apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Wow
I want a cheetah rug now

I don't know what I love more... the chocolate paint on the walls or the chocolat lab!

Slide show doesn't work. I have yet to get a single slide show to work on AT since they changed the format. I wonder if they know that these slide shows don't work. Many of us have posted that we're having trouble with them. HELLO?!

I hate that living room rug but everything else looks awesome!

While I understand that the slideshows don't work and agree they should be fixed, are people incapable of just CLICKING? Really, just click the picture and it goes to the next one.

Love your chocolate lab! He looks so regal in those photos.

I'm not having trouble with the slideshows at all. Although, I have to say that this whole site is buggy as hell and very slow loading. As an interactive designer it drives me insane!

I love this place. It has soo much character. I think that this is a great example of making your home your own.

I totally agree with Laura, I think the living room rug throws the whole room off. It looks all sophisticated and then there's a rug that looks like it belongs in a kid's room.

I pretty much love everything else, though.

Looks lovely, but I would have preferred more shots of overall room composition as opposed to the arts-fartsy close-ups of chandelier crystals and chinoiserie details.

Also - I always think the wall-o-booze looks tacky. Much better to put it inside the bar or in a closet.

Cool place. Looove that cheetah rug and those yellow chairs are to die for.

Great place, you did a really nice job. Love the chocolate lab too. Its nice to see larger breed dogs (I have a samoyed) on here as opposed to the little frou frou dogs you usually encounter on this site.

Gosh, that rug is awful. Everything else is lovely though. Happy dog!

I like the rug and dislike the couch. Why do I have such bad taste?

I would normally not permit myself to say this, but since the owner is a professional designer, I will: Very derivative of Kelly Wearstler, which could be a great thing if you pulled it off, but I don't think you did. The fu dogs, the chinoiserie, the Ming horse statues, the starburst mirrors, the Oriental wallpaper are all nice elements, but the way it's put together lacks artistry. The look is not layered the way this over-the-top Hollywood Regency look is meant to be...it just looks like a bunch of freshly and expensively purchased trendy items. I'm sorry, besides the gorgeous paint color the living room is downright outdated and unattractive.

My reaction to this is mixed, I love the bedroom rug, the wallpaper (though agreed, more room shots would have helped) and the yellow chairs, but like the above commenter, it feels a little too contrived for me. Then there are some strange things and I can't understand why they've been chosen, like the much mentioned living room rug, and that picture over the sofa. I don't get that. Also, the curtained bed and bedding looks stuffy and formal in contrast to the carpet and other furnishings. Just my opinion, overall, I think I really like it but I'm not sure.

So very many things.

Cute!

I think the bedroom, dining room and the two yellow chairs are nice.

I don't care for the living room.

Is there a couch on the porch?

This is a really personal living space, but its as though there are several styles fighting with each other - and so much stuff.

There are things that I really like: the yellow chairs, the blue dogs, the red armoire - striking pieces that stand on their own - but there's so much going on. Like Tallypo, I really like the living room rug. I just think its in the wrong room with the wrong furniture. It would look more at home in an airy, light-filled simple room, maybe with that sofa. The wall colour is great, in itself, but it just fights with the rug and sofa, as does the other rather stuffy furniture.

There's also a lot that says tacky to me - the leopard rug, the living room coffee table, and that picture above the sofa - seems like the sort of thing that goes with dusty rose fake flower arrangements.

The dog, however, is beyond perfect!

I love the round picture above the sofa beyond all reason.

Some I like, some I don't. The dining room looks great. I also like the yellow chairs and and the wallpaper. It's nice to see classic accessories. But put some booze in those decanters!

Agree completely with the following:

living room rug is awful
Kelly Wearstler she is not
overall, it just doesn't work
BUT (major points) the dog is adorable

AND would like to add...(please, for the love of God) NO FLAT SCREEN TVs OVER A MANTLE. EVER!

Like others, I had a mixed response. I also didn't find the living room rug appealing and the Chinese elements felt a bit "cheesy" (for lack of a more gracious word). I love the round picture over the sofa, the elephant in front of the fireplaces, the coffee table and the living room chairs. However, I also agree about not putting the T.V. over the mantle. This always feels like someone chose form over function. Great design should not shoehorn function into form.

On the whole though, the whole place has personality and charm and you have to give the designer credit for being bold and making interesting choices.

Nothing really works for me in this home. I love mixing and matching different styles, but I think this still lacks cohesiveness and refinement. There are interesting pieces and I commend her for sharing it with us. It's always hard critiquing something so personal. I think I had more of a problem with the narcissistic nature of the name. If I were to label it "perfected" it better be mind-blowingly...well...perfect.

Laura this right, the rug does throw off the room, but at the same time, it's nice contrast that gives it a homey feeling, rather than just a store display. I really can't wait until I have a place of my own to decorate.


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A bit too 'designed' for me I'm not old enough for that style yet.

This seems like an old lady house. Not enough light and air -- weird mish-mash of styles and objects. Some of the accessories seem stagey and oddly impersonal. but i LOVE the linens in the bedroom. No doubt, design is hard!

That looks like my grandma's living room circa 1988.

But I love, love, love the Japanese prints and the dramatic bed canopy.

a different couch would improve the living room immeasurably. even though it's a sectional, it looks too small and everything else feels stuffed around it in the corner. two regular sized couches facing each other centered around the rug would be a better choice.

the accessories don't bother me. the rug is cool and different.

i think all of the other rooms are interesting and bold.

Other than a handful of things (the couch, the chocolate walls, and the GORGEOUS dog), I really am not a fan, either. We've seen so many more amazing places here, and by non-pros to boot.

I also liked the place less after I read the survey ... being able to hang a picture yourself is hardly DIY prowess, especially by the standards of some of the marvels of self ingenuity we've seen here already.

(Incidentally ... if the AT techies are reading this ... if I'm always signed in on the same browser, why do I get two different accounts every time I come back here??? Sorry to add that here, but I just noticed it again above and AT never responds to emails)

Overall, very interesting and personally designed, but I hate to be critical but it's not all that...uh...cute.

Perhaps if there were less detail shots we would have a better sense of the space and how you utilized it. But the amount of detail shots were a bit silly. Most of us are interested in how you as a designer were able to take a blank space and lay it out in a way that works for you, not pictures of lamps, dragons, elephants, boxes and dogs. I mean 2 dog pictures?

But like I said the impression could have been better if we saw wider shots, and not vignettes.

I had to look up Kelly Wearstler to see what aweekinparis meant:
http://www.kellywearstler.com/

And, yes, I can see the Kelly Wearstler inspiration in the images, like the Sunset Plaza Bungalow. The use of brights with neutrals.

I do like red and animal print, as shown in Lindsey's bedroom. Much like the British Colonial craze awhile back.

There is something about both this place and the Wearstler places that bothered me, and it took me awhile to figure it out...

They both remind me of a Horchow catalog. hahaha

http://www.horchow.com

Groups of stuff and then close-ups of some of the stuff.

That MONKEY in the Wearstler black bathroom of Sunset Plaza Bungalow is CREEPY. And there are HEADS lying on the counter in the yellow bathroom. And what are those THINGS hanging from the roof in the dining area? And why didn't they put them everywhere, because they missed a spot? And why do the walls look all psychedelic in that same room? Too many giant white ceramic things all over the place.

I'm not so sure I would be using the Wearstler person as an inspiration.

But the colors are nice, the blue sofa with the brown wall in this post or the blue sofa with the brown floor and yellow chairs at Wearstler's. The yellow of the tulips and seats against the brown side of the stairs.

Yet, who would sit at those seats, there is no space to DO anything at that little table. There's a giant white ceramic vase with the tulips. Giant white ceramic birds. And a bunch of white books (ceramic?). So that whole area is just "decoration".

What good is the coffee table when it has...wait for it...giant white ceramic objects blocking access? Can't put coffee on the table. And there's a man on a horse on the table too.

I'm not seeing anyplace for my feet. :::giggles:::

But seriously, there's a whole lot of "decoration" going on, and not a whole lot of usefulness. We all have our priorities, and I really love seeing what is done during the Small Cool contest. That's when there is a whole lot of usefulness, and decoration ONLY if it doesn't interfere with the usefulness.

Well this is definitely not my style ;-) And why do we see so many vignettes? I´d rather see all these things in a bigger context actually.

If you read her website, which is a little OTT, she worked with Felicia Bushman, who got booted from Bravo's Top Design early on and interned for Kelly! Think she might be on Top Design at some point? Hmmm.

I think the space looks okay and if she was an amateur, I'd think it was amazing. Since she's allegedly a pro, it's just okay. On the other hand, it's probably all her stuff and not out on memo for the shoot.

I read the website too.. Honestly, I was a little nauseated by the self praise. A list designers? Really?

I really liked this place. I LOVE the red asian buffet/chest. And I am always impressed by a lovely shoe collection.

I could see what the people who were talking about it not "working" mean though. It's as if someone was just taking pics of their friend's house. And usually when you see interiors like this, they are perfectly lit and the stylist has perfected every tiny detail of the mise en scène.

As is, this is just someone's house. A lovely house. I really like it! But I think a more professional shelter-mag-type photo shoot would garner it much more praise.

Hey, even super models get airbrushed :-)

Eeeek! Did not like this one at all. Love the doggie though. That's about it.

If the intent was galmour and opulence, then the result is meek. I'm confused by the country elements.