The current This Old House series is about renovating a brownstone in Brooklyn, New York. The architecture and general New York approach is not something I would be comfortable with. Those house do not look comfortable to live in.
The wife of the couple who is doing this remodel has her own unique view of all things that go in this house. To paraphrse her remarks concerning kitchen cabinets, "I specified cherry for the cabinets. Because cherry stains so nice. I could make them just the color I wanted."
Apparently cherry is not a pretty enough color for her. Most of her design decisions follow along this kind of logic. Maybe when she gets done with this project, she could hire herself out as a prison designer.