IMHO, that is terrible! So gaudy! And a bargain at 7 million! HA!

I'm speechless.

Yikes.

What is that style, Victorian brothel?

More: https://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/richard-merillat-maximalist-ann-arbor-apartment-for-sale/

According this this article, it was decorated by Richard Denning, ”maximalist decorator” - that’s an understatement!

It makes me anxious seeing all that stuff crammed together like that. It doesn’t fit with the exterior or take advantage of the views.

How very, very Victorian!

Are they selling it furnished?

🤔

P.S. Found an image to compare:

@bbstx, lol!!!

I got curious and ran through every pic. I see it as an extreme collection of things that the owner liked, and the owner as a person with a lot of money. :) Then I wondered what it would sound and feel like in the bedrooms….. cold, hard, and echoing, I’d imagine. Just being in one of these rooms would be a sensory overload for me. The statue in the kitchen is scary! lol!

There's more than one scary statue in that home!!!!

That makes my head hurt.

239 days on Zillow. That tells you everything you need to know.

The look is more 1990’s Beverly Hills and it would be a ton of work to de-clutter the hard finishes, like mirrored lower cabinets. If just the uppers were mirrored…

Whats weird is that the majority of photos are of his stuff. But the listing doesn’t say it’s being sold furnished.

I don't necessarily subscribe to the idea that the inside and exterior of a structure should always be related, nice when it does, but to me the disconnect is from unrelentless overload ithat becomes its own otherworldly dimension and the guest/visitor is simply a viewer.

Edited to correct grammer.

Edited again to correct: grammar!!

What fun to view. I wonder what the owners' primary residence looks like?

I couldn't take any more after I hit photo 17

Spanish, don’t we see that a lot, the listing photos that are of the contents and decor, not the home itself!

I lost count of how many lampshades in the EXACT SAME STYLE there are. I was so excited to see something different on the nightstands of an upstairs brdroom, then saw the opposite wall: back to the innumerable fringed shades. Must have been a going-out-of-business sale at the workshop.

I do apprecieate the whimsy of the kitchen Pan, because where else would you place Pan but in the kitchen?) And little birdies on a perch suspended from his flute! (it could have been worse…)

The Reddit commentary https://www.reddit.com/r/zillowgonewild/s/DO8JIB38BR

Do NOT go there if you are easily offended. It gets pretty snarky.

Well far from my taste (and I think also that the proportions of the space don't go well with what is attempted), I had to research the designer Robert Denning. Apparently the firm Dennng and Fourcade reached its pinnacle in the 70s and 80s, based out of NYC and Paris. I think it would not look so out of place in an appropriate Belle Epoque villa or hotel (and even those are more restrained, like the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild).

Seems like there's literally nowhere for the eye to rest - with shiny surfaces plus mirrors to make it even moreso...

I’m still getting over the thought of turning from the sink to the island and looking at Pan’s tu$hie.

Most of you had the same reaction I had!

What is weird is that I posted it 5 days ago and then it disappeared. I thought I had upset someone and it was removed, but I guess it just got lost in the Houzz software!

I noticed that.

Ah the mysteries of Houzz...

Makes me very anxious...

It's exhausting! Too many places to look! It also reminds me of certain gift/furniture stores in San Francisco, found in Chinatown and Fisherman's Wharf, stuffed with really over-the-top items. Ugh.

There are elements here and there that I love, but one at a time please.

For example, the yellow and white stripes! Luv

Forgive me for being mean_spirited, but for those of you who did not have the fortitude, you *must* skip ahead to slides 84 and 85 for a good guffaw.

Whats weird is that the majority of photos are of his stuff. But the listing doesn’t say it’s being sold furnished.

Good point!

Wow...that's....hmmm.

From the Reddit link, lol: It's like hoarders, but they can afford to hoard nice stuff.

Another $7 million to gut every square inch and re-do.

Richard and Lynette Merillat own the penthouse, according to public records. Richard Merillat previously ran kitchen cabinet manufacturer Merillat Industries, which his father, Orville D. Merillat, started. Media reports say Richard and Lynette owned several houses Denning designed, with one newspaper clipping from 1993 showcasing the couple's newly purchased $20,500 carousel horse. The caption notes that the Merillats had 20 carousel horses in their home.

Article about the listing.

I search for their Naples, FL home to see its interior, but only found this article about a kitchen tour in 2013.

The writeup does sort of imply that it comes with all the doodads: “Every detail reflects uncompromising quality, from the exceptional materials and masterful craftsmanship to the fully appointed interiors, which include numerous historically significant furnishings, highlighted by rare pieces from the Versace Estate.”

I also noticed that they include the outdoor terrace space in their square footage count, and they have an HOA!

eta: I even noticed that they say there’s a back mudroom. lol!

mtnrd, you mean the portraits with the big hair???

shhh, i wanted it to be a surprise!

@mtnrdredux_gw - From the article bbstx linked - the residence is being offered fully furnished (with a few exclusions).

The whole thing is so over the top. It reminds me of the Palazzo Pitti where no surface was left unadorned.

But if you look at some of the individual pieces, there are some really nice ones. Love the Biedermeier chairs/table in the eat-in kitchen. Some of the silk fabrics are beautiful.

I don't get some things though for sure...as bpath mentioned the kitchen island (hahah!) Why would you take an island and make it unusable with a giant statue on it? Heck on mine, I find myself even moving the vase of flowers to another spot so I can work!

And why do you put swing arm lamps with shades up on the 2nd story? They have picture lights already...it's not like someone can sit under them to read!

Still as difficult as I'd find living with this cacaphony of design that borders on the violent, I find this mausoleum-like entrance even worse that speaks only of cold death.

Allison, I remember Merillat cabinets. Many builder in the 80's and 90's were using them.

This is a comment from a poster on the reddit link above

"That's crazy. I worked a block north of there for quite a while... That building isn't that old. And to think there was some eccentric crazy rich person up there the whole time."

It would cost me $7M to undo all that and to redo it to a much simpler aesthetic.

Oh my, way too much. Some interesting pieces but they are lost in the clutter of it all.

It’s hideous.

I think the issue is with the Zillow house is that the scale is more wrong than it is right, the layout does not seem orderly, and a lot of the "architectural details" are cartoonish. there is too much paper standing in for real details. A lot of the furniture is actually pretty nice, it's just buried in there.

This has been for sale in my area off and on for some time. They managed to put in a real coffered ceiling rather than using coffered paper. It's also new, but it's done with a certain level of authenticity, in contrast.

This originally had a lot of wallpaper and some intense colors that actually worked well with the baroque-ness of it, but they painted it all white since the last time they tried to sell it. And it's now $1.6M which is kind of inexpensive.

This is more acceptable to our eye but a period house (this is a condo) would not have been all white.

So the Zillow house, once the objets and lampshades and drapery and furniture and wallpaper and portraits of the big-hair daughters in the 1980s are removed, and the holes patched, could you work with the trim around the doors, the floors, the high windows? How about the mirrors between the lower and upper windows? The layout isn’t bad. I wonder if one can pretty up the elevator hallway? Maybe you aren’t the only unit on the floor, but unless the neighbor is a brutal minimalist, perhaps they wouldn’t mind?

Also,

would you go to the estate sale?

I could not live with the trim because I think it's all plastic. I may be a bit more sensitized to that because I lived in two buildings that had real plaster and real wood ornament like this, including in my apartments. Not all the fake stuff is bad, there is just something not quite right about it in this place.

I like Biedermeier furniture so I would go to the auction. I wonder if some of the wallpaper has been hung archivally because it is very good paper and it can be resold.

I just looked at all the photos again, with a more open mind this time. Still feel the same. Just too much, and on every surface. No place to rest the eyes. It would make me anxious.

I only saw one item I would be interested in at the estate sale. The mirror over this sink.

I find the display sized bottles of perfume everywhere (colored water in these) particularly annoying.

So now I’m shopping the possible estate sale. I don’t have a place for them, but I do like some of the dining-style chairs in the sitting rooms, the stool in the kitchen, some of the rugs, I wonder if they are handmade. In the bathroom, the silver items around the sink are charming (put your day’s pills in the saucer! or maybe the flosser? so you don’t forget) and I almost like the jewelry caddy except she reminds me of a modern- day Marie Antoinette: headless. And if she holds the day’s earrings and necklace, what is the torso at the other end supposed to hold?

I'm sure there may be individual pieces in there somewhere I would like, but I can't look that closely. Just no.

I could not get through all of the pics. Just looking at them made me anxious!

" I need a giant plastic boxwood for an 8 foot tall urn..." It is so out of scale, with so many strange things, that it looks like those AI kitchens that keep popping up.

The interior photos all look like they're digitally enhanced - and many are distorted, which is something that never fails to bother me.

I’m getting the camel table at the estate sale.

Thanks for the reminder that I don’t really have too much stuff.

There's a ghost in photo 64..... And why are there mirrored lower cabinets in the kitchen, but not that bathroom? lol.

Off to google how to take a screenshot on a newer ipad....

@Springroz to screenshot…power button and volume up simultaneously.