apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

It really is the best room in the house. The others are sort of plain.

The wall color is too intense in a bedroom for my taste. Imagine it at night with artificial lighting. I do like the drapes at the corners of the bed, though. Helps it feel a bit cozy in such a giant room. Rug needs to scoot back so you can put your feet on it when getting out of bed.

That painted ceiling is brilliant. And I love the mix of formal with clean and breezy. I think that room is the size of my last apartment!

hmmm...still not a fan.

I liked that green used in a kitchen from a tour on AT, not for a bedroom yikes!
The rooms reminds me of when I was 10 years old and went through wanting a canopy and white provincial furniture phase that lasted thankfully only two years..I am talking about the stuff from Sears.

I don't like the painted ceiling. Maybe I would like it better in different light.

I really dislike the cheezy faux-canopy over the bed...

...for a $2.1M house, you'd think that Linda Woodruff coulda found a proper poster/canopy bed?

That green is too crayon-esque... and that's a really poor use of a wide-angle lens.
I like the bed, but not the top of it. I think just the four pillar-like drapes with a lower headboard and an open top would look better... and more dreamy.

Wow. Yet another return to high-end "ladies who lunch" style. So effin' generically preppy I don't even know where to start, except the gloss paint which is just dumb. This so reminds me of a mid-late 1980s "designed" bedroom in someplace upper class but somewhat conservative and Waspy like Shaker Heights, Ohio or Gross Point, Michigan. As I recall, bold glossy paint was the rage then too.

In fact, let's just call this "Waspy Retro Revisionist".

boooring.

I'm not a huge fan of the color of the room either--and everything seems a little bland. Nothing very interesting in the room besides the vibrant paint color.

Ashley
rainycitystyle.blogspot.com

Lizzy C, I was just about to put on my shoulder pads and work it like Linda Evans...

Where are you getting "glossy" about the paint from this pic?

Not a huge fan of green bedrooms in general, but other than that, I don't mind this room at all. There are many more successful details than this odd photo reveals.

For example, while not featured well in this photo, the seating area over by the bay window is very nicely furnished.

This is sort of like having your driver license picture being your only representation of what you look like.

And bepsf--

I don't think Ethan Allen makes twelve-foot-high canopy beds.

And I'm surprised this crowd can't see past the style prejudices to a fairly clever canopy-bed solution, easily (and affordably) adopted.

PLEASE HGTV- Get someone else to decorate the next Dream House! It's the same thing every year... This woman has her own style and year after year, we see the same things. I've stopped watching it b/c the homes are so boring. I have to agree with everyone... that color is awful and the room is just plain boring.

I actually really like the faux canopy bed. And surprisingly, I don't really mind the green either (normally I'm not a big fan of green paint on walls).

patrick (the other one),

It looks glossy in the photo. The light bouncing off the ceiling is a dead giveway. If you want to be technical, it might be semi-gloss, or it at least looks that way.

hejiranyc, Love the shoulder pad comment. This room really does remind me of a house I used to go over to in the 1980s.

That is just the nastiest shade of green I've ever seen for a bedroom. I can't believe this is serious.

no, i don't like this.
it's too boring and soul-less for me.
plus that green is way too much for my taste, especially being carried over to the ceiling like it is.

i need a bedroom that is light, airy, cozy, and displays my personality, not looks like a room at a b&b.

Lizzy C--

Still don't see that being a gloss (at all)... light reflection looks too soft to me, and the whole thing looks pretty velvet-y, but maybe it's just time for a new monitor on my end!

This room is all "pretty" and no function.

The rug is too far from the bed. The point of a rug in the bedroom is to keep your tootsies from getting cold.

The bedside tables aren't accessible from the bed. I don't want to get out of bed to put my book down, get a sip of water or turn off the light.

I can't tell if the drapes are on a traverse rod or not. If they are stationary, where's the privacy? If they close, the puddle of fabric is just a big dust bunny magnet and the roomba might suck them up.

It appears that the window area has seating for 4. Why?

I do like how sunny the room is and the contrast between the white woodwork, furniture and bedding against a strong color, just not that color.

"style prejudices"? preconceived perhaps, but prejudice implies a whole lot more then prejudging. it now implies injury, and irrationality, as well as hostility, ignorance, and even intent.

i don't like window treatments and like canopies even less. (definitely preconceived but grounded in a love of light and a dislike of antihistamines, which i tend to need around dust). i also can't imagine wanting to clean out whatever accumulates in those oversized fabric "pools" on the floor (kind of logical, no?).

there's no bed task lighting of any use in this view. to my eye the sitting area is too rigid and upright. those low windows are crying for a low daybed....not a loveseat and coffee table ensemble.

i like cottage furniture - in a cottage by the beach - but the scale of the white pieces doesn't read cottage to me. it seems insincere and showroom, which i guess may be do to the sweepstakes / corporate sponsored nature of the space. that said, not a lot to learn from with this one.

Lizzy C nailed it. I pretty much hate this room. "Waspy Retro Revisionist". yup.

p.s. Green is not a very flattering color for femmes d'une certaine age. Aussi des hommes.

While I'm not a fan of the intensity of that green, I love the contrast between the color and the flowy white canopy and window treatments. Very fresh and clean. And any room with built-ins is a winner with me!

nope, not sold on it.

Too... forced. I find it ugly and grating.

It is a poor copy of rooms featured in House Beautiful circa 1970.

well i like it!

not the canopy that will have to go. and some of the candles in the bathroom- you going to boil me in that tub? but i do like it to some degree. there are aspects i would definitely change- the shower should be bigger- and just where is the machine in the laundry room? it's quite crowded in there to just watch and fold a few outfits. i like the breakfast nook- kitchen is a little forced, some of the rooms are too small for all the elements and i dont like the TV behind the couch- requires moving furniture around when company comes for movie night. i do love the patio but the garden is BORING! outside is boring- we need a tent or some twinkle lights- some COLOR!

over all - i'd take it if someone gave me the keys (not cost of course :) )

and one more thing- where are the books in the study? where is the office?

Sometimes, someone will do something unexpected and it will be all ooh and ahh. Sometimes, and in this case, someone will do something unexpected and it will have been better left unexplored. I'm talking about the green paint. I think the rest of the room looks so boring or typical (resembles a catalog suite of furniture and bedding, except for the high canopy), which is not offset by the unexpected paint color in a fabulous way at all. Sometimes, people will like something merely because it's unexpected, so that's all it takes to easily impress them. Sometimes, people will just hate anything new because it fails to follow the old standard rules, regardless of whether the look manages to be pulled off, but in a few years of repetitious images, they will finally get on board.

I just think the whole room is blah and predictable. I think the green screams, "I'm different!". I'm not sure any paint color or wall treatment could save this room, though. It would either continue to look boring or invite a wack-a-doo juxtaposition. Critics tend to like a "clever" turn, a "WOW! factor," but in all objectivity that I can gather, I think that's Kool-Aid and I'm not going to drink it. It's hideous.

Something they didn't think about using that green in a bedroom -- it makes people's skin look tired. I've used that color in my home in past years, and depending on the source of daytime lighting, it can accentuate the shadows in people's skin and make them look sallow. At night, it eats light, so you might get a cozy effect. But that intense green is flattering to relatively few people and only to some skin colors/tones. I'd keep it out of the bedroom.

This is a pretty enough room, but I hate to see that painted, French-glazed furniture finish coming back into style. And putting a vase of flowers on a tray on a bench is very stagey. No one would really do that (ooops, here comes the dog!).

Complaining aside, I'd still be happy to win that house!

patrick (the other one),

Yeah, I could be projecting about the gloss, but that's how I vision it from the photo. It also does remind me of a certain 2-bit "decorator" here in Portland, Oregon that was hot in the 1980s-1990s and her signature was, yep, you guessed it - saturated colored glossy paint. I've had far too many friends suffer buying one of her decorated homes and have personally helped scrape, sand and spackle over a couple of them. Ugh.

And just a thought - you know everyone has different tastes and that's what makes decor so fun. So I respect that others might like this room, or at least elements in it. So to each his or her own here - as Tyra Banks might say, "own that look." That's really the key to good personal style.

Oy, I can picture that sort of gloss-Hunter Green look you describe! No wonder the gag reflex!

Wasn't arguing, btw, so sorry if it came across that way. This is all too highly subjective to really argue about, anyhow, but I guess I wouldn't want to be the designer reading some of these comments were it my room.

To be fair, I think the interior design of the annual Dream House is no easy task. It has to be "TV interesting" yet middle-of-the-road enough to please an American cross section of potential winners. I do think Linda has done some great rooms over the years... and she is pretty great at accessorizing, generally... and, in helping Ethan Allen look a little fresher than most of us remember.

And I'd still have a one-on-one with Jack Thomasson the house planner in this bedroom... um, PURELY for planning reasons.

Hmm, maybe THAT'S why the ceiling is painted...

YAY - more bull that is 6 months past it's expiration date. I know the Dream (who's dream, anyway?) House probably filmed last year, but seriously folks - a McMansion in this economy is just not where it's at.

How about instead of giving us 4000 square feet of space that we'll need to heat, air condition, and fill with crap, um.. I mean 'decorate' you give us a nice little 800sf house that provides all of the amenities we'll need- and none of the excess and upkeep? Just a thought.

patrick, no offense taken. I love AT because design geeks like me can find other passionate design freaks to discuss the minutiae. And yes, imagine not only glossy hunter green but things like saturated mustard yellow (ewwww) and eggplant and navy blue. barf. Although, honestly a lighter eggplant instead of the green in the above bedroom might work...

And Modfan, I agree. McMansions were always tacky in my book, but now in our current economic and environmental climate they just seem obscene.

I love green. Love. LOVE.

This is one bedroom I'd love to live in.

On second viewing, that rug is really bothering me. It's a little too country-club blah. I think it's responsible for deadening the room.

I like it. i only wish that the walls were edible wallpaper like there was in the original Willy Wonka movie. That way when people say "Oh I don't like this wall color." you can say, "Lick it up baby. Lick. It. Up." ala Winona Ryder in Heathers.

Modfan--

Do you understand that this is a contest, giving away an "aspirational" home as the prize in a sweepstakes, for promotional value?

So you're telling me you would not live there if you won???

And I also think it *slightly* unfair to call this a McMansion, which to me connotes much more than just square footage.

And, besides, there are FAR more obscene homes out there, STILL being built and inhabited. By people who don't win them.

Forestdweller--

I agree about the rug, for sure, although it looks pretty barefoot-friendly.

I like it. I think it house fits the area.

So glad there is no mid century modern crap.

hite and green works brilliantly, its quite vivid!