Don’t bother wiping your feet

Step through the hilltop gate of Darryl Henderson’s Hollywood Hills spread and enter Eden. Make that Eden Hill House, but no one would know the difference.

A lush tropical garden is the main focus of this half-acre property. But the real charm of the house is the seamless indoor-outdoor feeling created by the huge picture windows and retractable patio doors that blur the line between garden and living room.

“The idea was to go for a Southern California tropical paradise,” Anderson said of the remodeled, horseshoe-shaped home and garden.

About this house: When Anderson purchased this 1950 property nearly four years ago, he envisioned an entertainer’s dreamscape and hired architects and an engineer to realize it. The Grand Salon -- a living room connected to the large kitchen -- opens to the garden and allows guests to wander between the interior and exterior cooking areas. The indoor kitchen features a 54-inch serpent-shaped sink set in an island, which the host can fill with ice, beer and shrimp for guests to sample while awaiting dinner.

For sheer drama, it’s hard to beat the upper-garden entrance to the estate.

A path there meanders about 150 feet down to the house, past streams; a waterfall; three ponds; hundreds of varieties of plants, including 30 mature rose bushes; sculptures and other art objects; and a bridge over a swimming pool.

The patio is a comfortable temperature year-round, thanks to a system of ceiling fans, skylights and outdoor spray misters that keep the temperature down in the summer and heating lamps that keep the goose bumps away in the winter. A queen-sized swing bed beside the pool lends a resort feel.

Asking price: $2,179,000

Size: The 3,493-square-foot house has four bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms.

Features: The property includes a complete outdoor kitchen and a fire pit with seating for eight plus nearby seating for an additional dozen, a solar-heated pool, dramatic outdoor lighting, a three-car garage, a fully equipped, professional indoor kitchen, a digital theater and easy access to the San Fernando Valley’s studios and the Sunset Strip. For details, go to edenhillhouse.com.

Where: Hollywood Hills

Listing agents: Jim and Carol Shogren, Sotheby’s International Realty Inc. (310) 481-4305; (310) 481-4304.

diane.wedner@latimes.com

To submit a candidate for Home of the Week, please send color interior and exterior photos with caption information on a CD and a description of the house, including what makes the property unusual, to Ruth Ryon, Real Estate Section, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. Questions may be sent to or e-mail homeoftheweek@latimes.com.