A $7.75 million Arizona mansion is offering one homebuyer the rare chance to live like a king or queen of old courtesy of its jaw-dropping Parisian-inspired decor, which takes the concept of opulence to a whole new level.
From the street, the five-bedroom, seven-bathroom dwelling looks very much like a traditional, albeit large, Phoenix abode, complete with a large circular driveway, Mediterranean-style architecture, and perfectly manicured lawns.
However, beyond the impressive double doors lies an interior so extravagant that visitors might be forgiven for thinking they have stumbled into the Palace of Versailles rather than a neighborhood dwelling.
From the gilded trim designed with 24-karat gold leaf to the handpainted wallpaper, no expense was spared by the owner when it came to creating their dream home, according to listing agent Joan Levinson with Realty ONE Group.
"It's a very formal house. It kind of looks like it came out of [the era of] Louis XIV," Levinson tells Realtor.com®. "Everything was handmade and came from Europe and all over the place to create the owner's dream of a home."
Levinson notes that the current owner went above and beyond to ensure that every single space in the house was immaculately decorated, spending a fortune on a yearslong renovation.
Some of the more elaborate touches inside the 8,868-square-foot home include an array of 52 chandeliers and sconces, one of which is bedecked with Swarovski crystal and cost $60,000.
"It's a four-tier Bohemian chandelier with Swarovski crystals and trimmed in 24 karat gold," Levinson explains of the piece, which hangs above the entryway. "It came with 1,600 separate pieces, and every arm of the chandelier had to be hand-wired and put together."
Each room in the home features custom trim molding, much of which was finished with 24-karat gold leaf. That feature alone cost $335,000 -- and took a team of eight people about four months to complete.
Meanwhile, the paintings that fill many of the high ceilings are actually custom, hand-stamped wallpapers that were used to give a DaVinci-esque quality to the home, ensuring that opulence greets the eye from every angle.
"The finish in the downstairs guest room is a Venetian plaster finish that is achieved by pinning up lace on the wall, plastering over it, and then removing the lace so that it leaves an imprint of the lace on the wall," she says.
The homeowner also sourced furniture from around the world to create her perfect Parisian-inspired palace.
"She loves the European and the French work, and so she wanted to have a house here that would look like that. She spent years putting all these things together," Levinson adds.
However, the homeowner is ready to move to a new property that boasts even more land than the 1.09-acre plot her current dwelling sits on -- which is why she has decided to sell, Levinson explains.
And while she plans to take some of the furnishings with her, the listing agent says, the owner is open to working with a buyer who is eager to maintain at least some of her work.
She is keen to find someone who will "appreciate" the home for what it is, the agent adds.
"She really considers the whole thing kind of a work of art, and it's really her baby," Levinson says. "She really would like somebody who buys the property to appreciate what she's done and has taken her years to do."
"I've never seen anything like it here in the [United] States, [although] I've seen things like this in France. I was kind of awestruck. It's very unusual. It's not your typical Arizona desert construction. It's one of a kind," the agent continues.
The home's elegant, old-world aesthetic doesn't mean that it is without modern amenities -- quite the opposite, in fact.
The home -- which was built in 1909 -- also features a stone wine room that can seat eight people, an in-house bar, a basketball court, and a swimming pool.
Its prime location at the end of a cul-de-sac affords the home ample privacy.
"The house is just a beautiful, elegant house," Levinson says. "It's in a very expensive area of Paradise Valley."