Hasn’t aired yet here on the West Coast. The new season’s shaping up pretty nicely so far. (Don’t worry, Ty hasn’t gone anywhere – there are two carpenters.)
Last week’s were both good. We got to meet Edward the new designer (this week is Kia).
I still don’t like While You Were Out though. It’s not growing on me. I think the whole premise is really ham-handed, and they’re always screwing something up. The only reason the show is an hour long is because they show so much footage of them scratching their heads over how they’re going to fix something. Heh.
You can check out the Trading Spaces boards at tlc.com for all the latest on Laurie’s baby, as well as a million other nit-pickey things. (Warning – they have trolls, bigtime.)
Any ladies getting an itching to build things with power tools? I’ve never done it, but I’ve suddenly started checking out carpentry books at the library with an eye towards much-needed shelving. Amy Wynn makes it look so easy!
I liked the green checkerboard wall - but I didn’t like the desk/headboard combination in the other room.
I’m not sure that I liked what the new designer did in the second episode, but I wasn’t paying close attention, so I only caught a glimpse at the end.
voguevixen, I’ve decided that I detest While You Were Out. I don’t like the designers/host/carpenters…and it just really bores me, although I couldn’t say why.
Loved the way the lettering on Paige’s shirt changed according to what scene it was. Very whimsical.
Gen’s room looked sorta gross I think…I’m just not a big fan of browns in any shade.
Doug’s room I thought looked really good, except the stain job seemed really poorly done and streaky. Not sure if that was the intent or not. (Doug completely missed one of the homeowner’s jabs at him. He was talking about the green pattern being subtle and the homeowner said “not red and white” in reference to his wild “Target bag” room from season two. Heh heh. I actually really liked that room, for the specific homeowners that is.)
For some bizarre reason it seemed to me like Doug and Paige spent the night together. They showed up the second day with their bags together and at the pre-reveal interview they seemed to be having way too intense eye-contact. What the hey?
Episode two:
Frank’s room was a major improvement and I really liked the way he managed to make the room really contemporary without being extreme about it. I especially liked the rug and accent colors. (And the way he was able to update the existing couches.) His artwork was lame, but that comes with the “Frank” territory.
Kia’s room was an improvement, but still sorta dated I thought. The before room was full-on “1981” and the end result was maybe, say, “1992” lol. I liked the fabrics (the drapes over vertical blinds was the right choice) and the updated lighting. But I think the wall purple was too dated. The green worked, and even the cheesey wallpaper border worked, but not the light purple. I’m not entirely sure they were able to fit all the TV/Stereo/Computer equipment back into the room. I’m curious to know if they cheated on that or not.
First impression of new designer Kia: A bit too theatrical/expressive for my tastes, but that’s better than being a Milquetoast any day. I’m curious to see more of her.
Re: While You Were Out…don’t you find that they put an absurd about of work into getting the spouse out of the house and obtaining footage of them? I mean one episode they got the guy’s boss to agree to send him to another state on a supposed business meeting, came up with phoney “clients” to meet with, and told him the cameraman was because they were making a company training video. Come ON! If they skipped all the cutsey “Newlywed Game” type stuff they wouldn’t need the spouse footage to begin with, they could cut the show down to half an hour and it would probably be improved all around.
I knew that the wood floor was going to be trouble. I tried the “take up the carpet to show the gorgeous wood floor” thing in my apartment, and it was a disaster. In my case, part of the hardwood was replaced with plywood! Anything can await you under the carpet… I really thought Paige was going to mention the wood floor troubles during the reveal.
I kinda liked the checkerboard, yeah, it was a bit busy, but cool. I also thought the staining looked terrible, very streaky and too red. Doug did manage to tone down his insulted designer act, but it was pretty funny with all the discussion about moving the bed. You just knew that Doug would shoot that down. When Doug said “How many people are going to wander through their bedroom?” I totally cracked up.
I think the streak look on the dressers was meant to be. I caught something about using a foam brush to follow the grain.
Does anyone else find it weird that Discovery is airing Suprise by Design and TLC is airing While You Were Out, which is basically the same show? And Discovery owns TLC? What is up with that?
I saw it! I really like Trading Spaces, but I don’t like that guy Doug very much at all. He seems to copy a lot of ideas from other designers and reuses them too obviously. Gawd…does anyone remember what he did to the Frat house? It ended up looking like Joker’s pimp pad. lol.
I thought the staining wasn’t done too well either. It was really streaky and the for a bedroom, checkerboard was way too busy.
Yeah, Doug was being Doug, but I have to say, they had some pushy homeowners this show. I think they (and us) are so used to HO’s going “oh! brown! great!” that when they don’t, it’s a little jarring.
And I’m going to have to call her IKia–I swear, half of the stuff in her room came from that store, looked like.
i thought the homeowner’s with doug and gen were very assertive. it made for a more interesting show. the bedroom that doug did, had some tough problems, it seemed really long and narrow. i was amused by the comment of “you see the bed if you are lurking in the closet.” that made me think, good for the lurking serial killer… bad for the person in the bed.
Yeah, you really have to have a trained eye to pull off a classy look with Ikea; there is much danger of ending up with a “dorm room” look. Vern, Doug and (shudder) Laurie use Ikea well (with the exception of her Matisse basement). Kia needs a bit more practice, I think.
Another thing I noticed about the first episode: Doug gave Amy Wynn the business because his tables only had one pipe each instead of two, but I rewound to look at the drawing they were discussing in the planning stage and they ONLY HAD ONE PIPE! If I were Amy Wynn I would’ve told him he got just what he asked for and if he didn’t like it, he could lump it. Instead she said “you’re right, and I apologise.” (Although I think that whole scene was probably scripted.)
I mostly liked the fact that all the chicas were wearing tight black tanks. Although, as I mentioned to Mrs. Cliffy, Gen’s was shaped somewhat differently than Amy Wynn and Paige’s.