Izabella St. James: "Why the Playboy Mansion Needs a Makeover"

Filed under: Famous Homes, Celebrity Homes, Cool Homes

Former Playboy playmate Izabella St. James gives us a tour of the decor at the Playboy Mansion -- the aging carpets, the dated furniture and the drapery that hasn't been replaced in years. Here's what she'd change (and which designers she thinks can handle the job).

If you're like me, the closest you've been to the Playboy Mansion is a Saturday afternoon marathon of "The Girls Next Door" -- or reading an article about the recently-discovered evidence that the mansion might house bacteria that causes Legionnaires disease.

And then Izabella St. James came along. The former Playmate and girlfriend of Hugh Hefner gave the world a glimpse inside the legendary estate, and even blew the whistle on its cleanliness, in her memoir "Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion."



"Everything in the Mansion felt old and stale," she wrote. "And Archie the house dog would regularly relieve himself on the hallway curtains, adding a powerful whiff of urine to the general scent of decay." Ouch!

St. James agreed to take us on a virtual tour of the house -- no bunny ears required -- for a closer look at the mansion's interior decor, which she says is from another era. Which era? Well, choosing can just one can get tricky.


Entering the home, the Medieval-esque oak door opens onto the Great Hall, a thoroughfare to the mansion's six bedrooms, four offices and common living areas. Decked out in marble and wood paneling, the space has a huge brass chandelier and three Gothic-style balconies overhead. The double staircase is anchored by a pair of wood-carved, English Regency monkeys, which originally served as a stash spot for guests' calling cards. "[They] were a visitor favorite," St. James says. "No one missed an opportunity to have a photo taken with the monkey, and hopefully Hef."

Life in "Bedroom 6"
During her two-year stay at the mansion, St. James occupied "Bedroom 6," the last room down the L-shaped hallway on the second floor of the house. St. James' picked the 12' x 14' room since it was far from the action of the house. "It was the furthest away from the Great Hall, where all the social action began each night," she explains, "and furthest away from Hef's room." Since her room was situated next to the offices, it was less private during the day, but it provided her some privacy and rare quiet time in the evenings. "In a house constantly filled with people, be it staff or guests, it was nice to have even a glimpse of time to yourself," she says.

Bedroom 6's private bathroom (the other two bedrooms of that size share one) was another reason St. James chose it, though it was far from luxurious. The blue-tiled bath had a simple square pedestal sink, mirror, toilet, basic bathtub and vinyl or synthetic flooring. "It was surprisingly standard, or even below standard, for a mansion," she says.

St. James describes Bedroom 6 in the same lackluster way. "When I moved in, the walls were pink -- Hef's favorite color for girls' bedrooms -- and it had a yellow-cream color queen-size bed with a somewhat fancy (Baroque-ish) headboard, an antique wood dresser of a completely different time period, an Indonesian teak tall book shelf and two mismatched wood nightstands. There wasn't much to speak of in terms of décor," she says.

Channeling both her inner designer and her rebellious side, St. James ditched the pink and had the room painted in a bright yellow hue instead. "I think Hef would have preferred me to have a more girly-pink room," she says.

"The Mansion Needs Updating -- Badly"
The playmates are not at liberty to change the furniture in their rooms, mainly due to logistics, says St. James. (Hef doesn't want to pay for it, and then there are complications when they move out and want to take the furniture with them.) So the playmates did as much decorating as they could with accessories.

St. James hung paintings by Dali and Caravaggio on the walls and displayed her travel collectibles, like decorative clogs from Holland and hand-made knickknacks she picked up at Las Ramblas in Barcelona. "He appreciated some of the wood-carved sculptures I had," she says (some of which happen to be nude). On the bed she put on a set of Pottery Barn sheets she describes as "girly with a high thread count and cheerful pattern."

If St. James could change the decor throughout the mansion, she'd "start with changing all the thus far unchanged carpets." Mostly brown or mustard in color, "they're screaming 70s," she says.

The kitchen, though hardly the kind of hub it is in most homes, has gotten a bit of an upgrade since The Girls Next Door started taping, St. James says, but the rest of the house could use some work.

She'd add hardwood floors in all of the bedrooms and marble in common areas. She'd want to put down area rugs to help define certain spaces and add warmth and comfort to others. And all of the bathrooms would get an overhaul, combining modern functionality with luxury materials -- think stone finishes and beautiful vanities, and less of the "synthetic, simplistic styles" she says make up the current bathrooms.

Who she'd get to do it? "Miss September 1994 herself, Kelly Wearstler," whose fanciful designs, use of color and Playmate sensibility, she says, can do the house some good.

Her second pick? "The aptly named Bunny Williams."

While all six acres of the mansion warrant a visit -- including its two main floors, basement and attic, the detached game room and guest house, aviary, zoo and the famed grotto -- St. James says there are three rooms in particular that you can't miss.

Hef's Haven
The first, Hugh Hefner's bedroom, isn't only where the legend of the Playboy mansion lies, it's a showcase of intricate woodwork and the site of St. James' now infamous criticism of the mansion's décor. "In my book "Bunny Tales" I mentioned that when I lived at the Playboy mansion, Holly Madison shared Hef's bedroom and her two dogs used to leave little surprises all over the carpet," she says.

That isn't to say the space is dirty. (There's an army of staffers on site to make sure that isn't the case. And no, girlfriends are not expected to lift a finger, much less a broom.) But what it did need, St. James says, was a deep cleaning and some serious replacements for the things that had grown old and stale. "It just seemed that things rarely got replaced in the mansion. The carpets, the drapery, a lot of things just remained the same; a lot of brown carpeting, worn down velvet upholstery, etc."

The room, including Hef's rectangular bed, which requires custom-made sheets since it's larger than a regular king, is "filled to the brim with personal mementos, gifts and other items he has collected over the years," St. James says. Stuffed animals, usually given to Hef by ex and current girlfriends, photos, magazines, and one memorable item in particular -- "a carved Indonesian kama sutra statue, which Holly one day gave me while trying to rid the room of some of the clutter" -- fill every crevice.

Office Space
The second must see: Hef's official office downstairs, which he more often refers to as the Library, St. James says. "It's mostly used for interviews, and it is where Hef prepares movie notes every week."

Movie night at the mansion is a long-standing tradition -- first dinner, then an old classic on Fridays and Saturdays, and a new release on Sundays. Before viewing the films (which are not X-rated) Hef uses the notes he's prepared to introduce them, including background stories and other interesting facts.

The office, a cozy room filled with Playboy memorabilia, really gives you the sense of Playboy's history and Hef's accomplishments, St. James says. "It's also peppered with family mementos, such as photos and the eye-catching bust of Barbi Benton."


Playmates at Play
The last stop on St. James' tour is the separate, small-sized building on the Mansion grounds, known as the Game House. "[This space] truly epitomizes the infamy and myth associated with the Playboy Mansion. It represents the heyday of the sexually-free '70's," St. James says. The décor here has a somewhat cottage-y feel, in her opinion, but "manly cottage."

The space lives up to its name as far as the main room in concerned, housing pin ball machines, a pool table and other arcade-style games, but beyond that -- that's where it gets interesting.

The "Round Room" -- a room that is literally round in shape -- is mirrored top to bottom, ceiling included, and features a fully padded floor, sort of like a built-in mattress. "The room is clearly designed with one thing in mind," St. James says. And the Game House's other rooms are no exception. Known as the "Blue Room" and the "Red Room," aptly named because each one is completely decked in its respective color, the rooms are mirrored copies of one another. Located adjacent to each other, the only way to get to one of the bedrooms is through the other.

As the rooms are slightly larger than the size of a bed, furnishings are minimal -- a bed, a phone and mirrors.

Who knows if Hef might ever bring in a designer to revamp the place, Extreme Home Makeover-meets-Girls Next Door style. For now, we'll settle for living vicariously through the photo tour -- this way, we didn't have to touch anything.

For more great ShelterPop stories, don't miss:
Celebrity Kitchens (And Tips You Can Steal From Them)
Cheap Chic Ideas From Christina Aguilera's House
Charlie Sheen's House

 

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