At RH Indianapolis' mansion showroom, you can buy a $19K rug — or you can just look around
As I wandered through RH Indianapolis' Gallery at the DeHaan Estate, a palatial mansion-turned-furniture store for the unspeakably wealthy, I couldn't quite figure out which room I was in.
Is this a bedroom? One of those rooms that doesn't exist for most people outside of a Clue board, like a conservatory or a study? Oh, maybe a foyer. I'm not sure what a foyer is, but I do know rich people love them.
The room itself wasn't important. In one corner of it, I noticed a pleasing furniture set: An off-white, bean-shaped couch, two matching chairs, a brass floor lamp and circular, sturdy coffee table made of dark wood. The furniture sat on a soft, whiteish-gray rug.
On a lark, I priced out this corner of the room — not the whole room, mind you, as my math abilities are limited.
$35,000. Just about the salary of my first newspaper job. It's those $16,000 rugs that'll really sneak up on your bottom line.
These sorts of tongue-in-cheek exercises are all part of the appeal.
An army of welcoming staff members appear to be in on it. Sure, there were a few earnest customers, but most of us were tourists. The employees were friendly, but they didn't harp on me. It's not at all like accidentally making eye contact with a blue shirt at Best Buy.
Perhaps they knew I'm a little closer to the "please, sir, I want some more" tax bracket.
The Gallery is, as advertised, unique.
Restoration Hardware: Inside the restaurant
Showroom, restaurant now open in Christel DeHaan mansion
Linden House, as it was previously known, belonged to Indianapolis businesswoman and philanthropist Christel DeHaan, who passed away in 2020. M Development, a Colorado company, purchased it for $14.5 million — the state's all-time record for a residential sale — and leased it to RH, formerly known as Restoration Hardware.
The showroom and a restaurant, seemingly fashioned out of the mansion's grand entryway and serving upper-end bistro food, opened in November.
You enter the grounds through private, gated driveways. Google Maps hasn't quite figured the place out, yet, and sent me in through the exit gate.
The home is exceedingly opulent, of course, with Greek and Roman-inspired marblework, statues and art. It's not super clear which pieces were DeHaan's or what's for sale by RH, but that doesn't matter if you're only taking in the sights.
There is a wine bar just off the restaurant, with what I believe is the master bedroom just beyond that. The latter was staged with both bedroom and living room sets.
The outdoor spaces are the big draw: huge, multi-tiered patios and a private dock on its 35-acre lake.
A very nice employee told me about a statue I was gawking at on the patio: "The Dream of Gerontius," based on the vocal and orchestral piece, which is itself based on a 19th-century poem.
He said DeHaan was a huge fan and once arranged for a private performance. According to a plate at the bottom of the statue, artist Jeffrey A. Rouse created it for DeHaan in 1999. My crass description of it is basically a naked dude being dragged to hell by some demons. But in a mutter "marvelous" and sip your wine as you pass it sort of way.
Much nicer than Ikea — and much more pricey
Inside the home, most of the rooms are set up as sort of a much nicer Ikea for people seeking tables more expensive than used cars, with RH furniture staged alongside props, antiques and art.
Here are a few price notes I jotted down: A beautiful, large wooden dining table went for about $6,500. A bed frame was $5,750. A nightstand was $1,500. One chandelier and several rugs were $16,000. When I happened upon a $19,000 rug, I leapt off of it as if it had been molten lava.
A lot of it looks and feels very nice, though. And members get pretty large discounts on the furniture, often several thousand dollars. Membership appears to be $200 per year.
The upper floor is open, with a handful of bedrooms staged as living rooms. The basement was roped off.
I can't speak to the Gallery's success at its stated goal: selling furniture. I highly doubt more than a few of the 40 or so people I witnessed in the restaurant and showrooms were even considering it.
But as an attraction — a way to spend an afternoon for less than $50 per person — it's pretty solid. The grounds and architecture were particularly cool. The restaurant was solid.
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Fellow plebeians could even play a fun game I thought of: Take your spouse, get lunch, then each of you gets $100,000 in theoretical cash to decorate a room. Take pictures of your choices and compare.
Mind the rugs, though.
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Rory Appleton is the pop culture reporter at IndyStar. Contact him at 317-552-9044 and rappleton@indystar.com, or follow him on Twitter at @RoryEHAppleton.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: RH Indianapolis: Mansion hosts furniture store for the ultra-wealthy
