Highland Park Secret Sanctuary is a Luxurious Private Paradise

We all love the idea of a secret sanctuary. Whether it’s a bookcase that opens onto a concealed passageway, or an ivy shrouded door in a wall that leads to a private garden, we’re intrigued and captivated. Maybe it’s growing up with classic literature that gave us the world of Narnia accessed from an old armoire and The Secret Garden, where a hidden door opened into, well — a secret garden, but there’s no doubt everyone loves the idea of having a good hiding place. We’ve found the best one yet; a perfect secret sanctuary that is a luxurious private paradise in the heart of Highland Park at 4824 Abbott Avenue.

Tasteful luxury is something you don’t often find. It’s hard to have just the right touch of restraint and also understand when over-the-top is absolutely essential. Europeans get this. They innately know how to collect, assemble, and layer a home. Global travelers and antique dealers get it as well. So it comes as no surprise that the owner of this home has a long history of collecting, assembling and getting it right.

Betty Gertz opened the doors of East & Orient Company in 1979. If you have not been, you must go. It’s 12,000 square feet of the most elegant European furnishings and accessories you can possibly imagine. So of course her own residence is extraordinary and exactly what you’d expect to find in the home of a respected antiques dealer.

Gertz has just put her beautiful secret garden of a home on the market for $2.995 million. It’s listed with David Nichols of Allie Beth Allman & Associates.

Belgian designer Axel Vervoordt worked with Gertz to turn the somewhat ordinary 1984 house into a spectacular masterpiece. It was his idea to conceal the house, almost completely, behind lush greenery. The two had collaborated before and Vervoordt had a keen understanding of his client’s needs and expectations, and exactly what over-the-top ideas would work — like the foyer. Vervoordt turned what could have been a mundane entry area into long gallery of lime-painted plaster walls adorned with bougainvillea. Natural light pours through multiple skylights creating an almost greenhouse effect. This gallery separates the kitchen and master suite and offers a view of the garden at the far end, the moment you enter the house.

Rob Brinkly wrote in the Architectural Digest January 2016 issue about this home, beautifully summing up the process of turning the three-bedroom, three-full-and-two-half-bath home into a showplace.

“A comprehensive renovation elevated the structure in every way: ceiling heights, finishes, aura. Flemish artisans came to apply naturally pigmented lime washes to the walls, and for the floors, Vervoordt trucked in old Carrara-marble slabs and timeworn wood parquet set in dramatic patterns. Cabinetry from an 18th-century Bordeaux apothecary now lines the kitchen, while noble pilasters of oak and walnut augment the gracious library, the house’s largest space, which is used for reading, relaxing, and dining (“basically it’s a one-room house,” Gertz says with a laugh). Finally, when all the dust had settled, a ho-hum dwelling had been transformed into something else entirely: a well-crafted treasure chest for the dealer’s cherished trove.”

The master bathroom is another area where what might seem to be luxurious excess is really common sense. Comfortable chairs, table lamps, chests and secretaries that are found in more formal rooms are also perfectly at home in any old world styled European bathroom. Gertz and Vervoordt created a master bathroom that you could linger in all day.

This is the sort of house where a celebrity would feel safe, tucked away from the paparazzi, yet still able to have discreet friends over for an al fresco dinner or a dip in the pool. If you’re ready to schedule access to this secret sanctuary call Nichols today —privacy like this is a rare find.