Tasteful friends: a traditional newly built home in Cleveland

Nope. Faux grandeur. Awful.

I like a lot about it. A lot of nice stuff, though how it's all thrown together I don't always love. Can't complain about lack of color. No real unifying theme from room to room as far as I can tell, but that's fine. Parts of it seem more "grand hotel" than home. I don't hate it

I just don't get Miles Redd's work There's this thing right now in 'high design' where you take a bunch of wacky fabrics and colors and plaster them all over the place with a bunch of slightly odd new and vintage furniture, and call it chic. I'm over it. Put down the wallpaper samples, already. A wee bit of restraint never hurt anyone.

I’m not crazy of the proportion of the double height room - the ceiling is way too high.

That apricot room would make me mental

The yellow is too yellow.

The wanna-be Canaletto above the mantle is just so cringey. I hope they have lots of air fresheners because the new money smell must be overwhelming.

The yellow room looks to me sort of borrowing from Nancy Lancaster with the symmetrical urns in front of mirrors and the red chair.

Beautifu

Trump people

I will cop to being into the looking-to-Edwardianism of “grand-millennial” design, probably as an aesthetic reaction to my mom’s taste for monochromatic open-plan living, so I don’t hate a bunch of this, but all those floating urns seem kind of HGTV-ish: “open upper cabinets are a great way to display treasured items”. Like what Joanna Gaines would do in a Newport mansion.

I'd like to wash my hands in the bathroom, otherwise I don't like it or hate it. The antlers, no. Not sure why animals have to be used for decor - unless they are fake. Still tacky. Are they some kind of virility symbol? A place to put dirty underwear until the maid comes? Cringe.

They could have bought a very nice traditional home in Shaker Heights, Lakewood or maybe Hunting Valley that would have been much nice than this. I'm guessing west siders (flat property) with very Midwestern taste.

I hate all those urns up high on floating shelves. Earthquake!

This bar room is my favorite room. Looks cozy & like you can actually relax and do something in there.

I don't love it. That said, what's wrong with "new money." If you're not from old money what other choice do you have? I know, there's "new money" taste (or lack thereof) and flashiness that people complain about, but that's up to to the individual, not inherent in "new money."

Gorgeous home! Very warm and inviting. Great use of color and I love their use of animal prints. The landscaping is also beautiful.

Here's what looks like a butler's pantry. Everything's shiny. Does anyone know what the lower (green) cabinets are made out of? I guess the white glass was meant to brighten up the room, but why not put translucent glass in some of the cabinet faces? I realize you don't want everything on display.

Kids, this is what happens when you have too much money, live in Ohio and spend all your time watching HGTV

It better be their "forever house" because no one will ever buy something like this in Ohio

R17 the cabinets look like wood with high gloss lacquer paint

Thanks, R19. What about the cabinet faces? What would you say they're made of?

Talking about the upper cabinets (faces), R19. TIA.

It’s disgusting. Shocking.

That color is hideous in OP's picture. I didn't click the link.

All the grandeur in the world and you're still in Ohio. Who do you think you're fooling?

Nice for the most part. But those leopard and tiger prints on chairs and pillows are so fucking ugly. It looks so tacky. How can anyone find that appealing? Same with the dead animal antlers, as someone already mentioned.

Oh yeah, and white glass on the kitchen cabinets is also quite ugly. It wouldn't be that bad if there weren't so many of them.

The general aesthetic puts me in mind of La Belle Cockgobbleur's Congressional office.

Tacky Olde Worlde "grandeur" on a budget. By people who haven't enough importance to have inherited anything of value.

Love the tufted green sectional!

[quote] By people who haven't enough importance to have inherited anything of value.

What? I'm more impressed by someone who made their own money vs. inherited it. Geez.

Well aren't THEY grand! Some of the inside decor is fun, while also pretentious as FUCK. The white and black tile doesn't have the correct proportion. The outside is the sad joke someone played on this couple. Interior doesn't go with the exterior. Yikes!

They could be Powerball winners for all anyone knows. Despite their desire to show off their grand home, they kept their names out of it, which is funny.

[quote] Well aren't THEY grand! Some of the inside decor is fun, while also pretentious as FUCK. The white and black tile doesn't have the correct proportion. The outside is the sad joke someone played on this couple. Interior doesn't go with the exterior. Yikes!

If you’re referring to the floor. It’s not tile.

You’re both complaining about pretension and tile “proportion.”

[quote] What? I'm more impressed by someone who made their own money vs. inherited it. Geez.

Dataloungers (who have no money) respect only “old” money. Broke dataloungers are obsessed with antiquated ideas about social class.

It would be twice as good with half as much stuff.

I only like that green house room. I lean toward simplicity.

I'm a sucker for high ceilings. Just don't buy a house with vaulted roof if you live in a desert and need the air conditioner too cool it down. I do hate that yellow paint, though.

Just a buy a real traditional home in Shaker Heights. They're practically giving them away.

That white Bitch is a dangerous killer, fuck her.

Well OK then. If this is faux marble painted wood, bravo for the technique but I still maintain the proportion is off.

@r37, Now that's a grand old house and what a deal... Except for the Ohio part

The Malmaison floor

And since they're reputed to be Draper fetishists, here's a proper Draper floor.

I like the bar and the powder bath. It can be fun to have some over-the-top decor for rooms used infrequently with that amount of space. The rest of the house is too much for me. I also prefer the idea of updating the house in R37

[quote] The rest of the house is too much for me. I also prefer the idea of updating the house in [R37]

It may have been cheaper for them to just build what they want. Is that other home a historic home?

The husband is quite decorative.

What kind of pretentious "grand-millenial" trying-too-hard fuckery is this? It's like living in grandma's European eclectic museum - why would a young couple want this? And in Cleveland? This is ostentatious and a disgusting display of excess and garishness. Even Gatsby wasn't this bad - and we all know how he ended up.

R45 I noticed him/hubby too.

The house I wanted to like, but it looks like the early start of a hoarder’s psychosis. Shit thrown anywhere and everywhere. Some of it is nice, but there is way too much going on. The decorator must have been smoking crack when he slammed that carnival together.

Ghastly kitchen.

The bathroom evokes a bordello only with blue rather than red as the base color. The exterior looks like a small cheap starter’s shack next to the defunct Steel mill with bad additions nailed on. Nothing in the facade shows any craftsmanship or taste. The Victorians/Edwardians knew how to make an impressive statement house. These fools no doubt paid handsomely to live in that traffic accident. The Evil Queen who did it is laughing all the way to the bank.

The garden is nice.

Ever been to Cleveland?

Why-o, why-o, why-o ….

Overwrought and top heavy. Modern houses are built to be efficient and room expanse is tighter than old houses. This looks like they’ll have $600 air conditioning bills to cool all the unused airspace above them. If they wanted to emulate old home design, they should’ve added square footage and more symmetry to the rooms.

Also, tastefully furnishing a room is a LOT like how a drag queen does makeup- from appearing “dead” to alive- they start with a solid pale foundation and slowly build up and add to the overall finished look.

This home is a manic Trixie Mattel!

[quote]Even Gatsby wasn't this bad - and we all know how he ended up.

Maybe if he had watched the fucking road he wouldn't have ended up the way he did.

The fireplace wall offends me. On the opposite wall they have a giant portrait. On the fireplace wall they have hokey shit. A pier mirror would work as long as it had the proper width, but she already pulled that nonsense above the chesterfield.

They’re tapestry prone, so I won’t trust them with hanging another one over the fireplace. They need a huge painting in keeping with their style. Or, they could inject something modern - art by the yard - up there.

Until they do something, I hope the kids shoot those vases down with a nerf gun.

I don't know, it just doesn't seem very Ohio!

The kitchen is lovely: the dark green and brown contrast nicely with each other and, unlike it happens with most modern houses, they haven't had the bad taste of building an industrial-sized, open plan monstrosity for the sake of supposedly showing off.

Sadly, that is the only positive thing I have to say about this house, which reeks of desperate wannabishness through and through. The outside looks like a McMansion with slightly more harmonious proportions, and the inside looks like a milkmaid's idea of how an English manor house should be. They have adopted an 'everything-but-the-kitchen-sink' approach to decoration, thinking that as long as there are plenty of antiques, expensive wallpaper and a few marble sculptures, then everything is the very height of good taste and refinement. This colour-by-numbers Downton Abbey and Pemberley decoration is incredibly tacky - especially because they're not fooling anyone into thinking that they are aristrocats in any way.

So, it's much nicer than most modern houses, but still too 'boastful nouveau riche' to be truly beautiful, or authentic.

" especially because they're not fooling anyone into thinking that they are aristrocats in any way."

Why do you think that's their endgame?

And by the way, you can apply putty to high up tchotchkes so they don't fall during a tremor. I don't understand why people are so concerned about the vases.

I like some of Peter Pennoyer's work, he's well informed on design precedents, but can sometimes be too careful and gets lost in the details. I've been in a few new houses and major restorations/additions and there are always some very good things and some things I'm less impressed by.

It's difficult to come up with anything about the architecture from the few photos that emphasize decor: there's an enfilade; a kind of complicated entry hall (photos #4 & 10) with delusions of Castle Howard and some uncomfortable toying with scale (those huge consoles to support the ceiling beams contrasted with the underscaled and underwhelming keystones, and a sad baseboard to show you that the scale is in the end quite a little less than the architecture suggests; and a lot of white marble floor slabs with little black marble squares at the corners -- squares that someone forgot to specify should be sanded down to match the finish and texture of the white marble. All the marble looks expensive rather than luxurious, a common problem: when there's too much marble everywhere, it's loses its appeal unless it's something very special. Everything is well crafted just not so well put together. The double-height apricot room is the nicest space I see, but not without problems. Redd is bold with color and pattern but timid with scale. Look at how it appears to be a normal one story space that had the roof raised and, aside from a couple antlers, they forgot to do anything more about the change; all the furniture hovers at the same height. No less bad, he somehow doesn't know how to hangs pictures (mirrors, etc.) well -- it always looks like a freshman year effort, before someone started traveling and started learning. The space itself and the color I like, the decoration is just tarty and amateurish, though.

There is one photo of the house exterior (313) and you can see the great bank of windows lighting the solar room (apricot room.) That's the best I can say about it. It's otherwise a mess with too many inspirations and not enough well executed ideas.

Not a great effort of Pennoyer's or Redd's.

Forever home, my ass. Are they trying to sell this place? Most homes featured in AD end up on the market shortly thereafter. While there is a lot of money in Cleveland, most of it tends to be attracted to more tasteful, less tacky abodes. Wealth whispers, money screams... this place is shrieking like a banshee.

The fabrics and wall murals are awesome. That bar looks like it should be staffed by a scary clown named Scabs.

I kind of want to know about their money and why they’d hire New York to do Ohio.

It is not YELLOW, it's 'Singapore Saffron Sunset'. GAW!

At least it's not all white or greige inside.

The house on Parland in Shaker upthread is historic and it might even be in a historic district. The problem here is that you could find really historic houses in Chestnut Hills or Fairmount Blvd in Cleveland Heights, Shaker, esp. near the Shaker Lakes, the area developed by Van Swearingen in Hunting Valley or the Clifton Park section of Lakewood that would be much nicer than this new build.

EXQUISITE....Nothing says ELEGANCE quite like an Edwardian/Victorian interior in OHIO, bought and put together last week by a DECORATOR. So tasteful...COLOURS?FABRICS?ANTIQUES?= ++ECLECTIC....AND they managed to save a penny or two with a few genious hacks, like PAINTING the floor instead of buying real tiles.... There isn't one titled Versailles/Cotswolds dweller who wouldn't CRY seeing this. Oh their friends are going to be so impressed ....just a little nothing statement like a leopard fake skinned throw pillow and a giant clay deer make ALL the difference. Also, i'm pretty sure they used this FARROW&BALL peinture...

Has Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette moved to Cleveland?

[quote] I don't love it. That said, what's wrong with "new money." If you're not from old money what other choice do you have? I know, there's "new money" taste (or lack thereof) and flashiness that people complain about, but that's up to to the individual, not inherent in "new money."

nothing wrong with "new money" but ..my two cents...I'm poor by any standards, but my apartment looks like granny's heaven. Most things I have come from my great great grandparents, their children, grandchildren = solid silver, fine china of the day from Paris/London, antique furniture that's been in the family forever, worn out oversized curtains and quilts from the 1900's , it's nice looking but still expensive to maintain , also sometimes I look around and I think I should throw it all away. But I can't afford to. I wouldn't buy anything antique unless it's similar to a piece I've seen forever in my family's homes and was given to another sibling/cousin.If I had any money, I would buy nice, eco friendly practical modern things. All this junk I have comme from an unglorious colonial past. we are a dying breed, and rightly so. It's stupid to pretend. That boat is long gone. Don't hire a "decorator" it's tacky. Don't buy antiques, it doesn't have any personal meaning to you and it will always belong to another family. It's nice to know where you stand and be proud of it, that's Elegance for me.

I know Peter and Miles as friends but their work doesn't do anything for me. Because their clients are usually very wealthy, money is never a problem. But, people with taste usually know when to put the brakes on. A little restraint would be nice here. Unlike many of the interiors we see here on DL where houses typically have very little of quality, this house probably has too many precious things and too many statements to be made.

I did like the landscaping.

R14 - yes, red carpet is the perfect flooring choice for a bar area. Are you serious? That carpet won't last 6 months.

Pros: digging the bold choice in colors. The grays and beiges have worn out their welcome. Color is refreshing. Like tall ceilings, the crown molding, some, well most, of the light fixtures, that blue dining nook, the girls room, and the kitchen except the frosted glass.

Cons: the repeated vases and antlers throughout. The weird pairing of colors/ patterns that look almost tie dyed, the weird mix of renaissance with things like that lighting in the foyer, or modern railing on the staircase.

The worst offense of all though is that they paid to have the painted up faux materials done everywhere (like "marble") as if this is a rental or flipped house. I much rather have seen less knickknacks, furniture, or paying a designer, in exchange for real materials. On the other hand, I do understand that probably would've cost them double to pull off, but still... now you have this big mansion like home, but with painted surfaces instead of the real thing. There's something morbid about that.

I'm lower middle class, but still pulled off getting some travertine tiles for my kitchen backsplash. Still have boxes of that and marble to do a project and it was inexpensive because it was overstock from a home builder.

[quote] I'm lower middle class

EWWww!

Farrow & Ball does make the most gorgeously surreal paint colours in the world.

Oh my God, did my mother sew their drapes?

I wonder which one will get the Forever Home in the divorce?

Usual AD bullshit...zero to do with the architecture, all to do with the interior designers who pay for the promo. Rubbish.

How can they be new money? They don’t look that old and the kids are young.

It’s absolutely sickening to see how the 1% of this country lives. They probably paid less tax than I did last year on my meager salary.

a few more pictures that aren't in OP's link: the boudoir

an additional guest bedroom

the "savane" en suite

It's.... very busy. Very hipster. Very... very. And it's in Cleveland.

and a little breakfast nook, cosy and understated

God damn, the writer is as pretentious as the house. Why are so many people misusing agnostic? Also I don't think you are supposed to store your booze in a sunny window.

R79 definitely not. There’s a reason people have wine cellars and bars are usually against a wall at the back of a room.

it feels like the Haunted Mansion ride where the room elongates.