Anonymous

The Harold Levitt villa has generous proportions with floor-to-ceiling glass doors and exposed beam ceilings in the breakfast room, but the rooms remain human-scaled and livable rather than imposing — a hillside villa, not a palace.

Every room is saturated with warm materials: flagstone floors, leather club chairs, linen upholstery, aged wood tables, terracotta tones, Ushak and Aubusson rugs, wooden ladder-back chairs, and a pervasive amber-gold palette throughout.

Dense layering of antiques, art, and objects in coherent dialogue — the living room combines Vuillard panels, leather seating, chess pieces, ceramic vessels, and stacked books, while the green office wall is filled edge-to-edge with curated photographs, all held together by a consistent warm palette.

Strong commitment to a European villa aesthetic mixing 18th-century French limestone fireplace surrounds, Portuguese folding screens, Biedermeier furniture, and Italian portals, with only minor modern intrusions like the Levitt-era glass walls that actually complement the cross-century European narrative.

The article explicitly states the couple collected art and antiques 'for most of their lives' but also reveals this was a top-to-bottom makeover with designers assembling the mix — convincing fabricated accumulation aided by a French art dealer (Patricia Marshall) and auction houses in London and Paris.

The article mentions '150 guests at our Christmas party,' the husband describes entertaining 'probably once a week,' and the designers are described as event planners — multiple entertaining zones including pool terrace, formal dining, and family room confirm a home built for social life.

The spaces are quality and considered — leather and velvet seating, carefully arranged vignettes — but the article emphasizes 'something you can sit on or touch' and the indoor-outdoor glass doors keep things from feeling too serious, landing at respectful but not intimidating.

Martyn Lawrence-Bullard and Trip Haenisch directed a three-year transformation with styled vignettes throughout — the symmetrical sofa arrangement, the composed photograph wall in the office, and the deliberate color coordination across rooms all reveal professional design intent, though the owners' collections provide genuine personality.

Recognizable designer pieces (Pissarro's 'La Rivière aux Saules,' Vuillard panels, Babe Paley's former mirrors, fashion photographs by Steichen, Horst, and Avedon) signal taste and access, but the warmth and livability prevent full performance — wealth is evident but serves comfort rather than spectacle.