A taste of rich Ol Pejeta lifestyle

By Cathy Ochung

Like its original owner’s lifestyle that is told and re-written like an exaggerated fantasy tale, Ol Pejeta House and all that is associated with it including the architecture and furniture is imposing.

A TV room with unique wooden furniture and piped music.

It sits on an expansive ranch and has managed to remain a major attraction in the uneventful town of Nanyuki at Ol Pejeta conservancy ranch.

Approximately 33 years after billionaire Saudi Arabian businessman Adnan Khashoggi constructed it, the place has astonishingly maintained its splendour.

A lot has since been written about gaudy and opulent life of Khashoggi and a visit to the house brings to reality the experience of what the occupants of the grand house might have been.

Ol Pejeta’s ambience and dÈcor suggests exactly that and much more. It is easy to get one’s imaginative juices running to visualise life at the house just by staring at the interior dÈcor and furnishing. Piped soft music as seen by the wiring on the walls must have played throughout the ceilings of the place when he jetted in from around the globe to entertain his friends at the ranch, the teasing smell of mahogany on just about every piece of furniture chocking his guests and servants alike.

A private pool outside the lower rooms.

The two-storey building emphasises the use of quality wood in both furniture and as a decorative material right from the main entrance and on to the wooden staircase to a secret door that connects the master bedroom to what was Khashoggi’s wife’s spread-out bedroom.

High ceilings constructed with wood hang magnificently above most of the rooms with enormous seats and cushions.

Size is everything

Because size seemed to appeal to the original interior design of the house even huge wall-to-wall hangings make for interesting decorative pieces.

The master bedroom and what was originally an ordinary room is a showstopper of some sort with a 12ft by 12ft oversize bed dominating the room.

On to the bathroom and in all other bathrooms around the house is an oversize bath tb all fitted in a room that is slightly smaller than the wardrobe room.

Ol Pejeta House has gone through many hands since it was sold but has retained its original look even with its current owner, the Serena Group.