"When Damien Hirst created his diamond-covered skull, one of our clients asked for the doorknobs of their new house to be similarly bejewelled. We used Swarovski crystals – at a cost of £257 for each knob. But for their favourite rooms, the master bedroom and reception, we created two knobs each studded with 4,328 diamonds, and costing £20,000 for each knob."

That's QuintessentiallyEstates' Lucy Russell talking to the Independent, about her work with extravagant knobs. The thrust of the piece is... if things are turning bad in the London property market... nobody's told the super-loaded.

"Another client requested a bright orange Cinderella pumpkin bed for her daughter. It cost £80,000," continues Russell.

So what? When I was a nipper I slept in a little bed made to look like a hat. Actually, it was a hat. I started in a bowler... got my first real bed when I grew out of the stetson. The real point here is that the top end of the market - the end catered for by these search agents and interior designers - obeys different rules. These properties are so different, and at this £25m+ sector so rare, that they're part art, part property.

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