My Candy Spelling Gift "Room"

Aaron Spelling (producer of 7th Heaven, Beverly Hills 90210, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, and Melrose Place, to name a few) and his wife Candy Spelling have a 56,500 sq.ft, W-shaped house, "The Manor", which includes 13-foot ceilings, a doll museum, a gift-wrapping room, 20,000 square foot attic, a bowling alley, a swimming pool, gymnasium, tennis court, screening room, eight 2-car garages, 123 rooms, 12 bedrooms, 3 kitchens, 4 bars, a greenhouse, 12 fountains, a gazebo, and an entire wing for Candy's wardrobe.

Of all the lavish perks in this list, the one thing that caught my attention was the gift-wrapping room. How wonderful to have a whole space devoted to pretty papers, bows, ribbons, baubles and such for wrapping and decorating gifts. I imagine giant rolls of tape, tables like the ones in fabric shops with rulers on their edges, bins and baskets labeled and organized to perfection. And I'm sure there is a detailed archive of all the gifts given and how they were wrapped so that there is no duplication . . . ever.

So, I bought my first house — a modest 1600 sq.ft (54,900 less than Candy's!) — and decided that I'd have my own Candy Spelling Gift Room. Once we got settled in, though, much to my dismay, the only space left for a Gift Room was a small, windowless closet in our guest bedroom. But I forged on. I may not be a Spelling, but I like gift wrapping just as much as the next rich Hollywood socialite. And so the closet it is. I had a closet organizer company come in and give me a wall of pull-out bins and shelves. It now houses gifts I've bought for certain people, things I find that I think will make nice gifts, papers, ribbons, scissors and tape . . . all the things I need to gift and to wrap! I also have places to store my sewing machine and ironing board, and bins to hold all my fabrics. Now, to work on finding a place for that bowling alley.