Wednesday, August 23, 2023

"Inside Ashley Benson’s Playful Los Angeles Home: A Peek into Luxury and Quirkiness | Open Door"

Introduction: 

Hi, ED, I'm Ashley Benson, and welcome to my home. Come on in. So this is the casual living room, but it's really my dog's main bedroom, house, and kitchen. I've always wanted to live in a house that felt like I was on permanent vacation. When I'm outside I just feel like I'm like in Italy, in Barcelona, like anywhere that kind of like puts me away from being, you know, in LA.

And this house really did that for me. I just had such a vision. I love interior design. But working with Nicole Gordon, who's also one of my best friends, it was very easy. And John [indistinct] was amazing. So one fun fact that I loved right when I saw the house originally, Arthur Kelly who did the Playboy Mansion also built this house in 1930.

And I thought that was just a very cool piece of history. And I think I was the third owner of this house, which is very rare. It just felt very special and timeless. [upbeat music] A kitchen is everything to me. Nancy Meyers is one of my favorite directors ever. If you know her movies, which I'm sure you do, she has the best kitchens, and her interiors are amazing. I wanted my house to feel very Nancy Meyers-esque. And so here we are. I wanted a very big island. I love to entertain. A lot of my free time that I have on the weekends, I have all of my friends come over. They'll come over with "what dish they're gonna make" and we just spend a lot of time in here.

This is probably the most used room in my house. The one thing I wanted, I was like, I need to somehow figure out how I can make this stove in my kitchen and also one of these 'cause it looks like I know how to cook and I'm a professional chef. I have a bunch of these pans, and no, I've never used them and I never will.

I've collected a bunch of pots and pans and kettles and stuff from Paris, London, Geneva, Canada, kind of all over. I was gonna put an ample light above the island, but this is far more interesting. I just think it looks very pretty. I make all of my friends coffee every morning if they're over. If not, I'll make myself coffee.

Believe it or not, I actually do keep pastries in here all the time just because I feel like they look pretty and it just puts me in a really great mood. This is not just for show. This is for the show, but I really always do have like, little donuts or, you know, bread, croissants, all the things just because I wanna look like I know what I'm doing in here.

This is my dining room. Before it was all white and I just had a piano in here. I kind of like the idea of having a dining room away from my kitchen. And I made these doors be able to open to the backyard and the grass so my dogs can go out, we can get fresh air. I have a fireplace here, which I redid it into gold, a gold fireplace, which I loved.

And having a black dining room I thought was very cool. It felt very Parisian to me, in a sense. But, yeah. In the winter I literally have this fire going at all times. My friends come over, we play games, and we just eat and sit in here for hours. I have music put on in here and it's just a really nice room to kind of relax in.

So this is my formal living room. I wanted to have a space that felt very "adult" and just classy, elegant and somewhere for people to just be able to sit down, talk, for me to like read a book, enjoy the fire, have coffee, tea, a glass of wine, whatever that may be. Every time I went into people's houses I was like, "You don't have a TV? Like, that's so crazy. " But it just feels so much more mature. I just liked a grand room without anything like that. But I also wanted to have kind of a home theater room. Being able to watch films and then having this fire is just amazing. [mellow music] So right now we're in my backyard, which I actually use as my front yard, my front entrance.

We have my pool here. We have these beautiful blue tiles. The elevated hot tub was really important for me and the water flows down when you're in it. And yeah, it's just very cozy, and every time I'm out here I just feel like I'm on vacation. I feel like I'm in Cabo, and then also Italy with all the flowers and stuff.

But yeah, it's very relaxing out here. This is Mason. Mason is Nicole Gordon's dog, who also did my house. Love you, Nicole. But Mason comes over all the time. He's the one creature that goes in my pool more than I do or my friends. If he comes into my house, he goes right through the gate, jumps in the pool and he is there for hours.

Hey, this is what we do on the weekends. Ready? Yeah, go. He also uses steps too. Good boy, Macy! Good boy, Macy! I feel like because I travel so much and I'm constantly living in hotels, I wanted my bedroom to feel like that. I love small spaces and to feel very cozy. And I got inspired by one hotel in Amsterdam that had weird cages for the bathrooms.

And so I thought of the idea of, why not make my bathrooms in weird caged rooms? So here we are. This copper tub was very important to me. I wanted something that was different, hence this. I'm a very big bath person. The first thing I do when I wake up is take a bath regardless of, you know, if I have time or not. I go in here, I put a little TV in here. This was an amazing piece. It's also a steam room, which I really wanted. If I'm ever feeling sick or worn down or just tired, I'll sit in here for another hour or two. And then if you go over this side. This just feels very open, very girly. These sconces actually are original to the house, and I think a lot of the sconces in my bedroom are, as well.

But to kind of tie that in with my bathroom, I picked this mirror that's kind of covering up a little window there. This is where I sleep. I was obsessed with blush and like a mustardy yellow and a navy situation. I didn't know how we would make it work, but we did. These floating little nightstands are unique and so handy and it just looks cleaner.

 I love having a clean kind of aesthetic. I don't like anything busy, so it just worked very well. Having these sconces right here, these little lamps, I think it's such a nice touch. But yeah, just very feminine and tidy and nothing too crazy busy. And it just, again, feels like a really nice hotel room.

I also have an original fireplace, which I love putting on the fire at night, and I still do, even in the summer I'll have it blasting. When I go to bed, it makes you just fall asleep very quickly. And then why not have a bar in your bedroom? So again, it just felt like I was away somewhere in a hotel. And I know that sounds kind of crazy, but you know, why not? Also, it's mainly just for my candy.

I wanted my closet to kind of flow with my bathroom. So originally, all of this was a guest room, and there wasn't a lot of closet space in the house so I got to kind of build my dream closet and I felt like I was in a department store, but still my house. This is one of my favorite things ever.

I always dreamed of having a closet with little lights in it and kind of being able to see everything. This is actually a photo of Keegan Allen who played Toby on "Pretty Little Liars." He framed this for me. That's in Mulholland. I think I was like 24, and I was very into photography at the time, and I just thought it looked very cute in this closet.

So, thanks, Keegan. I had the laundry room built in this little secret door. This laundry room is so much fun. First of all, this wallpaper, I wanted to do the laundry room in a very weird print, and for some reason, I was really into aliens at the time and space, so I was like, what can I find that has that sort of element and why not put it in the laundry room? My friend Christina is an amazing organizer and she did my laundry room for me.

So it just also looks like a store. It's just a very fun room for me to be in and a lot of space to do my laundry, steam clothes, fold the clothes, all the things. And I love doing laundry, so I just wanted to make this space kind of a fun room for me to be in. This is going into one of my guest bedrooms, and this entire room is all right kind of reminded me of Chateau Marmont which I did spend a lot of time in in my early twenties, I lived there for a bit. So this was kind of paying homage to that and I just thought it was so beautiful and I was happy to not have to redo another room and to be able to leave some of the original pieces here.

This is one of my favorite guest rooms. It feels like "Beauty and the Beast" to me. I love libraries and we stained all this wood to be a bit darker and I just wanted to fill it with different memories. A lot of my family pictures are here, different projects I've worked on, a lot of them, mobilia.

I love collecting records, so I have a lot of my records here on these shelves. And I think it's just so peaceful, the sunset from this room is incredible. [upbeat music] We are on our way to the speakeasy, but before that, this was actually the original furnace in the house. We sealed it shut, and painted it gold.

I thought it was a really cool piece to leave here. And if you walk this way, you'll just see a much younger me right there for "Spring Breakers." This is my speakeasy. I'll take you up this way to the bar.I spend a lot of time in here. Believe it or not, I do a lot of self-tapes for auditions in this room.

So it's not only a bar but also a workspace. I got inspired by Hôtel Costes, it's one of my favorite hotels in Paris. They have a lot of black marble, black walls, deep red accent walls, and all of their rooms in the hotel are red velvet. And I'm just obsessed with that hotel. The wallpaper on the ceiling looks like flowers, but if you look closely enough you might see something a little different.

We don't have to go into details, but, you know. And then also, this mirrored ceiling I thought was very fun. Just to kind of play off of the mirrored background of the bar. It's usually all red lights. I change all these sconces to red light, I put music on and I'll be down here for hours with my friends, or just alone.

And I find it actually a very creative space for me. During COVID I mastered an espresso martini. So that's one of my faves. I was trying to do better at making good cocktails. I just pour things in and hopefully, it tastes good. [upbeat music] Thanks for coming over and hanging out with me. I hope you enjoyed the house, but now I want some alone time, so get out.

Bye.


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