Zillow Gone Wild finds a custom Sacramento home that look likes ‘Disneyland’ on the inside

A Sacramento home, which hit the market Wednesday for $825,000, appears on the outside to be your typical Tudor-style house, but each room inside is a wildly colorful display of artwork inspired by the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi.

The whimsical interior was the passion of the home’s owner, local psychiatrist Louis W. Kraft, who died in April. Kraft created the rich space using caulking compound, styrofoam, wood and paint.

Judging from the overwhelming response to the bold interior of the home on social media, it might as well have been designed by the famous Gaudi himself.

A Tik Tok video posted to zillowtastrophes garnered 19,000 likes and 273 comments in one day. The popular Facebook account Zillow Gone Wild also featured the home.

Kraft had a big mind and a big heart, according to the home’s listing agent Janet Carlson of Lyon Real Estate.

“He was a distinguished and highly respected psychiatrist in town, very valued by his peers, those people who worked with him, for being able to handle the most difficult clients,” said Carlson, a friend and a neighbor of Kraft.

“He was also very beloved in the park,” she added. “He’d made many, many friends walking his dog. And that way he really got to know the neighbors. Otherwise, he was very much in his off hours working on his art.”

Kraft used striking mosaic tiles to decorate the fireplace, incorporated the classic elements of earth, water, fire and air into living spaces and added astrological signs leading up a staircase.

“The upstairs bedroom was ‘fire’ that was designed to look like a volcano,” Carlson explained. “And so the red tones on the floor, that’s the ‘volcano.’ And then the walls go up with a gray lava having dried coming out.”

The vibe of the home could be described as Lord of the Rings, European architecture and Disneyland mixed together. Kraft was a fan of Gaudi, who’s best known for his work on the incredible church of Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Carlson said.

“This house is a piece of art, and it is truly one of a kind, but from a real estate perspective it’s out-of-the-ordinary,” said Sacramento appraiser and market analyst Ryan Lundquist. “ I would expect polarizing opinions in social media comments because some people will love it while others will loath it. To me it feels like that place where classic architecture and Disneyland meet. It’s really a fascinating home and an incredible conversation piece, and now we’ll get to see how buyers respond.”

The Curtis Park residence, at 2510 Coleman Way, spans 2,320 square feet with four bedrooms and two bathrooms. The living room has a bay window, leaded glass, a fireplace and built-in seating. Refinished hardwood floors extend across most of the house and there’s a hidden storage room in the basement “which might be perfect for wine storage.” In the backyard, there is a large pool.

The fanciful interior, though, is the main attraction. Each room in the house has its own unique design and there are even mathematical equations incorporated into the design to solve, according to a woman, apparently his niece, who refers to Kraft as “Uncle Lou” on her Tik Tok account aylajkraft.

She says in one video on the site that the family was departing with Kraft’s massive collection of standalone art through an estate sale.

She could not be immediately reached for comment.

Whether the immense interest in the home translates into a sale remains to be seen.

“This could be an absolute dream for someone who wants to have something nobody else has, but it might also be a situation where a contractor does a significant rehab to restore this home to its classic form,” Lundquist said. “Only time will tell what happens.”

Carlson agrees:

“There could be two possible buyers for this property: One is someone who falls in love with the art and the fantastic world and wants to live in that house, or to slightly modify it. And the other is a buyer who will come in and see the sheer raw space in that property, and perhaps choose to keep a portion of the artwork, but will create their dream home and even price where it’s at.”

It’s not the first Curtis Park home to break out with unique art design. The so-called Dragon House that sits on a corner lot comes to mind.

“Interestingly enough, the Curtis Park neighborhood also has another unique home called the Dragon House,” Lundquist said. “This home is named as such for expansive tile work of a dragon on an entire side of the house. One might not expect these types of homes to exist in such an expensive area, but it just goes to show homeowners express themselves in lots of interesting ways at all price points.”

Located in a quaint part of Sacramento, Curtis Park is a desirable, family-oriented neighborhood where Craftsman bungalows and Tudor Revival homes exist near hiking trails, popular restaurants and craft breweries. The area is home to the 24th Street Theatre, built in 1929, which hosts plays, concerts and comedy acts.

This house is larger than others in Curtis Park. Lundquist said similarly sized homes commonly sell for $800,000 to $1.3 million.

“This is a wide range of course, but that’s what Curtis Park is like because homes are going to vary substantially based on location and amenities,” he added.

One thing is certain, there are no others like it.

“This property really is an outlier and it’s going to be challenging to value because there isn’t really a perfect comparison,” Lundquist said. “In truth, for something like this we can have ideas about what it might be worth, and then we’ll get to see how the market actually responds.”

Carlson offered an idea of Kraft’s creativity.

“He was interested in the theater and musical theater stage sets, costuming,” she said. “So as a donor to Music Circus, he would get private tours of their costume department and things like that. He was very interested in how they did sets and design. And part of the house is really a set design for this fantastical world.”

In addition to being an artist, Kraft was a pianist who composed music, a poet and an avid collector of rocks, movies and pottery, according to his obituary published in The Sacramento Bee.