I don’t understand it. I don’t get the exterior either, it looks like it needs vitamins.

The laundry room, with that useless cabinet tucked in the corner behind the machines. Nope.

Jterrilyn, totally agree! I think the word is.... underwhelming

Awful. Fugly is apt.

That saturated forest green reminds me so much of the color my ex-MIL used in the guest bath that was always assigned to me when I visited her home. That color always made me think of Nyquil and of being sick. To this day, I really can't stomach it in heavy doses.

The color scheme has a mid 80s vibe to me. I haven’t seen that cranberry color in a very long time.

It looks more "'as is' 80's foreclosure" than a brand new dream house.

The house creeped me out so I stopped looking at it. Those black windows in the front of the house made me instantly hate it. The natural light doesn't go well with the interior wall colors. And the forest behind the house, no thank you. Way too creepy.

Too many colours on the walls for me with nothing tying the rooms together.

Yep. Double blah, meh and yuk.

I wasn't impressed, but I'll take the 250K from Roc-ket Mort-gage in a flash!

I actually went back for another look, trying to figure out what a color lover such as myself finds so objectionable about it. It's like someone with a complete lack of finesse put it all together. It lacks cohesion and seems to have zero flow. The colors are obnoxious and oppressive and do not relate to one another. I guess that even with all that color, or perhaps especially because of all that color, it has more of a "look what I can do" air than a true thoughtfulness about it. Yuck.

I loved all the color. After years of everything being gray or “spa-like” (whatever that means), the use of color was refreshing. I would still agree with many of the comments above, but my first thought was “Great! Some color instead of a washed out, predictable beachy theme.“ Maybe this is the year I should enter the contest, since none of you will be. 😆

eta: Speaking of things disappearing, I’ve posted new topics twice and they never show up. They show in my profile but never on the page. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Neither was controversial or a banned subject. Great system to encourage and increase participation from their products (us). Perhaps it’s my lack of taste, as demonstrated by the above paragraph, that blocks me. 😆

I’m glad to know I wasn’t the only one who cruised through the photos saying ‘nope‘ to every one. Looked at it yesterday morning and was first surprised by the color. While I generally like some color, it was just way too bright for me. Everywhere.

kswl2, you're so right about the master bath. I was so turned off by the colour choice, I didn't even notice the layout mistakes. Maybe all the colour is there to distract us from the awful bones of the place. ETA: To be clear, I love colour, even saturated colour schemes in homes and I'm not a fan of white peaked ceilings when there's a deep colour on the walls.

Wow, it’s pretty bad. The outside bar/fire pit area is pretty cool, though. Interesting that they said it’s in Newport, but the house is actually in Portsmouth.

I really dislike that red paint color. Actually I dislike all the paint colors they used.

I dared to revisit, but on my cell phone. The photos are not as jarring to me when smaller. On my laptop, fuggetaboutit. If smaller viewing is better, how bad is it in person? Highly disappointed to notice Brian Patrick Flynn involved. I used to follow him on IG. Americana? This 4th of July baby does not approve of all the red, white and blue. Nowhere for the eyes to rest.

I briefly looked for an article to explain the house, the decisions... the back is worse than the front. Obviously the location/view is pretty, and I did notice the herringbone floors in the foyer this time around.

Watched most of a 7 minute video on House Beautiful's website where Brian walks us through the house. I lost count of how many times he said coastal, Ivy League and collegiant. How many twig wall art items does one house need? Large fixtures? Oversized art? Groupings of same items as art? Two stories of raspberry color is too much. Who wants. an open shower? Two sinks in that bathroom are useless. Not a fan.

I like color, too, but I'm not a fan of the reddish and dark green colors in the house. I like the blue cabinets in the kitchen but I agree on the large lights over the island. Still, we'll put in some entries, LOL.

The picture of the motorhome is a little surprising to look at after the Nashville bombing.

If the designer wanted a collegiate look he could have literally picked out one great school tie and decorated with all its colors and vibe.

And Nothing about the house says coastal to me. I like some of the large graphic sailing art but most of it seems ill placed and too big for site. The black and white art looks ridiculous in this house, IMO. I don’t dislike it— it’s just that everything in the house is out of context. Those two chairs with the round mirror above them adjacent to the dining area, for example... the chairs are not bad per se but they are not apropos of anything else in the house, the mirror looks out of place above them and in fact having a seating area there is completely pointless. It’s so near the front door there should be something useful like an additional serving console for the table or no furniture and a Gallery wall instead. Or something (anything) else a better, smarter designer would have chosen.

I wish I had the commission for all the sailboat stuff. The ship above the fireplace, the way it's coming right at you, I feel like I want to jump out of the way! Aren't such paintings usually done from the side of the ship or at an angle?

“We wanted late-20th-century-housing-development traditional-remodeled-to-modern-farmhouse with a coastal vibe, no we don’t know what that means.

Theme decorating gone wrong.

That house needs to disappear not your thread, Kswl !!

You can imagine how I feel about color. But I think my biggest issue is the double height living room. That device was so popular to make small spaces like townhomes feel larger, but I feel it has died out because its not that pleasant to be is and hard to decorate. I think overall they had to build a monstrosity to try to eke out a water view on the 4th floor.

Also hate the prominence of the garage.

And nothing about it says "New England" to me.

Darn, now I need to watch that video, graywings123. :)

ETA: I can't seem to get the videos to play for me. I get the ad first and if I skip it, it comes back to the same screen. I watch the whole ad, same thing. Never get to see the actual video.

Me too, Tartan. i hadn’t noticed the video when Allison mentioned it but I was content to not see it through her filter, lol. However, it turns out I am shallow enough to want to hear his description of the table... double damn!

Saw the video. Not only is there NOTHING inventive, it is like a Golden Oldies. The table with the wood top and white legs? Hello 1980. The bistro chairs? BTDT. An old quilt on an iron bed? A console made from reclaimed wood? SUrfboard as art? A telescope? How is that aqua MBR collegiate? What school is aqua? Cable banisters. White marble blah blah blah. Why didnt he at least find an old chalkboard?

PSat the very least, use brass. It's back and its far more nautical

Okay and this is really dumb. The outdoor barstools? The have no place to put your legs, occlude traffic coming down the steps, and are not covered.

Not a fan of it but entering anyway lol.

I had to take a look at this place and then view the old ones. It really fares poorly from the pasts homes, even at first glance.

I'm not against color on the walls, but the rooms look like what happens if you chose a color and threw on the walls without paying attention to anything else there. The colors also seem fight in value and saturation, especially when side by side.

I too dislike those pendants/dust collectors in the kitchen, but the rest is OK, if a little uninspired. But the barrier island with no prep sink between the fridge and the main sink is a big Houzz/GW no-no.

The front landscaping is really disappointing, like a cheap job at a new subdivision.

I love a chevron floor but it just multiplies the disjointed choices on the entry level.

ETA - I agree its a mismash of multiple design trends and era, eclectic done wrong.

I am not entering because I would feel honor bound to redecorate before selling it :)

What school is aqua? It must be the school of self taught, former assistant producers of cheesy HGTV shows.

He is very full of himself and has no taste whatsoever. HGTV knew what they were getting with him. Here are some photos from his own house in Atlanta, they’re even worse:

Family room

master BR

master bath

And I thought two tiny mirrors over two very close sinks were ridiculous— this single mirror is worse.

This guy “decorates” in cliches. In one of the videos he is shown shopping for tchotchkes like a cheap lobster print for a bathroom.

My mom noticed the outdoor barstool problem also, Mtn, and I wondered why on earth he used a sea of gray back there. And did you notice there is no elevator in the four floor home? The only way to stock the bar at the rooftop deck is to carry everything up on the spiral staircase. What an idiot!

Gimme a house designed by Ben Pentreath. THEN I'll enter. (Of course, he wouldn't lower himself to doing HGTV schlock, so dream on.)

Does anyone remember when HGTV.com had an entire forum devoted to the Dream House?

Those rooms from his home are awful, Kswl. Where's the lighting in the family room? Strip lighting under the sofa? I'd never heard of this designer before.

ETA: Don't like to be negative or bash a designer's work but...this home's flaws go beyond the aesthetic. In any case, I also learn about my taste by dissecting what I don't find pleasing in a room. It's an educational thread.

You can see into the master bedroom skylights from the deck. Could make for interesting parties.

Sueb, good catch about it being in Portsmouth. I wondered how they managed to find all the pristine waterfront property in Newport. They didn't!

DH and I are entering because we'd be a stone's throw away from a bunch of our favorite family members. I'll take all the tchotchke to the Goodwill and find a good painter.

Dee, you can organize the rest of us to come up and repaint over a weekend 😎

Suero, the skylights are a problem only if the kids are having a party after you've gone to bed lol

@kswl the designer's personal home does explain a lot. He seems to latch onto a material or color, and then use it a lot.

I'm with tartanmeup, I'm not trying to be overly negative but looking at this work really helps me figure out things for myself. The lack of lighting in the family room was one thing -- for me it was the hues of green in conflict. A lot of the rooms lack scale, proportion and balance and the lack of function like the kitchen layout, the sinks and the lighting.

I have been very mean about the designer on this thread, I admit it. I was SO disappointed because I was looking forward to this. The last five years have seen some dream house hits and some misses. This was a total fail and a total disappointment! He’s probably a perfectly nice person but he is a terrible decorator.

I love color.... but this was way too disjointed and overall too saturated.

And, what is meant by "collegiate " when it comes to design????

The rooftop deck is lovely, but that spiral staircase access means I'd never use it for entertaining.

I like the red color in parts of the house - but all the greens and blues were fighting with each other, especially with everything so saturated. Most of the art did not appeal.

I did like the herringbone floor in one of the rooms, but NOT the herringbone fireplace. I'll take that telescope, however.

The master bath... along with the dysfunctional sinks and mirrors, the flooring appears to be smooth. No traction when wet. I'm too much a klutz for that.

The view is great, and I love Rhode Island- but this house, not so much.

(First I heard that Rhode Island is known as a surfing state...)

In addition to all the flaws pointed out in the above posts, he commits what is for me - and for anyone else who loves to read - a major no-no. He shelves the books backwards, with their spines (and hence their titles) against the wall and their pages exposed to the room. This of course defeats the purpose of normal shelving, which is to show the book titles for browsing and to protect the exposed pages from whatever is floating around in the room. I can't think of a better way to announce that you don't read and don't realize that perusing book titles is at the very least a nice conversation-starter.

This is a "thing" that HGTV is pushing; they often show homes with books with hidden titles. Whenever DH hears me yelling from the den he calls out "So they're mistreating their books again?"

Lol, Sable! That whole brown and white library with no actual books is ridiculous. It’s clearly not a library per se and the desk is too small for this to be a home office for someone working remotely. It’s also not the big modern desk you would expect from the other furniture in the room, especially those ill proportioned chairs. In fact it looks as though he has found both the cane chairs and the desk at a thrift shop and had them lacquered in white. Nothing wrong with that if they looked good and proportional, but they do not. At every turn the house does not deliver beauty or comfort, he has certainly not lived up to the william Morris adage to have nothing in your house that you do not find to be useful or believe to be beautiful. (Paraphrasing!) None of the closets other than the master has any built ins, just a chest of drawers shoved in, and no full length mirrors anywhere either. It’s as puzzling as it is unattractive.

I have to wonder if budget and sponsorship played a part in this epic fail.

I was struck by the similarity of these rooms. The larger windows in the MT house make a big difference.

2019 Dream Home

2020 Dream home

The proportions of the MT room are much, much better.

So.Much.Red!!! Egads!!

And the wood on stairs (actually the whole staircase) looks completely incongruous with those dark, chevron patterned floors.

Yuck

And now the thread has resurfaced as though it were new. Maybe it was in moderation purgatory.... is that now a thing?

Possible, Kswl 2. Happened to me once or twice a while back. Never read anything official about such a moderation policy though.