Wow!
It really could go either way!
The cabinetry, appliances, faucets, and counter tops could be very modern until you look at the ceiling and floor.

I like it, though. Wayyy too visually cluttered for me, but extremely cool.

Wow! That's really unique.

I expected something quite different, from the title of the thread :)

I like a lot of it, but could not deal with the ceiling or the particular focal point. I do really like the floor and the counters work well with it. A solid glossy red ceiling could have been cool or maybe done in wood....

I'm guessing this is a Kosher kitchen, no? It looks very specific with the two full sinks on opposite counters and the double range. However, I am no expert on the subject.

I love the marble sink base in the bathroom....otherwise I prefer to live with "bits and pieces" of color only.

It's hard to see all the details, but I think Spanish has it, that it's a double sided kosher kitchen. When I was a kid there was a lady who came from a very modern background who had a "mixed marriage" to an Orthodox man. She had her kitchen made in a V of two complete kitchens coming together at the point, so that she, and her household help, could keep things straight. You don't need doubles to keep kosher, but where you see them, that's usually why.

My first reaction, though, was to imagine two zaftige ladies with ample bums working industriously at the two sinks and dancing cheek to cheek. ;)

I love the floor and ceiling and counters. That's a white kitchen that doesn't leave me looking for my paints.

Thanks, Florantha, for posting it.

I knew it had to be Diamond Baratta before I looked at the link. Their work is very distinctive.

I like their work on an intellectual level more than I like it on a real-life level.

There is a Lot going for this kitchen but then there are a couple of things that I would want to give the Coco Chanel treatment. Take it off and leave it at home.

One thing that bugs me in this shot is that the range appears to be a focal point but the floor is not centered down the aisle or on the range. It may be set in alignment with some other part of the kitchen but the off kilter bothers me here.

Wow. That's a fun kitchen. Me, I'd take the counters down a notch, but I love the beautiful painted floor and the ceiling is a hoot.

I like everything but the off-kilter tiled floor and the backsplash mural over the range. What were they thinking with that? And in Delft blue, no less. It's like the embarrassing love child of a mésalliance between Kountry Klutter and Art Deco.

Did someone say what those amazing red counters are made of?

[addendum: I just took the Quintessence tour of the rest of the house, and see that the kitchen actually fits RIGHT in. LavenderLass, it's more your eclectic country style than not, actually, upon closer inspection. Christine and others with clutterphobia: do. not. click.]

Do love the bathroom, though. The more visual distraction in a bathroom, the better:

Well, to each his own. I dislike it quite a lot. And not just as someplace I wouldn't want to live, but as some place I wouldn't want a friend to live with either. Can't even intellectually appreciate the style (not to mention the badly laid out floor).

To me, the gingham and fruit motifs just don't work with the style of the cabinets and the delft tile backsplash...feels like the ugly love child of grandma's 1940s kitchen and a OTK McMansion style. Sets my teeth on edge.

What fascinates me most is that the house is part of a genre that I've very used to...the "living with antiques" house that is a regular feature of Antiques Magazine and other backward-looking periodicals and books. Readers like me are very used to studying rooms that feature displays of collections of historical items and rooms that either attempt to display antiques amid modern items or that have actual in-use oldie pieces that are part of someone's daily life. Most of the time they are very very sedate, calm, "Old Money" rooms a few notches above historic house rooms in actual historic museums. This one thrilled me because it shows how to put the old items into use, items that I pat and drool on at auctions and shops. Just look at that long table and think about the girth of the tree that was sawed to make it! And there are good lessons in the articles about how to display a collection--sometimes against bare white walls (I suspect this is for the best pieces and the ones that need to be see in in silhouette) and sometimes against active pattern wallpaper (items with own white ground around the pattern or items with more value in a flock than as singletons).

The checked ceiling is definitely a personal thing even in a spacious room; imagine doing that with LOW ceilings? As far as the floor goes, I like the gentle asymmetry of the pattern because so much else is symmetrical. Again, I've got the mental reference of historic rooms with painted floors, painted floor cloths, and varieties of patterned rugs to compare this to.

This is a bonafide Red Kitchen, despite it having all those white cabinets. Red can take on all comers, which makes a red room a place of competition unless you either let red win, mute it, or beat it into submission with other colors.

I tried to revive the old "Are You a Red Freak?" thread and post this kitchen but apparently once a thread has aged sufficiently, new posts only become emails to the poster. Go figure. So Plan B was to give this kitchen a thread of its own. So glad you have opinions on this, my new fascinating kitchen image. Beats Diane Keaton's by a mile! But like hers, it starts with white cabs and a sedate layout, then goes color and object wild. I'm a voyeur: I love seeing this kind of gutsy decorating at someone else's expense!

Some people may find it invigorating. It's sensory overload for me--makes me nervous!

At first look I was intrigued. The papered ceiling calls out to me. Love red, but not the counters and after looking at the whole picture, am with the cluttered, make my head swim. I am amazed that the floors are hand stenciled. What would this cost and how would one maintain them?

If isn't really obvious this house was $$$$: they do custom colorways and matching matching matching with *everything, having samples produced for approval for fabrics, rugs, wallcoverings...

Generally I think their work is kind of unforgiving of change or development. When it's Done, it's Done, and you can't really add anything that isn't custom fit to the colorway, unless you find a perfect match by accident--I feel like I would even have to dress accordingly.

I cannot stop focusing on the two differently-colored outlets on the near side of the islands.

Because this kitchen is so distinctive -- warts and all -- isn't it sort of removed from a realm that change could affect?

That said, what look to me like warts are really big ones. Even without being lit for photos, I suspect that the shininess of the countertops would lose its charm quickly. The Delft is waay out of place in all the flash. And the ceiling is twee beyond redemption.

I do find the floor rather charming, although perhaps in a smaller scale for a much smaller and much simpler kitchen.

Are we sure that this kitchen is driven by something other than over-the-topness for its own sake and/or conspicuous consumption ?

Honor, what low motives do you believe launched this kitchen? Mere outrageous personality and money?

I don't know my Connecticut geography very well, but I do know that I went to Litchfield once, to see the White Flower Farm and environs. Lotsa white houses and money there. Could this be the happy joke nestled among them?

___

Personally, I find the stained glass above the stove to be the over the top part of this kitchen. Marcolo, isn't the black outlet the one that code sez has to be black because it's for some special use? Maybe there's a Woody Allen robot dressed as a waiter to plug in?

The ceiling is beautiful.

What kind of counters are those?

The one outlet has a recharger plugged into it, is all. The Stylist missed that.

D & B tend to work in two wide genres, Colonial Revival and kind of Contemporary-Transitional. I think they are more successful at the Colonial Revival, with their 30 foot long braided rugs and such. It's all kind of too precious but I think it may be part of the joke. I'm just not sure I want to live in a giant visual joke all the time --so that's why I appreciate it on one level and not so much on another.

I don't think it is mere ostentation at work here, because plain old ostentation is often banal or boring on top of being ostentatious and vulgar.
I don't think most pure ostentation is conscious of what it is, but this type of look is Very conscious of what it is...it kind of pokes fun at being ostentatious while at the same time it Is ostentatious, and I think on that level it's okay.

I like the floor.

I suppose that's kinda like telling a woman she has nice shoes.

I'm going to repeat my comment when this was posted on Atticmag. While, I could never live in this home or kitchen, it's a happy kitchen and makes me smile. It reminds me of my grandmother, and I can imagine those dual islands rimmed with grandchildren perched on stools kicking the island backs.

I took a tour of the quintessence blog, and I liked the house even though I do have clutterphobia. I wouldn't want to live there, but it would be fun to tour. There was a lot there, but it didn't seem cluttered, at least I didn't have the urge to sweep everything off a surface into a trash bag.

I love this kitchen. It's cheerful and warm, and I can imagine baking cookies in it. It's one of the only expensive kitchens I have seen that has chutzpah.

[silly mode on] re: the plug...it's for this guy...imagine him in the kitchen...and of course Diane Keaton...

{{!gwi}}

Remember when Johnliu put up his smoky inspirational Catharine Deneuve on the wall of the kitchen? These owners have their own inspiration also...somehow connected to that outlet I'm sure...

Can't you picture it? And the little robot dog that leaves waste batteries behind him...[silly mode off; back to deep thoughts]

I mostly like it. There are some "excepts", though.

I like the floor, except that it isn't centered (either on the ranges or between the cabinets)

I like the counter...except that it's so *shiny*

I even like the ceiling, even though gingham isn't usually my thing.

However, I have to agree with circuspeanut's "embarrassing love child" comment about the backsplash mural. And with Pal's comment that it isn't exactly something you can update with paint and some new accessories--do I want to live with this until I'm ready for a whole new kitchen remodel? Probably not.

I am not an avid fan of Diamond Baratta so much, but I am an avid follower and analyzer of their work.

This kitchen although it was tremendously expensive, I'm sure, would not be all that hard to turn into something else.

The floor is painted: paint over it or refinish it.
The ceiling is wallpaper: Zip and it's gone.
The countertop, which looks like Pyrolave, might be 15K or more, but it's discreet pieces that could be pulled--and in a $100K kitchen, maybe this is an "update". Then you have a white kitchen.

I think the off Delft backsplash is an intentional mismatch--I don't mind this as much as the hokey stained glass...that's so "Adult Enrichment Class" in quality, that it has to be on purpose...I almost wonder if the floor is off on purpose for some reason too, but maybe the important alignment is somewhere else, centered under a table or something.

I cannot believe it, but I love this kitchen. It has an exuberance that is hard not to like. Either that or I have gotten sick of my own style already.

But Pal, it has to cost a lot more that 100k, dont you think? 100k is a pretty standard kitchen in these parts.

I'm trying to like it - and I like busy rooms! But It's a little stage-y for my taste... a little too 'reproduction' (and it's probably real!)

I looked at the rest of the house - there's a link on Atticmag.com - and the rooms crammed with lamps and collections and busy wallpapers and rugs, reminded me of a store - like if you looked closely, there might be price tags hanging from all the stuff.

Oh probably more, yes. Maybe double? $100K is a lot here unless it includes construction...not that people don't have it, but they don't spend it that way usually. Phila is different than CT and suburban NYC in this situation.

I meant to add that a friend of mine there had very similar Jacobean paper in their kitchen, mixed with blue Rattlesnake patterned wallpaper. This was the 70s, but it might still be there--the Jacobean anyway.

I think the counters must be enameled lavastone. I looked into it when I was looking at countertop materials, and it's still ridiculously expensive. Seems like awesome material though!

While I love the counters (fan of shiny red things here!) and some other individual aspects of this, I don't care for this kitchen as a whole. It makes me itchy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pyrolave

This would make me run out of the house screaming! The patent leather looking countertops and the off center floor. I do like the stoves and cabinetry though-ha!
The sink in the alcove....looks like a shrine.
Nooooo, not for me.

Hmm, kooky and wacky kitchens can be fun---as long as it's someplace else other than one's own home.

That is easily a 200K+ kitchen. Much more, I'm confident. Pyrolave alone is the most expensive countertop possible.

I won't allow this absolutely fascinating topic to malinger on page 3 after only a day. Bump!

The pyrolave was used pretty intelligently here in discreet pieces so that it can be switched out if someone doesn't want fire engine red, and also because it doesnt appear to seam invisibly...there seem to be pretty obvious seems in the pictures I've seen.

I think that is the authentic way to do a vessel sink: an actual vessel on an actual stand.

So disappointing to see the rest of the pictures. I don't like the curtains or the gimcrackery. The funky fruit glass is ... funky, but the faux tchatchkarai doesn't do it for me.

Sigh. I thought the dark bits of the floor were greener. The true blue that they are in the other pictures goes well with the delft, but is too Centenial for me. I actually like the proportion of it just because it is off. I like that the design is perfectly laid in its own space, and that the islands are placed correctly vis-a-vis the range, and if those don't like up, well, c'est la vie. There is too much perfection without it.

Oh, well. I love Pyrolave anywhere, always, even with the very apparent seams. :) It's an environmental nightmare and unreasonable expense, but otherwise very practical. :)

Thanks again for posting this. It makes my kitchen look sparse! Gotta love it just for that!

Just have to stir the pot again, pushing this to the top for Saturday enjoyment (or otherwise)...

Looking at it yet again, I really think that half the problem is the delft bs. If it were plain pale yellow tiles instead (like the field tile), it would tone down sooo much.
I also am incredulous that they used patterned dishtowels in that kitchen. I can't look at that pic for very long because the noise of it is too much. The bathroom pic of the lovely sink and stand is ruined by that loud wallpaper. If they wanted to do a small amount of it, they could have pulled it off as an accent, but they went so far overboard that it is ugly. That paper just screams over what would be the lovely sounds of the other very nice elements.

Dianalo, colors and patterns so sharp they make your eyes hurt is the hallmark of DB.

Although I appreciate the creativity I couldn't be in there long. To me it's the shiny red countertop that I find bothersome. I'm not sure what else could be used but some sort of muted aged flat red would be better for my eyes.