Holy crap, Petra Ecclestone let W magazine into her new house The Manor and the results of the visit are predictably absurd (many thanks to the Real Estalker). Ecclestone, you may recall, is a 23 year old Brit heiress/handbag designer (her father heads Formula One racing) who decided to make her entrance into LA "society" last year by buying Candy Spelling's 56,500 square foot Holmby Hills mansion for $85 million (the move was so weird that for a while everyone tried to convince themselves that she was fronting for an Indian billionaire). Since then, Ecclestone has married some guy named James Stunt (in a $19 million wedding) and overhauled The Manor to her poppy tastes with the help of design-builder Gavin Brodin. Here is our accounting of things she has brought into The Manor:
-- Jobs! It took 500 workers to install her new furnishings in just nine weeks (they were designed in three).
-- A new "massive VIP lounge" look: "Five thousand square feet of white marble lashed with thick black stripes pave the foyer; black carpet streaks up the sweeping double staircase to the second floor. Dark velvets line the walls, and little crystals sparkle everywhere."
-- Or, in Ecclestone's words: "I’ve got quite masculine taste?I don’t like a lot of pattern. This room is the only light room; everything else is very dark and kind of sexy, with, like, a boudoir feel to it. You’re not scared if you stain something."
-- Weird ideas about coziness: "I know that the house is huge, and yes, it really is quite overwhelming, but with the other houses we looked at that were a similar size to this, you felt like you were in a museum. They didn’t feel homey. I think because there was a family here previously, it was warmer and cozier."
-- Classy friends, including Brandon Davis, the Hilton sisters, Mel Gibson, and "a lot of friends you won’t have heard of, old-money people who have houses here. They’re kind of like us," according to Stunt. (Is there any easier way to look like a giant asshole than by bragging about being friends with this lot? Yes: by forcing Gibson to watch his own nineties-era movies in your screening room when he comes over [Ransom].)
-- Portraits by Sir Anthony van Dyck, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and Sir Peter Lely, belonging to Stunt. He is in competition with the royals over the Lelys, in fact: "In Althorp, the Earl of Spencer has the Windsor Beauties, which is a very famous group of pictures by the artist. I’ve been trying to rival the Windsor Beauties. I have more, I think, than him, and I’m just five off the Royal Collection."
-- "A sculpture by Marc Quinn of twin Pamela Andersons in bikinis."
-- A giant fish tank, "to be filled with rare puffer fish and angelfish," for Stunt's study.
-- A nightclub-esque makeover for the basement.
-- A spa with a massage parlor, three hair stations, and two mani-pedi chairs, in the room that used to house Spelling's infamous doll collection.
-- A Mickey Mouse doll that Ecclestone has had since birth. Awww, she's just like us.
-- A white Range Rover with "petra" on the grille, a black Range Rover with "stunt" on the grille, a white Ferrari, a white Rolls-Royce Ghost, a black Lamborghini, and a black Rolls. (The white ones are for Petra and the black are for James--adorable!)
-- "Caretakers, housekeepers, an assistant, several bodyguards, and a butler" named Rodney who "just helps around the house," according to Ecclestone.
-- A coat of arms designed by her decorator: "a large M encircled by laurels and flanked by a pair of English lions."
-- A Union Jack for the flagpole, natch.
And here's a fun little kicker about father Bernie Ecclestone's attempt to set up Petra and his other daughter Tamara (a reality star in England) for the long term: "In December, The Guardian reported that he had established a £3 billion trust for them to build a real estate portfolio. 'The idea was that they’d buy superquality property that would be long term—for their kids and everything else,' he said. 'Didn’t happen. They haven’t done that. So they’ve had access to money, which they’ve spent.'"
· Lady of the Manor [W]
· Candy Spelling Sells The Manor For $85 Million [Curbed LA]
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