Dopers on Trading Spaces

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

Right back at ya, yancey!

First of all, you and your wife look to be on of the most fun couples I have ever seen on the show - and I have been watching this show for a long time! (And I am not just “snowing” you Denver folks - I mean that!) If you ever get to Vegas, let me know as I would love to invite you guys out for a beer (or two).
Plus, you have the coolest neighbors ever! They look like they are a blast to hang around as well!

That said, am I going to be the first to actually comment on the rooms?!
(Geez…this ought to make me popular…)

I thought parts of the rooms were borderline hideous…certainly through no fault of yours or your neighbors; the designers seemed to be on autopilot for the entire process.

The scooters in your room - great idea, but seriously, on pegboard?! What, they couldn’t find a crappier material?
And the wall lamps…with big old honking electrical cables hanging crooked down the walls - ugh.
The room divider with army figurines - seriously, who in the hell would want that in their house - and “a touch of Hollywood” my ass - they looked horrible, and besides, the figurines were too tiny for that huge divider. (I noticed your neighbors didn’t exactly love them either.)
The blue wall - OK, not my taste, but neighbor seemed to like them, but the blue curtains were overkill and makes the room look like a block of ice.

Your entertainment unit is actually quite nice, very functional, and is an asset to the room - I personally could do without the decoration on top, but they are easily removed if you ever decide to paint it over or whatever.
The monkey carving Tiki tower wasn’t my taste, but at least it had a sense of humor and if you hadn’t liked it, would be easy to move to the garage.
Your wall color was actually very good - warmed up the room considerably.
The photo and frame were the only thing I really like about your neighbor’s room.

Seriously - I have been watching this show for years. You and your wife were one of the most fun couples I have ever seen on the show. So many of the couples are whiners and moaners, or have the personally of a dial tone. You guys were truly funny and your neighbors were a “kick” as well. But as far as the room designs, well, to be very nice, this was not the designers finest hour.

62

That’s why I said it could have been :slight_smile:

63

I thought she left to star in Chicago (broadway) as Roxie?

64

Oh, good, I won’t have to be the first one to say it. Leslie lost me as soon as she decided on that tropical theme with the bamboo or the rattan or whatever the heck that was. I’ve never liked that stuff and it seemed particularly inappropriate for a Denver home. As for the neighbor’s house, the skirting around the bar just looked cheap, and I hate it when designers try to incorporate lit candles as part of the decor. Do they think you’re going to light fourteen votive candles every time you want to use the room?

That said, yancey, you made me proud to “know” you. You and your wife were very charming; even Doug couldn’t seem to muster up his usual nastiness around y’all.

65

Yeah, that ranks right up there with using a big bowl of lemons as an accent or focal piece, which used to be very popular on this show. Do they really think someone’s going to run to the grocery store every few days and replace the dozen or so lemons in that bowl, just 'cause it’s pretty?

I agree about the wall divider with that gold army men - that seemed out of place.

66

I agree with a lot of what DMark said about the decorating. I really liked your room but wasn’t crazy about the bamboo or the monkey tower. The scooters were kind of neat, but they didn’t really match the tiki theme in the rest of the room. Also, just because you like scooters doesn’t mean you want them on your wall, right? Why do these decorators always have to come up with some sort of theme? I see it on Extreme Home Makeover all the time too and it drives me nuts. Your neighbor’s room was pretty nice, too. Definitely an improvement over what it was. I’m going to go against the grain here and say I wasn’t too crazy about the huge picture of her. The picture itself was gorgeous but I personally would feel a little strange about having a giant picture of myself hanging in my living room. It seemed more like a bedroom piece to me, but YMMV.

I’m really curious to know what you have changed since the show ended. I’ll echo what everyone else has said about you and your wife. You guys were great!

67

I am only here, until yancey pops back in - to comment on the Monkey jungle.

I personally loved it. But then, I’m the guy that was “allowed” to decorate one room in the new house, was assigned the powder room on the ground floor, and am doing the entire (small) room in Monkey.

I got monkey figurines, statues, artwork, hell I even have a couple Curious George books lying around for reading material. We were watching the show and my wife said “oh my god, another monkey Doper…”

I say we start a secret sub-society here is what I say.

68

Dang it, now I want to be a Monkey Doper.

I thought Leslie’s stuff was Crafter Central. She’s not a decorator, so much as a crafter? And the blue room was really, really blue. Everything blue. I’m pretty sure I could have done that myself (and had the same effect - too blue!). And Doug’s initial comment about “Eclectic? Is that what we’re calling it? I would just call it a room full of crap.” was rude, period. Um, Doug? That “crap” is her personal stuff that she has selected and bought for herself to decorate her home with.

How has the carpets thrown over the large lip of your foyer tile worked out for you? My husband thought that would be an even worse tripping hazard.

69

Oh, I also wanted to ask a question about your neighbor’s room, and it has nothing to do with the decorating.
What were those two little doors flanking the main door? Tiny little closets?

70

My daughter and I DVRed this and just watched it last night.

I haven’t seen TS since they changed the format and I like the ‘new look’ much better. Paige always got on my nerves anyway – obviously they don’t need a host at all.

The rooms – I didn’t care for all the mirrors in the neighbor’s house. That type of mirrored column things always look sort of cheap to me. I liked the blue paint on the walls, but I would have done a different color over the windows… the finished product looked like Too Much Blue to me. Did your neighbors really like the room? Did they end up making any changes afterwards?

Your house – we loved the monkey tower. We’re kind of funny for monkeys. And I liked the scooter pictures – in theory anyway. I think I’d have put some frames around the pegboards, if I’d been doing it. I thought the carpet squares on the floor looked good – do they look OK in real life? Have you made any changes to the room since the show?

Personalities – I liked Leslie and the builder-guy. I’ve never seen them before and they both seemed nice and were fun to watch. Doug seemed about like always – perhaps slightly more pleasant than usual. All of you homeowners seemed like charming, fun people. I must say, though, that your wife really stood out as particularly adorable. What a sweetheart – so pretty and engaging.

Thanks for sharing this with us. It was a blast to watch the show and feel like I ‘knew’ one of the participants.

71

A comment about the neighbor’s house: I too, thought it was Too Much Blue, but it looked as though the walls curved right up into the ceiling with no architectural demarcation…which might explain why the color had to be continued right on over everything.

72

It did – that was why the paint had be on both the ceiling and the walls, which was fine. But all the more reason why the curtains should have been in another color.

73

Agreed.

74

This is so neat…I have not watched an episode of TS in years and I was flipping stations this weekend and stopped to watch an adorable man and the joys of a nail gun.

Such a coincidence!

I wish I had watched the whole episode though!!

75

Leslie (we thought she was Amy Winn) and Andrew Dan Jumbo are both from “While You Were Out,” if I recall correctly. I always liked Andrew on that show; he seems quite competent, while being personable and hot as hell at the same time. So, tell us, Yancey - is Andrew as hot in person as on tv? :smiley:
(He also strikes me as someone who doesn’t put up with divas.)

76

IIRC she was doing both, and her popularity with Trading Spaces was drawing huge (and, um, atypical) crows to the show. My understanding, and I’m no expert, is that she was let go because of some behaviors off the set. But it could have just been that they thought the show needed a format change - who knows?

77

Just posting ot join the chorus of “geez, you guys look like fun.” :slight_smile:

78

Thanks everybody for the kind words!

We had a fun time doing the show. It’s an experience I’m glad I had, but like I said, I’m not sure I’d do it again.

Our room is pretty much the same. The tiki and bamboo will be coming down in the new year, and as much as I liked it, the monkey jungle will as well. Mrs. lebeef gave me a couple of months to enjoy it, but has started making noises about it coming down soon.

I’m really happy with the bar area. Before that space was full of bookcases and not really functional. Now we have much more space for entertaining. That goes for the entertainment center too. The scooter pegboard artwork is coming down, and will probably go in the office or in the garage, where I have most of my scooter stuff anyway. The monkeys will soon follow.

Everything else we will probably keep. The rug squares are great, but they do tend to collect dog hair, so the maintenance is fairly high, but worth it. Painting The entertainment center and the bar will happen this spring.

Michelle has changed most of her room. The problem was Doug really didn’t take her into account, which I’m hearing is pretty much his M.O.

She covered the huge picture of herself, got all the mirrored stuff that made her house look like a coke den removed, and tore down the huge mdf screen and made a bookcase out of it. The paint, curtains and cool rug are all still there, and the job they did recovering her couch was great!

Watching the show was a little odd. Many of the comments and off the cuff comments I made were cut out. Sigh. Also, I’m nowhere near as pretty as the three ladies.

I haven’t had a chance to read through all the questions yet, but I’ll try to anser all of them. It may take a while, evidently my boss expects me to work today.

79

Awww, come on. You were adorable and you know it! (Though all three ladies are gorgeous!)

80

It was kind of a weird 'connect", you and your radio connections, and my sister and BIL living in Denver, and he in radio there.

Until recently anyway, now he’s off to DC…but still.