Dubbed as the Queen of All Media, Oprah Winfrey is an absolutely successful television mogul with fame and fortune. Though she has constantly been seen on media, her $90M house in Southern California has long been kept private. Here comes your chance to take a tour inside Oprah Winfrey's lavish Montecito home.
1. A Beautiful Respite
The talk show queen's mansion is nestled in Montecito, one of the richest neighborhoods in the country. Surrounded by the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, the area is a very beautiful and exclusive respite. House prices here range from $1 million throughout to $85 million. Still, many celebrities claimed this luxurious locale home, but Oprah just settled down here by chance.
2. Just A Pure Chance
During her almost 50 years career in the media industry, Oprah has built a net worth of over $3 billion. In 2001, she was considering buying a property when an ideal option came by pure chance. Oprah was invited to a party in an impressive mansion in Montecito, and she was so enchanted by the house's beauty that she decided right away to have it for her own.
3. A Staggering Offer
The house was owned at that time by Robert Veloz, an aeronautical equipment manufacturing giant, and he did not intend to sell his mansion. But Oprah insisted on getting her dream house, so she offered Robert a staggering $52 million. It was one of the biggest sales of a private house in the whole US at that time. But the mansion turned out totally worth it.
4. Fit For A Queen
Covering a vast land of roughly 23,000 square feet, the house was constructed in a sumptuous Georgian style in 1912 and had gone through many changes during the past century. The mansion's current form was completed in 1959 and contained a sweeping assortment of rooms. To make it her dream home, Oprah went to great lengths to put her own stamp on the estate.
5. Seeking A Name
First, Oprah's mansion needed a moniker. She initially intended to name the house Tara II because it reminded her of Gone With The Wind, but her friend Bob Greene felt that Tara couldn't hold a candle to this incredible property. After seeking inspiration from the Bible, Bob finally dubbed the palatial place the "Promised Land,” which instantly resonated with Oprah.
6. Home At Last
Now Oprah had her new sanctum, and it was time for the style queen to launch a daunting and massive project to personalize her dream home in her own style. Designers Andrew Walker and David Simmons were the masterminds behind much of the mansion's interior decoration.
7. Fabulous Foyer
This is the main entrance hall of Oprah's home. An elegant, fanciful banister graces the sides of the immaculate white main staircase that curves up past creamy yellow walls. One thing that stands out in the entryway is the framed photos of loved ones on the tables. It reminds us that despite her incredible wealth and status, Oprah is still human at the end of the day.
8. Reading Room
Oprah's reading room contains an impressive book collection in a carefully-selected order that stretches across the back wall. She's put thought into the room's every corner. See the doll on the couch? It represents progress both socially and personally as Oprah grew up in a time when toys didn't reflect her skin color and she was too poor to have many toys as a child.
9. A Guest Room
Even the guest room is a feast for the eyes. Bouquets of fresh flowers grace the shelves above the fireplace and fill the room with their delicate fragrance. The furniture and decoration has obviously been meticulously color-coded, leaving the room filled with soft lilac and lavender tones. However, other motifs in her mansion are entirely different than the ones seen here.
10. A Living Room
One of the most unique aspects of Oprah's mansion is that the rooms fluctuate wildly from one another in patterning, color scheme, and decor choices. Just look at the loud checkered pattern in this living room. The green striped couch and the plush pillows coated with peonies and daisies are sold for a tidy $3,000. Of course, it's not the only living room to be explored.
11. Space To Relax
This is another living room in Oprah's mansion. Its first impression on you may be that it's a little crowded as everywhere you look, there are objects, whether it's a picture, a candelabra, a mirror, or a piece of furniture. And Oprah felt that way, too. She likes to play with her design dreams in her own home by constantly mixing things up.
12. A Sneak Peek
And this is Oprah's sanctum sanctorum, her personal closet. All of her clothes arranged in her oak cabinets are excellently color-coded. And just look at her shoes, she will never be short of choice on what to wear. There are also vases filled with freshly-cut flowers and a seemingly television atop her shoe cabinet. But this is only a glimpse of the whole enormous closet.
13. Cooking Up A Storm
The state-of-the-art kitchen in Oprah's mansion is unbelievably well-stocked, logically arranged, and spacious. While having a fireplace in your kitchen is admittedly a pretty neat idea, Oprah opted to remove it, because she wanted the kitchen to have more space to include her guests. Needless to say, the other rooms in her behemoth house are hardly lacking for space.
14. A Meal With Oprah
With all the candelabras hanging from the ceiling and balanced on the statuettes atop the table, the tasteful dining room might give you flashbacks from Beauty and the Beast. The carefully polished wooden table looks like a glassy ocean reflecting the sky. Just as important as the interior is the outside of the home. There's so much garden space and Oprah has given it her personal touch.
15. Care For A Cuppa
Opening immediately out to the vast garden grounds, this tea room was at first intended to be a place for the gardeners to cut and arrange flowers. Now it's used as a space to relax with a cup of tea. In the tea house, you cannot find any digital device as it meant as a place to unburden yourself from electronic accessories. Just sit quietly, be present, and enjoy the garden.
16. Wisteria Dreams
Outside the tearoom is the entryway into the vast garden's sprawling grounds. Steps stretch down from a framework dripping with purple wisteria to a small fountain. Surrounded by roses, lilies, daffodils, and more, the entrance is reminded Oprah of the moment in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy realizes that she never had to look any further than her own backyard.
17. Hallelujah Lane
In line with the Biblical theme of the Promised Land, Oprah named one of the main pathways in her lush garden Hallelujah Lane. By the lane inside a quiet nook stands this white Greco-Roman statue surrounded with white hydrangea bushes. It's a touching tribute to Oprah's grandmother, who raised her in her Mississippi home surrounded with similar flowers.
18. Four Women
Another impressive installment on Oprah's huge garden is this bronze statue called "a group of four standing women," which was bought for $3.1 million. The four women hold guard beneath a grove of eucalyptus, palm, and pine trees, and each represents a stage in femininity: a teenage girl, an expectant mother, a middle-aged woman, and an elderly woman.
19. Twelve Oak Trees
With their gnarled, wriggling branches jutting up far into the sky, these oak trees have been planted throughout Oprah's garden. There are twelve oak trees in total, and that number conjures up images of Gone With The Wind. Oprah has christened them her Twelve Apostles and feels that they give her a sense of inner peace. But the tranquility doesn't stop here.
20. True Zen
Thanks to the vastness of her mansion and the countless things natural or man-made to appreciate, Oprah can sometimes go weeks without turning on the television, just being present and enjoying the space. She said that when she's sitting on her porch reading a book, she sometimes will drift off into silent dreaming while awake…
Source: buzzaura.com