The only room I can say something positive about is the Gentlemen's Bath. And the lighting and faucets seem slightly off. Just doesn't seem to work.

The yard looks good.

I love the foyer. It feels like the same foyer i have seen a million times, but yet very different. Love the foyer lighting too. I also really love the colors in the LR and the layout. The kitchen is very nice but not terribly remarkable, but swoon over the family room (esp the ceiling!).

If i see those dumb drawers with dog bowls one more time, I will barf. Makes zero sense unless maybe you have chihuahua who eats daintily and dabs the corners of her mouth at meal's end. What a mess that'd be in real use. I don't think most of us have a problem with "the space under the stairs". This isn't a studio in NYC. You needn't fill every nook.

The yard? ... the grass looks like it needs water. Hmm.

Oh, I like the office. And the family room. Quite a lot. The living room appeals to me too, though I wouldn't want to live with it.

Mtn, I agree about the dog dish drawers. You would have to go open it every time your dog wanted a drink, and if you left it open it would be a tripping hazard. Not to mention the tons of water being dripped on those wood floors. And is that a fake grass potty area in the other drawer??????? Eeeewwwww!!!!! I did like a few pieces of the furniture.

I love the pink and orange color scheme and lots of other rooms in the house. The lighting is certainly innovative. I do think it all looks fresh and new, and that is what I attend showhouses to see, I would love to see it in person!

I really love the mural in the dining room, although I'd like it much more if there weren't so many other things competing for attention. I also liked the green paint in the MB.

Thanks for sharing, it was fun to look.

I posted the link and didn't comment, as I wanted time to really study it. I hope more photos show up later or that I get a chance to tour it this year.

I'm not certain I'm seeing the references to Julia Morgan as cited in some of the designs (the original architect, and the first and only female AIA Gold Medal awardee). There are things I like a lot and perhaps some places where IMHO things could use a little editing (just a lot of elements competing for attention). I'm odd in this sense, but I think the wine cellar references the past pretty effectively.

Trend wise I see SF's love affair with grey/greige continues, several FPE glossy ceilings, lots of jeweled accents, and a nod to the practical (I love that the shower actual shows stuff and a shelf in it! What a subversive thought to design a usable room in a SF Showcase home. And several rooms that look very livable, versus just a Showcase Design. Our past examples have been known for some pretty impractical stuff).

I get that the brown lawn is the (necessary) statement regarding the drought; though with the latest rains, most mature things are pretty green so there may be a bit of artifice I think with the new sod. Completely drought tolerant landscape may have been an even better choice.

@mtnredux,@annac: I agree about the dog drawers, especially the puppy potty area (so wrong!). I don't object to the cubby under the stairs, if this staircase is attached to the family room. My dog likes to hang out in the FR and likes little cubbies, and so this solution seems like a good one.

There are a few before shots at this Link

In real life, the only things I really really liked were:

1) the striated paint and lacquered walls in the boys' bedroom (done with paint, acrylic and wax).

2) the diamond shaped rivets in the runner going up the main staircase.

3) the diamond patterned laser-cut cabinet doors in the laundry.

4) the wall unit wall in the family room (which if you can't tell from the picture, is tiny mosaic tile behind the TV and shelves)

The only room I really liked altogether was the dining room.

The penny tile floor in the laundry was the best execution of that style I've ever seen. There wasn't a seam to be seen.

By the way, the article says the house is 8000+ square feet on 3 levels - it's actually 4 levels, so I think it's more than that --- bottom level is a wine celler, foyer and huge family room, upper level is where the pool table is, the other two are the "normal" levels).

Oh, and the silverware (which we tried to pick up to find out who made it) was sewn to the placemats, presumably to prevent theft.

I really like a lot of it -- interesting light fixtures, pink living room.

Some things strike me as odd/impractical: white hide-on-hair stair border? An office/den without a desk or shelves? And is "pentroom" really a word?

Also, too much busy wallpaper.

I loved the floor in the En Vogue Salon, and actually quite liked the room (except for the artwork). I liked a lot of the lighting. The Offiice/Study looked like it belonged to Sigmund Freud. "Lie down on the couch and tell me about your Mutter." I like the grisaille mural in the lounge, although the gray of the walls didn't quite jibe with the grays of the mural. I really like the pentroom. The wall color was fabulous and I liked the sculptural elements (esp the lighting).

It's not cohesive, but these types of projects generally are not.

Ditto what Gooster said about the California drought. Brown grass is neither surprising nor noteworthy in California right now. They're talking about imposing $10,000 fines on individuals and businesses for wasting water. I haven't watered my yard in 3 years, but then, I don't have grass at all, I have drought-tolerant plants. But they are still suffering.

Re the light fixture in the pentroom - totally impractical in real life (it would be in your face while playing pool).

The backyard in reality actually looks terrible for a family with children - no consistent play area due to that concrete tunnel thing.

There's nothing that suggests music or play in the music and playroom. And that backyard tunnel thing is really strange - I wonder what the rationale for that was

At first I thought the woman in the painting over the tub was flipping us off.

The pet water dish drawer is dumb. Leaving it open is a hazard. If it's closed when they want a drink, what then? Most animals would scratch and paw at it, if they weren't able to find an open toilet to slake their thirst.

The backyard (!!!) reminds me of the opening sequence of Game of Thrones.

I love the house's facade and the neighborhood. I'd deal with the rest if I had to. :)

I think the backyard is possibly the oddest thing in the show house. I think a fabulous drought appropriate landscaping job was called for--not brown grass.

re: the pet dishes -- is that a pee pad in the drawer with the "grass"? gross

OMG! sickening, no comfortable looking furniture/chairs to be found anywhere, maybe if one sits on a bed? LOL

There's nothing that suggests music or play in the music and playroom

Probably because it's really a bedroom - the decorator for that room repeatedly referred to it as the "twins room/music room"

I enjoyed seeing the showcase, thanks for posting it !! It made me want to have a pop of color in my soon to be new condo, I was aiming for too neutral..... I love the energy throughout the showcase house, I could live there....

Remind me not to wear silver pants while having my posterior photographed, please.

Thanks so much for posting this...most interesting to look at.

That being said, there was little I liked. I always look at rooms first with "do I want to live here?" Perhaps that's not the best way, but it's instinctive. Then I look at pieces and parts to see if there are particular elements that I like. It says something to me when the 2 rooms I liked best were the wine cellar and the laundry. Loved the ceiling in the wine cellar, and loved the wallpaper in the laundry. The family room wasn't bad and I really liked the glossy ceiling and the color. The wood chest in the LR under the orange lamp was gorgeous.

Then I look for trends or themes and see what I think of them. I see the big trend in wall treatments and wall paper. While I'd never want to live with it, I thought the DR mural was amazing, and liked the spray can art. But for the most part, despite the fact that I typically love wallpaper, I found little to like here. I so hate the wall treatments in the "cozy powder room" that I'd be looking for someplace else to do my business. Frankly, the ceiling fixtures were simply odd and fall in the category of, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. As is the built-in water dish and pee pad for the dog. Yuck.

I especially did not like the yard installation. I'm a country gal and what I hate about going to the city is you are surrounded by walls so rarely get to see the sun shine unless you look straight up. Why I'd purposely install something in a yard with the same characteristic is beyond me. Sort of reminiscent of the Vietnam Memorial, sinking into the earth.

Perhaps it's a lack of training on my part, but when I think of Julia Morgan, I think of San Simeon, and I don't get that at all out of the foyer. I see the structural elements but that would work for Roebling or many others just as well.

The dining room mural is great. I don't like it with the striped ceiling and some of the other elements in the room though. I like the bubbly ceiling lamps in the bedroom too.

I could hang out in that wine cellar.

Agree that the back yard is bizarre. A wasted space unless there is more than is being shown.

There in't any one room that jumps out to me as "perfect". But there are a lot of little things that caught my eye: The rivets holding the stair runner are interesting and new (at least to me); I like the glam of the offset hardware and trim in the master bath cabinetry; the Lucie Koldova lamps in the "concrete" bedroom; two-tone window treatments (ombre in the salon, multi-textural in the MBR); paint treatment in the attic bedroom.

Least favorite: billiard room. I can't get past the color and the light fixture. It makes me think a bit of the "before" in an antacid commercial.

Well, on one hand, I try to answer whether I'd like to live there while on the other hand, I'd try to answer whether there's something original or out of the box, etc. So the kitchen, for instance, is perfectly nice kitchen, white, nothing offensive, but it's certainly quite ordinary, except for the glossy ceiling.
Now, I like many of the light fixtures, the glossy ceilings, the vogue bathroom, the gentleman's bathroom, colors in the living room, the laundry room is cute.