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How to be a Billionaire, in 14 Easy Decorating Steps

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Back in November of 2013, Architectural Digest treated readers to a tour of the glossy, sterile, 18,000-square-foot Manhattan apartment that ODA Architecture had renovated for an unnamed client with an art gallery sensibility and a love for Monets, Dalis, and the like. After careful analysis, Curbed NY came to the conclusion that the palatial penthouse belonged to none other than Blackstone senior managing director Chinh E. Chu (estimated net worth: $1.1B), who in 2007 spent $33M to acquire the Trump World Tower's 89th floor and half of the 90th. This week, ODA released a batch of photos showing the completely normal, not-at-all insane residence in greater detail. Here now, a photo-heavy guide on how to acquire that art-collecting billionaire look in 14 easy steps, without skimping on the 32-foot interior waterfalls.


1. Put a mound of porcelain sunflower seeds by Ai Weiwei in your entrway.
2. Stage said seed-pile on a platform above a reflecting pool lined with black Murano Glass Mosaic tile and fed by a 32-foot waterfall that flows behind a white-onyx stairway lit by LEDs.
3. Complement your waterfall-Weiwei combo with a kneeling steel figure by Jaume Plensa, a vaguely person-shaped bronze statue by Masayuki Nagare and a Leigh Wen painting of abstracted waves.


3. Just beyond the pool, install a full-scale wood-and-rice-paper teahouse constructed in Kyoto. (Bonus points if it was assembled on-site by Japanese craftsmen.)
4. Affix a boomerang-y wall sculpture by Mar Solis behind it.


5. Employ enough red-lacquer cabinetry in the kitchen to make it resemble that bathroom from The Shining.


6. Paint your double-height living room in Benjamin Moore Snowfall White, and stock it with a Luceplan USA light fixture and a marble cocktail table custom-designed by Yutaka Takiura.
7. Don't forget the Angora-goatskin rug.


8. Center your walk-in closet around what one Curbed NY commenter describes as an abstract sculptural representation of "Kim Kardashian-West having a meltdown."


9. Furnish your 2000-bottle barrel-vaulted wine "cellar" with custom-made wenge-wood racks and Matteograssi stools from DDC.

10. Blue is in for private theaters.


11. Install a billiard table and ceiling lamp, both from the Tresserra Collection, in the lounge.
12. This is probably a no-brainer, but the paintings there should flip to reveal other paintings.


13. No cigar den is complete without a sculpture of a Native American.


14. The Picasso goes in the library.

· 49 Photos Inside a Billionaire's Totally Bonkers NYC Penthouse [Curbed NY]
· Here's a Shiny NYC Penthouse Like a Vacuum-Sealed Gallery [Curbed National]