Monday, July 23, 2007

Fleur De Lys Photographs of the Day (Part 3)

Today Your Mama is pleased to bring the children two more photographs of Fleur De Lys, a tremendously huge and ridiculously palatial mansion located in the Holmby Hills of Los Angeles. Currently owned by dee-vorcée Suzanne Saperstein, the gargantuan property sits on the market with a stunning list price of $125,000,000. Because we are sincerely afraid of overwhelming the children with too much glitz and gilt, we are limiting our discussion to just two photographs per day. Previously we discussed the Rose and Gold Entrance Hall and the Silver Sitting Room.

On the left we see the music room, a space Your Mama has taken the liberty to name the Rosegold Music Salon. Please note the florid ceiling mural, which features angels blowing horns and strumming harps. Personally we find ceiling murals of pasty skinned angels playing instruments to be upsetting and nightmare inducing, but it we are not at all surprised to see them up on the ceiling of this house.

In the back right corner we see a piano, which we assume is antique and has never been touched by anyone in the Saperstein family. Opposite the piano we spy a harp, a gold harp, of course. Now kids, how often do you think this room gets used? Remember, this is modern day Los Angeles. Imagine the gasp inducing horror of the Suzan Hughes types of Bev Hills and Bel Air being invited over to Fleur de Lys for a baroque musical interlude with musicians flown in from Vienna? Uh, no.

In the photograph on the right, we see the Library with it's expensive and extravagant paneling. The two story room is surrounded in shelf after shelf of meticulously bound and matching book sets which all look very nice and very organized. However, we would bet our own mama that none of these books have never been cracked by any of the Sapersteins. This is not a library where one actually reads. Oh no. This is a library of first editions that is meant to impress the guests with the amount of money spent on books.

The more Your Mama thinks about it, the more we are saddened by the dee-vorce of Russell and Kimora Lee Simmons. Based on the extreme interior design of the New Jersey house they shared during their wedded bliss, which is currently on the market for nearly $24,000,000,
if those two have managed to stay married, this would have been the PERFECT West Coast retreat for them.

Sources: New York Social Diary, Internet Movie Data Base

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

HOLE-LEE SMOKES

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure if I'm becoming immune to the ghastly decorating or if I'm just no longer surprised at the overdone/overcompensating/over the top style of Fleur de whatever.

These rooms are horrid but not as bad as the others. At least they are not monochromatic. But the gold. I am blinded again by the gold. I'm also a little more than tired of the pink/rose/maeve color scheme. No wonder he dumped her.

Anonymous said...

You know what I noticed from the very first photo? The scale is all wrong in this house. It may be inspired by Versailles, but even though they've got what is considered oversized acreage for the L.A. area, their lot size is still too small for the type of house they were trying to build.

It would not have been so noticeable if they would have scaled everything else proportionately, but they obviously wanted the grand scale. So now the music salon is dwarfed by its columns and all of the rooms are too small for the height of the ceilings.

Even if the decor wouldn't be so atrocious, the house would still be nightmare inducing because the scale is so off. Some people might not be able to put their finger on why they felt uncomfortable in this house, but I bet that the scale is breaking all kinds of feng shui rules.

It is a glaringly obvious attempt to imitate something of which they have no real understanding. They just don't get it. So they can't get it right.

Anonymous said...

"Breaking all kinds of feng shui rules", indeed. What you see here are the 'money rules'. There was a time I thought old money types were just being snobby/trite in dismissing new money types, even when the new money types had more of it. Not anymore.

Anonymous said...

Oh the memories. I also had the (miss) fortune for working in that house for a few years. Let me just say, the photos only touch on the MESS- that is Fleur de Lys.

PS...The piano survived the French revolution only to be eaten by termites in that house. (They came into the house on the wood for the fireplace.) Also,the library does not have the faintest smell of parchment and leather as a proper library would. Something very strange there....

Anonymous said...

I guess I'm in the minority here but I am just fascinated by this house and how some people live.

I would love to know how these spaces are utilized and if the owners feel comfortable spending time here. If they do, good for them!

To me, it just looks like alot of work went into the style, color and placement of the rooms. I would love to talk to the owners and ask them how & why?

Oh, I do hope you post a TV room or kitchen so I have some frame of reference to the real world.

Thanks, this is awesome!

Anonymous said...

I would love, LOVE, to hear the echo of the freaky "dolphin impersonator" on the Vickie Bekham special in the halls of Fleur de Lys! I'd probably pay to hear this, honestly.

Anonymous said...

The 1st floor is the "public floor", with the salon, music room, library, dining room etc. The family does not "live" on this floor. These rooms are actually never really used. Of course the kitchen was used by staff and family members ate in the morning room.

As someone else mentioned, the furniture is not reproduction, but real antiques. They could never be used as every-day furniture. They would fall apart in no time. (as many of them already are)
They live on the floors above, which have the bedrooms as well as a sitting room.

Anonymous said...

Picturing the 2nd floor with a big Welcome Home floormat in front of the elevator door and a 'kick off your shoes and set a spell' ambience :)

Anonymous said...

As we progress the rooms are getting decidedly better though still the total opposite of my taste - I have seen worse ... has anyone witnessed Donald Trumps Manhattan apartment - it seriously has more gold than most arab palaces & genuinely makes this place look super classy ... it's the most disgusting interior I have ever witnessed - perhaps his new[er] wife has changed it now but it was a sight to see ...

Anonymous said...

Oh gawd, that's right. Trump's apartment is really awful too. Together with the Simmons' and Saperstein's houses, it's a gold plated tacky trifecta.

Anonymous said...

Take a look at the "books" in the library--see all those perfectly color-coordinated, matching spines? You really think a real book resides in that "library"?

Anonymous said...

Ghastly!

I don't think Djimon Honsou would want to live there even if Kimora might like it.

Anonymous said...

i guess they took down the velvet ropes for the pictures.
trump is another odd one, his apartment is OG, (overgold).

Anonymous said...

I concur with the comment regarding scale. The furniture looks like made for dolls. The proportions of those colummns are not pleasing but nothing is-it's all to impress the bourgeoisie-No,that was another century. They were trying to impress old money.

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to see the pictures of the cee-ment pond!

Janster said...

The scale is wrong because this house is 53,000 square feet and Versailles is 300,000. They're just stuffing too much into those little rooms (little comparatively speaking).