Furniture executive puts California mansion on the market for $90m

Door handles coated in 24-carat gold, Swarovski crystal in the ceiling and a temperature-controlled car park that moonlights as a nightclub. That’s what seriously cashed-up house-hunters can expect if they have a budget of almost $100 million.

Or at least that’s what they could get their hands on at a southern California mansion that has just come onto the market.

The opulent seven-bedroom, 13-bathroom house on the Newport Coast, in Orange County, has been listed for sale for $US69.8 million ($90.1 million).

The home, known as the Palais de Cristal, is that of Michael Amini, founder and chief executive of home-furnishing company AICO, The Wall Street Journal reports. The 64-year-old entrepreneur, who personally designed many of the homes’ more unusual touches, has been dubbed the “King of Bling” in part for his fondness of covering furniture in Swarovski crystals.

The recently completed home will be sold fully furnished. No expense has been spared on the finishes, which include bespoke chandeliers, interior and exterior white Jordanian marble floors, floor-to-ceiling onyx walls, and Italian door handles coated in 24-carat gold.

An entry foyer featuring a double staircase with gold detailing, and a floor mosaic made from white marble with a pink onyx inlay, greets those who step inside the lavish home. Light shines into the elaborate entrance through a colourful glass dome with a Swarovski crystal-encrusted eye at its centre.

The 1440-square-metre mansion offers plenty of space, with a grand formal dining room, formal and informal living rooms, a library, a wine cellar, en suite guestrooms and three kitchens – a gourmet chef’s kitchen, a fully equipped prep kitchen and an outdoor kitchen.

The main bedroom suite features its own kitchenette, two walk-in closets and two enormous spa-inspired bathrooms with heated marble floors, oversized glass showers and a “soaking tub”.

Then there’s the entertaining pavilion on the subterranean level, which is equipped with a state-of-the-art home theatre – with an LED constellation on its ceiling – an entertaining bar with a glass pool table, a gym and a zen massage room with a steam shower, dry and wet saunas.

That’s not to mention the custom mosaic pool, multiple outdoor entertaining spaces, the sculpture gardens and climate-controlled 10-car garage with a car turntable, which the listing notes can easily be converted into an event space and discotheque.

To top it off the home sits on about 2470 square metres of land and offers unobstructed ocean and coastal views – stretching all the way up to Los Angeles.

Mr Amini bought the block for $5.1 million back in 2007, and originally planned to build the home for his family, the Journal reports. However, with the project delayed after the global financial crisis and construction taking many years, his children are now grown up and the home is too large for him and his wife.

Mr Amini has always been inspired by grand places, tellings the Journal he should have been born in the 15th century and lived in the Palace of Versailles – even if the bedrooms were smaller than he would have liked. He declined to say just how much he spent on building the mansion but said he never had a budget when designing.

The property is listed with Marcy Weinstein and Rex McKown at Compass.