My favorite part is the bar sink. ! assume that the boulder on the cabinet called a "thoughtful detail" is a bar sink. Perhaps it's a trough for the Lord's horses.

Lots of fabulous workmanship and lots of WTH?

I love looking at expensive train wrecks and feeling superior. :)

wow, I don't think I've ever seen so many styles and colors in the same place! The adirondack chairs in the front of the french normandy (?) exterior with the medieval looking door opening onto the asian art gave a hint at what was to come.

oh dear. that's just a hot mess. it's like the sopranos met game of thrones.

Is that a child's play rug at the top of that grand staircase, under the bench? Money doesn't magically confer anyone with color sense or good taste, or even the common sense to hire someone who has those qualities, and that's evident here. But...what is up with that rug? Considering how ornate everything else is, why would they do that?! ;)

Gah.

The only things I liked were the pantry and the screen porch.

I agree with RedHouse about the child's rug. It's jarring in a house where everything is jarring!

The bathtub is kind of amazing, never seen one with lion's heads.

Wowza. I think I would end up walking so many circles in that kitchen because by the time I got where I was going, I would forget what I came over there to do. And if I had to climb a ladder in my pantry, I would just give up on dinner altogether!

I'm French Normandy...no wait, I'm Tuscan, no wait...I'm Cottage....

Wow.

Scary.

"Sopranos meets Game of Thrones"--describes it perfectly!

I like the screened porch and the game room downstairs.

Nothing says, "Welcome!" like spikes on your front door.

Heck, if you're in the 5 mio+ market, you can spell however you want to.

Wow! Another example that money doesn't always buy good taste. When the easiest room to tolerate is the pantry, you know you've got problems. I now understand why they invented the word "mashup!"

Looks so cozy. Calling my agent right now.

I don't know, it's a bit bland for my liking. :-0

Yeah ... I got nothin'.

I did like the pantries, both, for food and the butlers pantry. And the guest room shown appeared to be decorated with a little restraint.

Gosh though, someone needed to put the brakes on somewhere when it came to tile, stone, brick. Somebody there loved tile so much they had to have a bit of every choice.
Not relaxing/restful/welcoming at all, the photos were even a little uncomfortable to view.

Morz8,

I did warn you...

BTW, is there a water fountain in what looks like it might be a dog cage in the kitchen?

I do work for Google and have pretty good search skills so I thought I could dig up something crazy about these people. Surprisingly, they seem quite normal.

Wow. I have no other words. Wait I do have more words. The styling aside what does one do with all that space?

I noticed the rug at the top of the stairs too! And what about the one in Bedroom 3 that looks kind of like pond water with stones, next to (under?) a contemporary black and white floral? Odd.

It's like they had 2 or more different designers, at odds with each other. One for the man of the house, who picked out massive fortress doors and intimidating stone 'thoughtful details', and one for the prissy woman who picked out fussy florals. And then maybe one who was stoned and picked out a couple of rugs.

Stoned! That's what the homeowners must've been when they agreed to this.

DH said it looks like it was built and furnished with remnants from other jobs.

Faux finishes and rag rolling seem to be trades that are alive and well in houses of this size and price point. I see walls like this in the most expensive real estate listing every week.

Gosh, you all are way more tenacious than I am. I never got to the second floor and I'm way too exhausted from a long day to go back and look for the rug you all are talking about.

CanâÂÂt say IâÂÂve ever before seen such a miss-mash of ugly tile and area rugs in one house before.....that was awful!

Oh my! I didn't notice the cage under the kitchen counter! Kennel for ill mannered dog at dinnertime? Time out spot for the four year old who did the rug shopping? Something more...recreational in nature? The mind reels...

Parts, I like, parts are terrible, but, they sure didnt have an interior designers help. Whats with the mouldings in the living room? They look like someone needs to get up on a ladder and start cleaning them. A good landscaper for the front of the house would be nice too.

The front doors reminded me of dungeon doors and the great room reminded me of the description of a great hall in a historical romance.

But honestly, at one point I thought I had wound up looking at another house and had to check the address. My head became a mash-up looking at those pictures.

I'm so glad that the comments of others bore out my confusion.

Who, at this price point, couldn't hire an army of painters and landscapers? Perhaps I'm missing a lot of detail by using an iPad, but once all the personal stuff is cleared out, I can see lots of appealing features. That is, if you need a home where visitors must be issued maps. One sure can't call this cookie cutter!

Besides the child's rug in the upstairs hallway, my personal favorite is the mint green barstools in the kitchen that seem to go with nothing. What could look worse with dark yellow, orange, and brown tones than mint green?

I'm kind of fascinated with this. I think most homes I've seen with super fancy, formal, gold, over the top decor are at least consistently that way, not a mix of everything on the planet.

Wow, words fail me. Hideous.

Oh my gravy! My eyes hurt! Nice gym, rec room and butlers pantry. What was that 'thoughtful detail'? The altar thing that looked like the stone of scone?

I've noticed this type of thing over the years. You might meet someone beautifully dressed, and then have the opportunity to be a guest in their house. The disconnect between personal fashion and decorating a house can be enormous. I think it is because clothing designers can package an entire look--your salesperson can just put it all together for you. A house, especially a great big house, requires hundreds of decisions based on history, art, design--and the potential for error is huge.

I don't think it's horrible. It is definitely a mish-mash and some strange choices. Sort of the same way those of us (ME!) with a small budget mess up, only this is on a GRAND scale. That's the problem . . .

But, I will say it's warm. It's interesting. They kind of just "went for it."

The part that bothers me the most, though, is the can lights. I have them in my own LR and wish I didn't have to. (CAN't [haha] think of a better solution, which is why they are there.)

If I had the money, I think hiring a really, really, REALLY good lighting professional is essential. Any room can be messed up with the wrong choice of lighting. It really makes or breaks a room. I think if they had that right (some lanterns in one of the rooms for beams were too small, IMO), it would have made a big improvement.

Our local news websites regularly feature luxury homes in the area for sale. Honestly, I see better decorated homes here on GW. The homes are very much like this one, very over the top, or just totally have a uniform look to them.

I have a thing for doors and it appears they do as well..
On their own they're great -There's just a lot for one house .Not sure the first pick is a door .

I'm definitely not an interior designer by any means, but I am a graphic designer, and those pattern choices are atrocious.
The colors themselves are good. Browns, peaches, yellows.

But the patterns???

And those doors??? Nothing INSIDE the house matches the outside except for the front door which is hideous.

I'll give you $5 and a cookie for it.

Overall, I don't think the house is all that bad. Take out the owner's furnishings and repaint the walls. You have something you can work with. In other ways, it is a dealer's showroom where you walk into each area and say I want that and that, but not that and then walk into the next area and buy this element and then move on to the next area.

Some of the things I didn't like were some of the common touches I see in a lot of higher end houses. The kitchen cabinets were plain. They had the mix of stained and painted that I don't like. The counter tops didn't look right for that type of cabinet.

The under counter pet area is interesting. I'm not sure the kitchen is the place for that, but I like the general idea behind it. Pet kennels and kitty boxes never fit into traditional houses that well. I like that they had some consideration for their pets.

I don't like houses where every element is bland or someone is afraid to offend so they install white subway tile instead of something of interest. I like it when people take a risk and do something different. Some of the design elements are too much and there is a mix that doesn't go together in some. Most problems are reasonably correctable within a budget of a $5.4M house. If I could afford this house, I would love the challenge.

Old man+ teenage wife + open checkbook = this home. All kiding asside this is what happens when you want to go one way with the decore but keep getting distracted by other looks that you just have to have. A little restraint to keep on track was needed here. I think its probly a problem we have all had at one time or another just not to this extent. Usually some kind soul comes along and says what up with that it just doen,t work with the rest of the look your going for.

"it's like the sopranos met game of thrones."
LOL Elizabeth. That's a take down for the ages. I've never posted in the forum before and may never again, but this place deserves it. I don't really care much about interior design but this is breathtakingly awful. So funny that it's in Great Falls, too, the long-time epicenter of arriviste money in the DC area. Old Great Falls: years ago there was a guy who had a air-conditioned dog house but threatened to shoot any reporters who showed up to ask questions about it. New Great Falls? This.

I read the comments before clicking through. I have to say it wasn't as awful as I thought. It's very dated 90's and a bit over the top, but nothing a moving fan and several truckloads of paint won't help. It was probably "the house" in it's prime. Faux finishes were huge. I actually picture a couple in their 60's owning the house. Or older divorced man. I wonder if in 20 years we'll look back at the sea of grey everything and barn doors used inside( fill in your example of Pintrest/ Houzz favorite) and wince!

The house was gutted and rebuilt in 2006. So, the decor doesn't date from the 90's.
As for just paint fixing the basic structure, not so fast. There are those doors, the various fireplaces, many different tiles that don't blend well-- in the same room, those stone walls, that sarcophagus of a bathtub to be removed and replaced.
I do like the exercise room, though.

I like it. Just think, you could wake up in the morning and at your fingertips is another country. Another country in every corner even!

Yes IâÂÂm being glib, but really, there are many individual things that are pretty cool.

I wonder who lives there. I really wonder who lives there.

It sort of reminds me of a larger version of a good friends house. She and her husband are both brilliant, he is very successful. My friend admits she is horrible at decorating. Her husband buys most everything for the house and is always planning a new area to tackle. My friend who admits to being bad at it thinks her husband is very good at it. She thinks him so good that they would never consider an Interior Designer.

Hmmm who are these people in this great big house?

This post was edited by jterrilynn on Sat, Jun 7, 14 at 18:41

jterri - I do Google snooping for work and I mentioned up thread that I was positive that there was some crazy story behind this house. I utilized my work skills and found things that lead me to believe that the owners are surprisingly normal.

High incomes but no crazy stories. They have a comprehensive online history and it doesn't appear that they've had their search results info scrubbed. Not what I expected at all!

Deee, oh darn! My friends are normal too. I was hoping for something lively.

this is DC money hard at work. I think it is a beautiful palace with lots of unique details. It is more traditional that I would like to live in, but it does look well built.

the kid carpets do not bother me, it is just charming that people with more money than me still put their kids first and have a play rug at the top of the stairs.

Ha. I am not attracted to medieval torture chamber looks, but my taste is so eclectic that I worry that my house will look like this. I love the colonial look, and French country, and craftsman, and.......... Luckily I don't have funds to pursue most of my temporary infatuations but I COULD buy that big gorgeous rooster to sit in my 70's kitchen! ; )
I have a friend (in her 60's) who just built a cool patio with a fire pit, - and all decorated in fairies and toadstools. I can only imagine how much fun she had setting up all those little vignettes, and I am little jealous that I am too "mature" to have that much fun. People should feel free to decorate their houses any way they like - but never have to sell them!

I normally don't frequent this forum, but the title in the sidebar made me click and take a peek. Wowza, what a split personality.

As a "hobby" I occasionally look at the $10+ million dollar houses near where I live. This one is about 2 miles from my house. Me thinks the decorator was tripping on LSD.

Here is a link that might be useful: The circus has come to town

The mismatch of style in the tile and fireplaces can be fixed by hiring some masons to tear that mess out . I think use of rock and other natural materials would bring some cohesiveness to the rooms. Some of the fireplaces could probably be closed up and walled over. Floors are something people renovate with some frequency. I see it as entirely fixable.

The doors don't bother me much. That is something I would have to view in person to make a determination on what would stay and what would go. I think some like the wrought iron could possibly be removed because they aren't needed. Others appear to be too heavy to be practical. They appear to be real wood with interesting detail, as such, I would see them as more of an art piece with function. I might keep some of the more interesting ones if I could find a way to make them work.

The person with the $14.5M house appears to have enough money not to care what anyone else thinks. They have embraced the concept of fun. It looks like a house where they entertain others. I'd love to look at that house in person.