AYNHO, England — “I don’t expect to be understood initially, but I do consider that it should be respected and encourage people eventually,” RH chief executive officer and chairman Gary Friedman said of his unique strategy, last month during an analyst conference call.

A rarity in the company world, the veteran executive is boldly aiming to reshape U.S. upscale furniture retailer RH (formerly Restoration Hardware) into a worldwide luxury brand with exclusive galleries, restaurants and lodging worldwide.

RH’s most ambitious project yet — RH England, The Gallery at Aynho Park — is a 73-acre, Seventeenth-century estate and the crown jewel on this strategy. Envisaged as a luxury travel destination for design, food and wine, the revitalized property opened its doors Saturday, to a select group of VIPs that included British period series royalty like Regé-Jean Page and Michelle Dockery, in addition to film stars like Sydney Sweeney, Zoe Saldana and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, her wife, actress Portia de Rossi and Idris Elba, who DJed on the star-studded event.

The corporate is creating bespoke experiences like RH Yountville, an integration of food, wine, art & design within the Napa Valley; RH1 and RH2, its private jets, and RH3, its luxury yacht that is obtainable for charter within the Caribbean and Mediterranean where the rich and affluent visit and vacation — immersive experiences the corporate says will expose recent and existing customers to its evolving authority in architecture, interior design and landscape architecture.

When it opens to the general public on June 9, RH England will include three full-service restaurants — The Orangery, The Conservatory (opening in the autumn) and The Loggia, plus three secondary hospitality experiences: The Wine Lounge, The Tea Salon and The Juicery.

Guests will appreciate views of Europe’s largest herd of white deer grazing on the scenic property from the 46 windows adorning the south-facing principal constructing and might enjoy a glass of wine or afternoon tea service while sitting around monolithic stone fire-pits on the Grand Viewing Terrace. 

The corporate said that the Aynho Architecture & Design Library will feature rare books from the foundational masters of architecture, Andrea Palladio, Vincenzo Scamozzi and Leon Battista Alberti. The centerpiece of the gathering is considered one of the primary printings of “De Architectura (Ten Books on Architecture)” by Vitruvius, a Roman architect and engineer whose work from the first century BC is alleged to have inspired Leonardo da Vinci’s drawing of the “Vitruvian Man” 1,500 years later. 

Amongst England’s rare Grade 1 listed landmarks, which include Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament and Tower Bridge, Anyho Park was refurbished by British architect Sir John Soane within the early nineteenth century. First constructed in 1615 and later rebuilt after the English Civil War, the property is nestled between Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire and sits between a 200-acre conservation area. 

The late-Georgian estate feature marks Friedman’s latest real estate revamp after revitalizing several landmark buildings across america, including the previous museum of Natural History in Boston, The Bethlehem Steel Constructing in San Francisco and the historic Three Arts Club in Chicago. 

On the eve of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Friedman discusses the landmark project and the way he got his hands on the rare, first-edition Vitruvian book: 

WWD: Individuals are calling the RH England Aynho Park RH’s biggest masterpiece to this point. Why is that?

Gary Friedman: Let’s start with Aynho Park [which] is a Grade 1 listed constructing. Buckingham Palace is a Grade 1 listed constructing, and Grade 1 listed buildings represent only 2.5 percent of all listed buildings within the U.K. So RH England is built on a foundation of rarity and revered for being something remarkable within the history of architectural spaces and places. Aynho Park has a design history that we’re inspired by, and presented a lovely canvas for us to write down its next chapter and ours.

WWD: How did you obtain the Vitruvian manuscripts? 

G.F.: We collaborated with a noted curator to guage and source rare architectural books to meet our vision of making an inspiring and authentic architecture and design library at Aynho Park that reflected the RH design ethos. Through extensive search and discovery of mostly private collections, we focused our initial efforts on “De Architectura (Ten Books on Architecture)” by Vitruvius. We obtained the primary edition printed in a contemporary language [in Italian] from 1521, in Como, Italy.

WWD:  Are you able to tell us how RH got here into contact with James Perkins, owner of Aynho Park, and why it’s special to the brand?

G.F.: We were looking for a location that might enable us to introduce ourselves to the U.K. and Europe in an inspiring and unforgettable fashion, in a way that communicated our values and beliefs, and rendered our brand more useful. We worked with Savills to seek out such a spot, and so they proposed many interesting options, but we selected just one, Aynho Park, which was not on the market. They arranged a gathering with the owner, James Perkins, and the story unfolded from there. 

WWD: RH could have openings in Germany, U.K., France and Italy next 12 months. Are you able to give some more details about where those might be exactly?

G.F: We now have galleries under construction in London (Mayfair), Paris, Milan, Madrid (two locations), Munich, Düsseldorf [Germany], Brussels [Belgium] and Sydney [Australia] opening over the subsequent three years. 

WWD: What might be the subsequent guesthouse and/or spa to open its doors?

G.F.: We’re under construction in Aspen [Colorado], and plan to open our second RH Guesthouse, and our first RH Bath House & Spa in 2024.  

WWD: When did you’ve the epiphany moment that RH needed to be a services, design, dining and travel reality? It’s quite the departure from what it once was.

G.F.: Our vision for the RH brand is continually evolving and expanding. The more we do, the more we learn. The more we learn, the more we see. The more we see, the more we do. It’s an upward spiral of invention and innovation. 

WWD: How is the RH Guesthouse different by way of services and luxuries in comparison with other locations?

G.F.: In every way…

We tried to conceptualize a singular hospitality experience for travelers looking for privacy and luxury.  Privacy is the one thing everyone has given away with social media, and the web has taken away as you’ll be able to Google most anything about anyone. We consider privacy goes to be a big and essential market.