Actress carves out a wine-country retreat

SANTA YNEZ, Calif. -- Although her neoclassical Italian-style home is just a two-hour drive from the hustle of Hollywood, Cheryl Ladd feels a million miles away whenever she strolls the grounds of her sprawling wine-country estate.

"It's like a spa," says Ladd, 55, who has lived in the 7,300-square-foot hideaway for the past 15 years. Her 22-acre property, which she shares with her husband, Brian Russell, is perched high on a hill with a 360-degree view of the region's picturesque vineyards.

"I walk the half-mile of driveway twice a day. It's great exercise. I call it Butt Hill."

Lavender, geraniums, oaks and rosemary dot the ivy-entwined patio, where friends frequently gather to watch meteor showers on cozy wool blankets.

"We came here because we wanted to get out of the city," says Ladd, who shot to fame in the '70s on Charlie's Angels and now stars in NBC's Las Vegas. She's also a national spokeswoman for knowmenopause.com, a public-service campaign to educate women about midlife health issues.

When she's not relaxing in her four-bedroom, six-bath "dream home," Ladd can be found commuting to the set in Los Angeles. "I always stay at a wonderful hotel and spoil myself rotten," she says. "But the minute I come (back), a peacefulness comes over me."

The alfresco terrace is a favorite spot for hosting intimate barbecues for friends and family. (The couple's daughters, Jordan and Lindsay, are grown.) She and Russell, a film producer, recently traded the courtyard's original Spanish tile for Arizona flagstone to create a more "organic feel" and reupholstered the 20-year-old lounge chairs in terra-cotta canvas to match their home's exterior.

"Do you know how difficult it is not to get it too yellow or too brown or too fleshy or too pink?" Ladd says of choosing the right paint color. "I picked up all the stones that were in terra-cotta colors, ground them together, and said, 'That's it!' So it really comes from the earth."

Sunlight floods through the floor-to-ceiling windows flanking either side of a stone fireplace in a cozy den, with a tall archway leading into a farmhouse-style dining room with high ceilings and chocolate-hued wood beams.

She pads barefoot across hardwood floors, and her eyes twinkle as she points out a beloved birthday gift: a bronze statue by Pat Roberts. "We have this bull in our valley," she says with a grin. "He gets every one of the cows pregnant, and no one has ever seen him do it."

Her own North Americow painting hangs above the fireplace in her family room. "My husband said, 'Don't you sometimes see maps when you look at black-and-white cows?'" She points to the spots. "It's a map of America."

Perhaps her most prized artwork, though, is a Chris Lloyd oil portrait of her dogs Marley, a 10-year-old standard poodle, and Oliver, her Yorkshire terrier who died last year at 15. "You're signing yourself up for heartbreak because you outlive them," says Ladd, rubbing Marley's ears, "but they ask so little and give you so much."

The den's main attraction is a red boxing glove, autographed by Muhammad Ali ("I'm a huge fan"). There's also an antique iron-and-pine armoire and a pair of distressed dark brown leather club chairs from Restoration Hardware. "It's hard to stay awake in those chairs," Ladd says. "I feel like (Laugh-In's) Edith Ann when I sit there. There's something about leather and feather that really works."

So how do the empty-nesters make their combination of old and new blend so seamlessly?

"Brian is kind of spatial and volume, and I'm balance and color, so we work really well together. He likes big and oversized. And I'm not into flowers and lace and fluff.

"Our house is quite eclectic, yet it has a kind of balance," she says. "I swear it's like Shangri-La."

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