apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I just breezed through the pictures without reading the text and was going to comment that I thought it looked a little too cold and sterile. Now I'm assuming it's staged.
The building is really beautiful and so are the grounds.

What a beautiful home!
Too bad it's in Arizona...

So beautiful! I love every single thing about this place. My dream home!

wow. beautiful indeed. It's staged for sure since it is for sale but non the less. Just curious, are those stools in the kitchen the ones from Ikea?

Why have you made an exception to your 'normally we wouldn't post a realty listing' rule?

And I'm curious about how Ben and Mel 'put up their Mid-century modern home not only on our site, but also for sale for anyone interested'.

Is Apartment Therapy now a real estate listing site?

Does this also mean that the 'found' store listings you show are paid for? Are the 'discovered' product listings paid for?

I have no issue with the site becoming entirely commercial as long as it is disclosed.

That statement isn't entirely true, AT (or at least AT:NY) has featured FSBO (for sale by owner) listings over the years.

And why not? It makes sense to me that a seller who is part of the AT community might find a like-minded buyer here.

I look at real estate listings all the time for decorating and design ideas. A realtor wouldn't install Flor tiles to a wall or add custom built-ins to a house for sale, so most of my favorite features of thise house aren't the 'staged' furniture items.

My question to the group's Feng Shui experts: Isn't it bad mojo to put clocks above your bed?

I was just wondering how everyone felt about using wood flooring on walls?

And the thick mattress in the bedroom always bugs me, the correct thickness needs to be 8" thick.

HEY...I heard that all the way over here bepsf ;-)

Hmm, the clocks above the bed look cool, but the concept of all these timepieces in the bedroom seems really counter to what a bedroom is for. If you want that look, why not go with starburst mirrors or a Jere wall sculpture?

I never understand what folks mean when they say a place is cold and sterile. Please explain!

I think the house is beautifu.
The furniture is too much of the same and matchy matchy..maybe because it is staged? All the white trim and blond wood cheapens the house. I think the trim on the inside around the windows should be the same as the outside trim color. It screams for more natural earthy colors and finishes.

charlenemcbride -- If that house weren't in Arizona, it would be literally cold: cement, terazzo, no textiles to insulate...

I know lots of people love this style, but I'd be unbelievably depressed in that space. To me, a spare style often feels like a furnished rental, not a home.

I like the house a lot. In fact, it made me wonder if we shouldn't actually consider moving to Phoenix. What's Phoenix like anyway?

I ADORE the lot, though, I would love to have a dinner party under the arizona stars.....

I think it's amazingly beautiful, and although I'm such a NY'er, I could seriously imagine living in this house. I've NEVER seen such an ingenious use of concrete block in my life.

And yes, I do love the wood flooring on the walls. A lot. A whole lot. Would I necessarily love it elsewhere? Who knows? But they've really managed to make it sing here.

yeah! is that white barstool in the kitchen is from ikea?

Neat house and great lot however, I agree with those who think it feels cold and sterile. I think it has a lot to do with the plethora of recessed can lights. The photos reflect a house that resembles a very chic dentist's office or laboratory. As well, the predominance of gray helps the chilly atmosphere. More lamps and colorful rugs would certainly warm the place up. I expect that this "shows" very well to prospective buyers. Would love it see it in person, I expect it feels quite different in person.

the kitchen bar stools are definitely ikea:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20116858

i love this house & i don't really understand why some people have a problem with the feel of the home. i don't like cluttered tchochke laden homes therefore i don't live in one. so see how simple it is to get around that?

Yeah, some people like brutalist architecture too.

The correct thickness of a mattress is whatever the homeowner wants it to be.

And the house actually is in Arizona, and it reflects a beautiful adaptation to the environment by using such cool materials and colors.

Just one note: I find the ceiling work and the choice of lamps/spots very bland, and lighting insufficient.

anyone know what the floor covering is?
it looks like a sort of recycled foam/tires/plastic material.

Nothing like going to bed every night to the soft ticking of your life passing you by.

Hi, First, thanks to Apartment Therapy for showing our home on their amazing site. :-) We are big fans of Aptmnt Therapy!
I am Melissa... one half of the ownership of this home. My husband, Ben, did most of the handy work on our home and we appreciate the compliments and tid bits of advice from everyone who commented.
In response to a few things:
~The flooring is pebble.. like pebble-tec but with an epoxy base and aggregate mix.. not concrete like traditional pool pebble-tec. It is great for the AZ weather and easy to care for.. plus it looks pretty good (IMO)
~This home is not staged. We live here.. with a 2 year old and a 3 year old (both boys!) As you can imagine.. we can't have all of our furniture or breakables out as they are either ruined with sippy cup spillage or broken by flying matchbox cars and/or Lego's. We have a lot of things stored away. Since we have put the home on the market we have lost 2 ceramic vases and the couch has gained 3 new dirty marks. Life is not easy when trying to keep a home in show worthy condition. :-)
~ We agree with a lot of the comments in regards to lighting. This home is not at all close to where we wanted it to be ideally but in reality.. and in this economy.. we were not able to do everything we wanted. It was between adding some new fixtures or feeding the children.. we chose the latter... although sometimes I feel that buying a set of Platner armchairs would seem worthy of starvation. We have, however, put a lot of everything into this home.. time, money, energy, love, sweat AND tears (those were mine).
~The mattress thickness (this one made me giggle..) We bought the mattress before the bed. I always wanted a pillow top mattress so my husband let me choose.. I let him choose the bed. Can you guess who the design head is in our home?? I too think the bed would look better w/o a pillow top but the fact is.. we live here and we like to sleep and although the bed would look better with a more appropriate sized mattress.. I prefer pillow-tops.
~The barstools in the kitchen are from IKEA. Is that a no-no? We had the Eames wire barstools in there but the boys eat their lunch at the counter and after a months worth of spilled ketchup & peanut-butter caked yumminess on the leather seats... we decided to get something a little more disposable that we felt still looked good. So if IKEA is offensive.. I apologize. It just makes sense for us while the boys are young and quite messy.
~Wall clocks.. none of these are operating as we have not set any of them nor have we wound any of them. So no sounds while you sleep. My husband just collects clocks and these are a few that made the cut. We like them there.. the new owner can put up whatever they like.. unless they want to buy the clocks too.
~The bamboo wood on the walls was something we felt made the place feel warmer. It really cozies up the place but this only be conveyed by actually being here and not through photos. I never got the feeling that it cheapened the space but this is the beauty of opinions, right?
~Just in case any of you are interested.. here is a link to a collection of photos as to what the home looked like BEFORE we touched it. These were taken upon our first showing of the home in 2005. I was extremely pregnant and not looking so hot so don't mind the blacked out blobs.. lol. http://www.flickr.com/photos/theallisonfamily/sets/72157610231539663/
this is the link to the all the "after" shots of our home: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theallisonfamily/sets/72157607673610414/