That's Rather Hideous: In Southampton, N.Y., an unassuming shingle-style...

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That's Rather Strange: Why are These Lamps Made from Recycled Bulbs So Expensive?

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Monday, January 16, 2012, by Rob Bear

Photo: YLighting

Recycling is a noble practice, particularly when it creates something as beautiful as the Recycled Tube Light Pendant from YLighting, which is made by arranging burnt-out florescent tubes in a cylinder around halogen bulbs. Given the common materials, one would think this innovative light would be available to the masses for relatively cheap, but no, it's been sequestered away in the realm of haute design, destined for a celebrity loft rather than adding some eco-friendly cool to the average home. Why's that? Well, the price, for the smallest, one-bulb version is $1,950, and the largest, five-bulb number costs $3,000. At least the shipping is included.
· Recycled Tube Light - Pendant Light [YLighting]

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That's Rather Hideous: Over on Curbed DC there's a...

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That's Rather Awesome: Behold the Manse With Awesome Guitar-Shaped Landscaping

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Monday, October 24, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Thanks our due to the fine folks over at Zillow Blog for brightening this Monday afternoon—they've apparently taken a break from eating Saltines just long enough to unearth a most unusual listing located some half-hour outside Birmingham, Ala. Set on 27 acres, the gargantuan manse, built in 1997, boasts 15 bedrooms, 22 bathrooms, a 25-seat home theater, a 2,000-bottle wine cellar, as well as interior details (antique light fixtures; marble, limestone, and maple flooring; mahogany doors and windows)—and this is proudly touted in the brokerbabble—completed by International Fine Art Conservation Studios, the firm that worked on the finishes inside Buckingham Palace. Also on the property: a guest house, two poolside cabana houses, a barn with living quarters, an outdoor riding ring, four pastures, and, we're assuming, lots more. Clearly the coolest thing about the place is that guitar-shaped landscaping, which the listing agent calls "just a whimsical, great idea," on the part of the owner, a businessman with no ties to the music biz. He's selling it like a rockstar, though, with an ask of $17.9M.

· Home of the Week: Guitar-Shaped Grounds at Alabama Mansion [Zillow Blog]
· 7 Montagel Way, Shoal Creek, Ala. [Zillow]

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That's Rather Hideous: It's All Green for This On-The-Market Hutton Wilkinson Bedroom

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, September 7, 2011, by Rob Bear

Maximalist master Tony Duquette never shied away from an opportunity to pack a room full of far-flung influences and his partner and heir apparent Hutton Wilkinson has picked up that torch. Maybe times have changed, or this is just simply too green, but his work on this 1958 one bedroom in Los Angeles is over the top. The bedroom is overrun with intricately carved wood paneling from South Asia, and while the other rooms aren't so bad, this one is really dragging down the $925K listing.
· Hutton Wilkinson-Designed Wilshire Terrace Unit Has a Peacock Room [Curbed LA]

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That's Rather Hideous: It's a Trompe L'Oeil Travesty Inside This City Pied-à-Terre

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, August 19, 2011, by Rob Bear

Bryant Park Place, located in midtown Manhattan, is a distinguished pre-war building that was originally built by Andrew Carnegie to house the Engineer's Club. Well, those engineers might have been focused on structure, but even they would have objected to the trompe l'oeil treatment on the walls of this one-bedroom co-op. Normally, we might expect this from an attempt to convert a sprawling apartment into some version of a palace, but this place, measuring just 750 square feet, reflects even greater delusions of grandeur. The apartment is currently on the market for $645K, but is also available for rent for $3K a month. We envy the gall of someone who leases this apartment without getting the landlord to swap out the wallpaper.
· 32 West 40th Street [Elliman]

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That's Rather Hideous: A Perfectly Preserved, Untouched Relic...Of The 1980s

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, June 28, 2011, by Rob Bear

Lovers of the rubik's cube decade will be drawn to this Technicolor dream apartment, with its purple walls, mirrored ceilings, and, uh, period furniture. Curiously enough, Queen frontman Freddie Mercury kept an apartment in this NYC co-op back in the day, but all traces of his "floor-to-ceiling mirrors and silvery satin walls" have been replaced by white and beige. Luckily (for our purposes) this place is still keeping the faith, but who knows how much longer this oddity will be kept in vintage condition. The one bedroom, 2.5 bath pad is on the market for $2.495M. Click on over to Curbed NY for more eye-popping photos.
· A Look At Midtown's 1980s Time Machine (With Mirrored Ceilings!) [Curbed NY]
· All Hints of Freddie Mercury Gone From His $4.35M Apartment [Curbed NY]

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That's Rather Hideous: Our cousins over at Curbed DC...

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, May 13, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

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That's Rather Hideous: Yuletide Cheer Comes Early (or Late?) in the Lone Star State

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, May 11, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Ho, ho, ho, what have we here? Just a little ghost of Christmas 2010, a 10,364-square-foot Houston Georgian that came on the market some five months ago. Whether or not holiday festooning is the key to proper home staging, a glittery tree in a corner sure as heck won't distract anyone from the excessive use of florals or mounted animal heads. In truth, the place looks like it's got good bones and, to that effect, potential—a gracious formal entry, 20-foot ceilings, a spacious kitchen, a wood-paneled library, and his/hers baths. The cost of all this holiday cheer? $6.9M. If someone would only tell Santa to hang up his hat for the next six months or so the owners would probably be in business.

· 3870 Willowick Road, Houston [HAR]

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That's Rather Hideous: All the Colors of the Rainbow, for Less Than a Million Bucks

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, April 28, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Call us obsessed, but crazy Houston properties are on the brain this week! As for this one: royal-purple window awnings were the first hint that this traditional-looking Texas property was more than meets the eye. And lo and behold, inside lies a Technicolor madhouse, with each wall a different tone and various ceilings painted, too. The three-bedroom house, built in 1940, hit the market in August '10 for $1.089M and has since been price-chopped down to its current ask of $985K. Anyone care to venture a guess as to why the place hasn't sold?

· Unassuming Midcentury Modern is Actually Creepy House of Dolls [Curbed National]
· 3245 Locke Ln Houston, TX 77019 [HAR via Swamplot]

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That's Rather Hideous: Things Are Really Looking Up in This Texan Contemporary

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, March 4, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Move over, Michelangelo! The real ceiling fun is happening in Dallas, where a 14,670-square-foot estate on the market for $12.5M is all about what's happening overhead. Said "exquisite ceiling treatments," as the listing describes them, pervade the eight-bedroom behemoth, which also includes a media room, great room, master great room, and very mysterious-sounding "project room." While each ceiling varies wildly in color, tone, and scope, unity is achieved by the overstuffed La-Z Boy loungers that pepper the space. Have a look above.

· 10660 Strait Lane, Dallas [Trulia]

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That's Rather Strange: Yusuke Suzuki's Book Bed Offers a New Form of Child's Play

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This is just wild: a kids' bed made to look like a book. Photographer Yusuke Suzuki created each flippable "page" from sheets and pillows. Is it nap time yet?

· Book Bed [Neatorama via Gizmodo]

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That's Rather Hideous: New-to-Market Windy City Funhouse With Themes and Theatrics

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Monday, April 11, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Our cousins over at Curbed Chicago came cross this home, in the city's West Loop neighborhood, when it hit the market on Friday and declared it a cross between the Rainforest Cafe and Jerry Kleiner's Carnivale. The whole 7,552-square-foot building, built for Hollenbach Seed Company in 1890, is listed for $2.25M, which includes a basement and the huge parking lot next door. As for those interiors, let's just say it makes sense that the place is currently functioning as a life/work space for Kozan Design Studios, a Chicago-based firm that creates showpieces for theaters, theme parks, nightclubs, and other commercial spaces.

· West Loop Building, Full of Colorful, Sculptural Oddities, for $2.25M [Curbed Chicago]
· Listing: 808 W. Lake St. [Best Chicago Properties]

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That's Rather Hideous: When Love of Fabrics Goes Awry, Smothering Factor Heats Up

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, February 8, 2011, by Sarah

Valentine’s Day fast approaches, and in celebration of love we’d like to call attention to that emotion’s uglier alterego: smothering. Specifically: smothering as it pertains to fabrics. Above, please find drapes that match bedskirts, chair upholstery that matches sheets, wallcoverings that match Zach Braff, and so on. Curbed's official stance? Think of fabrics as you would your stock portfolio: diversify. 'Tis the season to spread the love.

—Sarah F. Cox

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That's Rather Hideous: Beautiful Victorian Suffocates From Theme-Park Interiors

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, February 4, 2011, by Sarah

There's nothing better than living someplace where the exterior and interior are completely and utterly incongruous. Take this example, brought to us by our cousins at Curbed Chicago. Outside, a restored facade recalls the grandeur and grace of late 19th-century Victorian architecture. Inside, the living room at once recalls a Days Inn somewhere outside Miami and a restaurant chain styled after '50s diners. Even further afield, the bedroom seems to draw inspiration from Rainforest Cafe, what with its boulder- and tree-themed murals. Does this place come with a souvenir shop?

· Victorian Outside, "Avant Garde" Inside in This Lincoln Park Home [Curbed Chicago]

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That's Rather Strange: Someone Really Must Love Midcentury Seating...

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· Nick Baxter Tattoo Galleries [official site]

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That's Rather Hideous: Joie de Vivre About Toile de Jouy in Curious Chi-Town Condo

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Monday, January 24, 2011, by Sarah

What's that they say about the carpet matching the drapes? Well, there should obviously be some sort of expression for the decorative situation that arises when the window treatments match the wallpaper, which matches the couch. Our cousins over at Curbed Chicago kindly suggest that the buyer of this four-bedroom condo, on the market for $799K, "strip some wallpaper and get some new window treatments." Well, that would clearly offend the current owners, who appear to take a mild, totally modest, and completely normal interest in toile de jouy. Even the quiet rattan armchair falls prey!

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That's Rather Hideous: Fantastic Furnishings and Accessories From "As Seen on TV"

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, January 18, 2011, by Sarah

Nothing says hello quite like a tropical-bird bathroom set, eh? (Or a copy of The Week Magazine, for that matter.) The Flamingo Toilet Set ($14.95) is but one of the terrific offerings on As Seen on TV, the web extension of those infamous infomercials that have yielded modern-day wonders such as Pajama Jeans. Don't think the furnishings and home accessories arena is left unscathed, though—six more marvels follow the jump.

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That's Rather Hideous: One of the Beehive State's Largest Manses Small on Good Sense

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, January 19, 2011, by Sarah

Let's take the shimmery damask sofas out of it for a second—what exactly is happening in that great room above, brought to our attention by Homes of the Rich? The gold paneling, impossibly high ceilings, and curved balcony seem more suited for a church, not a private residence in the wild of Utah. Where are the angels and gargoyles? Alas, a private residence it is—home to the owner of an energy company—and at 32,000 square feet it's one of the state's largest. Also in the photogallery above: shots of the in-home theater, which truly phenomenal but not as phenomenal as the name of this place: Villa Bellissima. Look it up.

· Pictures Of The Villa Bellissima Estate in Utah [Homes of the Rich]
· A Non-Exhaustive List of Celebrity Estate Names [Curbed National]

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That's Rather Lovely: Mosaicked Wonderland Suggests Seeing the Trees For the Forest

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Monday, January 17, 2011, by Sarah Photos: R. Daniel Foster/LAT

This weekend's L.A. Times visits a tripped-out, vibrant, and overall very cool Los Angeles home of a mosaic artist and a concert-poster illustrator. The pair mosaicked the fireplace, kitchen backsplash, and outdoor shower with ceramic shards and found objects such as teeny salt shakers. The full story isn't available online; have a look above for select photos and head over here for more.

· Home Tour: L.A. Artists and Their Mosaic Madness [L.A. Times]

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