny DeVito in her mahogany office. A "Real Housewife" of Atlanta in her bed.
But while the home is a showpiece, Glosman's photo album reveals it is also a happy home: family birthday parties in the dining room, a new baby granddaughter in one of the bedroom suites. It makes personal what is first of all grand.
"That's what is so special about this house," she said. "It's large, but it doesn't feel large."
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Emily Heffter, a reporter and writer for Zillow Blog, covers celebrity real estate, unusual properties, and other real estate topics. Read more of her work here.