CLOSER TO HOME
The star found serenity in her California bachelorette pad
Alana Stewart takes Closer through her beautiful Beverly Hills bungalow.
As a former model, best friend of Farrah Fawcett and the ex-wife of two showbiz legends, George Hamilton and Rod Stewart, Alana Stewart knows what it’s like to live large. But in 2003, with her three children grown, she decided to downsize. “I raised my kids in Brentwood and didn’t want to live in a big house anymore,” Alana, 72, tells Closer. “I really wanted one that was like a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel.”
She got her wish with this three-bedroom, two-bath home in the Beverly Hills canyon. “Walking in here, I loved it because it felt so private and cozy,” she says. “And everything was so open — almost like one big room!”
While she admits “it was not love at first sight,” recalling the “awful” army green paint job, she nevertheless “saw the potential.”
And the glass-walled entryway and windows make it feel larger than its 1,841 square feet, as do the lush garden and large pool on her quarter-acre lot.
She stripped and restained the tall living room beams, added a skylight in her office and extended the hardwood floors in the living and dining rooms throughout the house. “I’m not sure why — I had three dogs who mutilated them with their nails,” she says. “George would laugh because I made everyone take off their shoes, and then the dogs made mincemeat of the floors!”
A decorator pal helped her find modern pieces to mix in with antiques and English traditional items from her home in LA’s Brentwood. With some added Buddhas and Chinese urns, the resulting style is something she calls “contemporary with a Zen feel…maybe Zen-temporary?” she adds with a laugh.
In recent years, Alana has redone the kitchen counters and master bath, but the one area she
gravitates toward most is her bedroom. “It’s my favorite space in the entire house. After I feed the dogs [her Chihuahua, Bliss, and her son Ashley’s visiting pit bull mix, Tara] and fix myself something to eat, I’ll take my tray into bed, watch TV and I’m in heaven!”
There’s even more bliss to be found in the backyard sitting area, overlooking her garden and pool. “I love to look out over water, so even though I never use it, it’s very Zen,” she says. And though she doesn’t have famous pals over often, she does entertain her famous ex and family. “George was here on Thanksgiving with his son GT, who calls me Auntie Alana,” she smiles. “Ashley is a father now, so I’ll do my grandmother’s Christmas dinner for about 20 people with homemade pies. Everything has to be made from scratch!”
And when she comes home from a long day working to fund cancer research as president of the Farrah Fawcett Foundation or promoting her new skin care line, Erase Extreme, Alana is grateful she found her little bungalow. “It’s a place to rejuvenate and restore,” she shares. “It’s my refuge.” — Reporting by Steve Gidlow
“We were both Texas gals. She had real Texas grit with what she went through and she never
gave up.”
— Alana (with Farrah)