It was the model Cara Delevingne who said you can never be sad in a ball pit – so why wouldn’t you install one in a room you don’t quite know what to do with?
A large Victorian house for sale in Southport has gone viral not because it is, as estate agents say, a “hidden gem” and an “oasis of calm” with viewing “absolutely essential” but because just off the master bedroom is a vestibule that is “presently adorned by numerous plastic balls to create a ball pool all of your very own”.
There are 11,300 plastic balls in the pit and it is enjoyed by children and adults alike, according to Julie Williams, an IT consultant who is selling the house. “It was a birthday present to myself,” Williams said. “Instead of a weekend away I built a ball pit. It is so relaxing.”
Williams was inspired by Delevingne, who installed a ball pit in her former Los Angeles home, described by Architectural Digest as “St-Tropez meets Coney Island meets Cotswolds cottage meets Monte Carlo meets butch leather bar”.
Delevingne said the house reflected her changing characters and moods: it had a costume room for dress-up parties, a poker tent, trampolines, a secret “vagina tunnel”, a party bunker with a mirrored ceiling, a David Bowie memorial bathroom and the ball pit. “If I’m having a bad day, I just hop in the ball pit,” she said. “You can’t really cry in a ball pit.”
Williams said she had thought about creating a bathroom in what she called her “project room” – an odd first-floor vestibule off the master bedroom with its own small staircase.
“My friend had seen a video on YouTube of Carla Delevingne where she says something along the lines of you can never be unhappy or sad in a ball pit.” So Williams went for it, buying 11,300 plastic balls in March 2024 and creating the ball pit herself.
It was inaugurated with Williams and friends drinking half bottles of rosé champagne in it. “It’s great. This is the new relaxation method for mums and dads. Get a ball pit and hide away from the children.”
Williams’ seven-bedroom house in leafy Birkdale village is on the market for £799,995, and if new buyers wanted to keep the pit, plus balls, then they could, Williams said.
The house went viral after featuring on a social media account called Housing Horrors, which shines a light on some of the weirder and more wonderful quirks of houses for sale or rent in the UK.
