Trading Spaces 10-04-03: Frank drops a pearl?

Cafe Society
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First hour. Frank and Edward, Ty as carpenter. Where’s Amy Wynn? Where’s Carter? Frank redoes a drab bedroom as an oceanside resort. Again with the blue and the vines. Enough with the blue and the vines, Frank! Although I did like the blue actually, just this is the second week in a row for big blue walls. The paint technique didn’t seem to add that much at first but in the reveal it became a little more obvious. The side tables were dopey looking. I liked Edward’s living room a lot. I wasn’t too sure on that paint color at first, but the browns in the fabrics balanced it nicely.

Is Frank edging out of the closet? First he practically molests Ty from under the van, then he goes on about the male HO being lean and buff. Hmmm…

Hour two. Edward and Rick, and again Ty as carpenter. Rick makes over a dining room. I liked the colors but I thought when he showed the orange and yellow paint he said the colors were going to be the other way around. I didn’t understand what he was going for with the paint technique on the shutters (or later the bench). Maybe up close it looks different but after the blues went on I couldn’t see any of the yellow and orange crackle. I did like the bench and the butterfly detail was pretty cool. The painted light fixture was kind of fugly but I didn’t care that much either way about it. Why did they spend time sanding down the paint squares? Edward did a “whimsical chef” kitchen. Similar colors to Rick’s but with a darker red instead of the orange. I liked the “floater” bench but I didn’t see what Ty did to it afer saying that it couldn’t support the weight of anyone sitting on it. The chef painting on the door was dumb.

Count me in the ranks of those who are finding Ty’s tantrums less than amusing. His throwing the wood around when Edward was out in carpentry world trying to work was just stupid and potentially dangerous. Whatever entertainment value he thought he was providing was for me anyway really lost in the idea that throwing lumber around power tools is just really a bad idea.

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Yeah, Ty seems to have more and more tantrums as the episodes go on. Like he wants off this show but his contract binds him for another few years and he’s stuck (I have no idea).

First Hour. Frank’s beachy room was totally blah and cheesy. When they said spa, I thought of more muted tan and brown tones. Laurie would’ve done that room well. Edward’s choices of fabric were gorgeous. Love the brown velvet, although using it for the valance was a bit much I think. And yeah I had to wait till the end to be persuaded on the wall color, but the contrast of the ceiling color made it nice too.

Second Hour. Rick’s room was…eh. I don’t know, I’m just glad the orange paint wasn’t the main color of the room. The bench was pretty, but doesn’t seem that comfortable for two people to sit on and enjoy a meal. Edward’s kitchen was great, though. The chef thing on the door was too much. I liked what he did with the cabinets. I’m surprised he didn’t write some cutesy message in chalk on those black insets.

Oh and about the floater bench - if you remember, when they were putting it in, Ty referred to a triangle-shaped piece of metal that I think were supports he was going to put in underneath. It’d be support but not really visible so that you still got the floater effect. I’m pretty sure, but I could be wrong.

Where’s Gen? And where’s Amy?

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More importantly, where’s Vern?

Ivylad hogged the remote again (Iowa beat Michigan, yahoo, and when I went to bed Auburn was whupping up on Tennessee) so all I saw was Frank scratching a pick against the paint on the wall and the HO’s reaction to the blue room, but not the whole room.

Tonight is the $100K episode! I’ve expressed to Ivylad the importance of this particular show, and he says we can flip back and forth from TS to the football game.

(No, it doesn’t matter what football game it is. It’s football.)

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Yeah, I want to know what happened to Vern and Gen and Amy Wynn! Especially Vern.

Okay, okay, topic…

Frank’s room: I really liked the paint technique on the walls. I didn’t quite get that the squares would show that much at first; I thought it would all blend together. Doug’s done big checkerboard squares twice; the purple and white once very recently and the sage green ones last year, and I really liked them. Not the purple ones so much, but I LOVED the sage green ones. I’d love to do something like that in my bedroom, but I know I’d never be able to get the squares just right and all even. Frank’s technique looked pretty easy and was much more subtle.
I hated the cheesy seahorse side tables. Typical Franked-up crap, and I hate when they nail furniture right into the walls like that.
I liked the sand shadow boxes, but I would worry they’d fall off the wall. I didn’t quite get the gravel thing. It didn’t say “Spa” to me as much as “Beachy” but it still was pretty nice.

Edward’s Baby Poop Brown living room: Paige’s comment was pretty funny, considering that on the TWoP board, the posters go on and on about brown being “Baby Poop Brown” all the time. It did look pretty much like poop, but it came together in the end (no pun intended). I loved the flower prints on the walls.
I don’t know about the sofa. It looked a little streaky to me. And he used that same fringe technique that Gen used a few weeks ago. I hate that fringe.

Rick’s Orange Dining Room: Yuck, yuck, yuck. The bench was cool, and I really liked the little butterfly detailing, but the rest of the room was just … yuck. I hated the shutters, and the red-painted chandelier. The big shutters on the little window looked stupid. He should have cut them down to be more in proportion.
The netting over the chandelier was dumb. I didn’t care for the two bright colors on the walls with the bright blue accents.
The bench was great, but I would have preferred it to be stained, not painted. I’ve decided that I don’t like Rick.

Edward’s Kitchen: I loved it. The painting on the door was a bit much, but the rest of the room was great. I loved the black and white checkered fabric, especially the little awning over the window. The new table and chairs were great. He did a lot in the room and was under budget, too. Typical Edward room in that I didn’t quite get it till the final fast-forward load-in and it all suddenly comes together.

Ty’s tantrums: Yeah, it’s gotten reeeaalllly old. It’s not funny, if that’s what he’s going for. When they showed him on the swing, and then showed the bolts holding the swing in, I thought the swing was going to break and he was going to fall and break his ass. Now that would have been funny. :stuck_out_tongue:

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They let Rick do another dining room? I’m surprised.

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They didn’t show him putting them on, but during the load-in and reveal, you can see little metal triangular supports under the bench. Rather than adding legs that show, the triangular supports are less obtrusive and don’t show.

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It was awful. He took a fancy cut-crystal chandelier and painted it bright fire-engine red. The HOs helping him said it looked like it belonged in a bordello. The rest of the room was orange and yellow (above and below a chair rail - he removed the rail, and just painted the room in half), then added accents of bright Carribean blue. He’s worse than Kia.

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Frank’s room: Meh. Liked the paint technique but the rest of the room did nothing for me. Also didn’t like them torching the beanie buddy, but that’s just me.

Edward #1 - It turned out very nice. And I loved the painting on the cabinet doors. Was scared at first. Hated the fringe.

Edward #2 - Or the Oscar Mayer Kitchen. Chef painting on the door just put it over the top. It could have been a cool room without looking like a hot dog stand.

Rick - why is this man allowed on the show? Hated the room. The bench was great for a poarch or sunroom, but not a dining room. And Satan’s Chandelier? Quite possible the ugliest thing since the Moss Monster Wall.

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The what episode??? That sounds like a pretty big event! You’d think they’d advertise it or something!
:smiley:

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::cracking knuckles::

Okay. 8PM, Edward. HATED the paint color. HATED the coffee treatment on the sofa. Was ‘meh’ on the fabrics (unusual for me in an Edward room, although I did love the tapestry pillow fabrics right off). Was also ‘meh’ on the calendar pics… thought it was a cop-out. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the room when it came together, especially when it was shown adjacent to (hear that, female HO? ADJACENT TO, not ADJACENT FROM) the dining room. Loved the color, loved the fabrics, liked the sofa (think it still looked a bit off, but there’s really no good way to do that technique), thought the prints fit perfectly. Absolutely stunning, and it really showed off how Edward focuses on the HOs’ packet of information and what they want. Only criticisms in the end: the fringe on the sofa ( ::shudder:: ), and the canvas-covered cabinet. That was a “computer station” and all they had for seating were those little ottoman-type thingys. The cabinet itself was gorgeous though- they can always use it for storage and move the computer elsewhere.

Frank… oh, gods. Did anyone else laugh when he said “I don’t do themes well”? No kidding. What was supposed to be “spa” turned out “beach.” I’m not sure why he bothered with the pick- the walls were already textured, the pattern you saw was achieved by changing the direction of the roller (they said quite clearly- and it’s true- that you had to walk up to the walls to notice the effect of the picking). The seahorses were… silly. And when a HO requests a headboard, I don’t think they’re exactly envisioning shadowboxes. How are you supposed to get handcuffed to one of those things? Uhhh… I mean… umm… never mind. What I mean to say is, I was seriously amused by the amount of concern Frank and others were showing about the installation of the shadowboxes- considering Ty’s track record, they were right to be worried, but it was weird to see them actually admit it. Repeatedly. In the end it was not my cup o’ tea, but I suppose anything would have been better than Beanie Baby Hell, and that HO was waaaaaaayyy beyond happy with the results.

You cannot convince me that Frank is straight. I don’t care how many times he mentions his wife on the show, I don’t care how many times he flirts with Paige or makes inappropriate comments toward the female HOs. No way.

9PM… I had to walk away for about 20 minutes. I can’t stand Rick. Just… can’t. Something about him just rubs me the wrong way, especially when you contrast him with a genuinely nice personality like Edward. I know the HOs didn’t like the chandelier the way it was, but I don’t think painting it fire-engine red was the solution. And, um, hello? I don’t think they’re going to have much of a problem with loads of bugs flying in and dying in the lights… covering it was not necessary (well, except to cover up the monstrosity that it was, and oh, of course, to “follow the theme”). While I normally like breaking rooms in half paint-wise, I didn’t like the lack of a chair-rail or other notable technique- it just didn’t “do” anything for me. So… Rick asked Ty to build a very large bench using one of the more difficult techniques possible, and bitched because it was taking so long? Ummm… yeah. Oh, and Otto… the orange crackle was noticable if you got really, really close up. Really close.

Edward’s kitchen was… nice. Not stand-out-jump-up-and-down, but nice. Not crazy about the chef, or the trivets and plates, but I did like the cabinets (and as someone who has tried to paint cabinets in the past, I’m all for going the easy route) and the whisk-brush paint technique.

If anyone from Banyon is listening, PLEASE FIRE TY. Or at least let him lose a few body parts. Thank you.

To answer some questions from above- Carter is strictly a TS: Family carpenter, so we won’t be seeing him on TS. Amy Winn’s been on TS: Family recently, and she’ll be on the $100,000 episode tonight (YAY!!!). I wish I knew where Gen was… Vern’s been on at least one episode of Family, but I haven’t seen Gen anywhere. Do all the designers have their own businesses? I know Vern is out here in Atlanta (may have to go stalk him or something… hmmmm…)… maybe they ones we’re not seeing are just up to their eyeballs in actual paying customers.

Am alternately looking forward to and dreading tonight.

-BK

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Oh yeah, I forgot about the shadow boxes in Frank’s room. I liked them (except for the whole “using dead animals as decoration” thing) but not as a headboard. And the pre-bought curtains looked terribly cheap.

I did see Ty while mounting the bench holding a triangular metal piece but I wasn’t sure if that was the support or not.

So why did they spend time sanding down the paint squares? Rick said something about breaking up a line but I didn’t really get it.

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I liked that there were so many chuckle-worthy remarks on these episodes. Already mentioned was Frank’s “I don’t do themes well.” I also liked when Frank said “You will fall down unconscious at the relaxation of this room!” and the homeowner said “I LOVE being unconscious!” I loved the look on Paige’s face when Rick was making her paint the glass on the light fixture. It was like “Whatever you say, cracksmoker!”

I do have one nice thing to say about Rick and then I’ll go ahead and lay into him: He got the carribbean color scheme down to a tee. That’s been attempted many a time on the show (last week with Frank, in fact) and it has not been pulled off yet until now. I also appreciate that he took the time to sand down the painted squares and the ridge from where the handrail was so they wouldn’t show through the new paint. That having been said, why would you want that hideous cacophony of colors anywhere in your house, least of all the dining room while you’re trying to quietly digest your dinner after a hard day. If the colors don’t ruin your appetite, I’m sure the draped fabric over the lightbulbs bursting into flames might make you scoot to another room soon enough. Why would you want outdoor shutters on the inside of your house? Or the obviously outdoorsy garden bench? Why did you go to all the trouble of creating this casual, outdoorsy feel and then stick the formal, dark wood sideboard back in? (I must admit I was relieved that nothing happened to the fantastic deco-style china cabinet I saw before the room was unloaded.) As for the blatent shittiness towards Ty I HAVE to believe that’s scripted/faked. You don’t come into a job as the new guy and start dumping on someone who’s been there for years like that, regardless of what a dumbass he is (especially since you’re no great shakes yourself.) As for Ty himself, stick a sock in it for cryin’ out loud. You have competition now from the Clean Sweep carpenter who shows you can be a good-looking, whimsical scamp, without acting like a psychopath and screwing up everyone’s projects!

Edward’s kitchen: I really liked this! My only question was why the grey? At first I was thinking he should’ve gone with a more Terra Cotta color tile, but when I saw the finished product I think it should’ve been straight black. Same for the painted fridge doors and the table (maybe white on the table…don’t want TOO much black.) The chef didn’t bother me, really. That was far less horrible than anything Frank has ever done, plus I think it was on a pocket door that was seldom, if ever, open anyways. He said it was specificly for the kids and I think they’d get a big kick out of it. I think the banquette cushions and the awnings looked amazing; God IS in the details and that piping and contrast made those cushions look so much more fantastic than anyone elses on this show it’s not to be believed. Also, the kitchen, and MAYBE the dining room is about the only place I think that kind of seating belongs. (I’m looking at all you designers who want to stick this crap in a bed or livingroom!)

Frank’s bedroom: Liked the idea for the shadowboxes, maybe in a bathroom or hallway, but no way over the bed. Which will come raining down on your head first? Sand or glass shards? The bedding was totally country too, and stuck out like a sore thumb. I thought the wall treatment was inane, but did enjoy the beanie baby torture. (I was hoping they’d decapitate it with the chopsaw, but that might be bad for the saw.) The “treatment” they did to the furniture was HORRIBLE! I’ve never seen anything look so lousy or half-assed on this show and that’s really saying something. I can’t believe the homeowner was so in love with this room…it looked like the background for a jr high play or something.

Edward’s living room: Tied in nicely with the dining room, and loved the fabrics. I wish the olive paint leaned a bit more to the green and not so much to the brown but I think I could probably live with it. The calendar pictures looked amazing and I loved when he said “this was a great deal – it was free!” The slipper chairs looked amazing, another tip of the hat to either Edward’s great sewing skills or meticulous measurment/direction. (These fashion designers really have a way with fabric, eh?) I wasn’t blown away by the couch, but I guess that was a cost issue…I think he only had $9 or something left at the end and he did the best he could with what he had to work with (I think the old color of the couch would’ve worked all right, maybe with a brick red throw covering a lot of it to mask the lightness of the color. Maybe a chenille throw so you can braid the fringe!) I don’t think the “dying” made enough of an impact and only resulted in the couch looking really dirty, lol. The canvas on the cabinet was a neat idea, but too bright for the dark colors of the room. I think a better idea would’ve been to use the stain/dye over the painting to make it look darker and antiqued, then it would’ve been perfect.

Nice couple of shows…Edward’s rooms were so good I didn’t even miss Vern!

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My (younger) daughter and I have come to an inescapable conclusion:

Rick is Frank and Kia’s demon love child.

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I think it is because you’d see it through the new paint (not the color but the shape ).

I love how Frank equates plaid with spa/beach. He always has the ugliest comforters/pillows, etc. that don’t match the room at all.

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VV pretty much nailed this one- whenever try to paint over something like that without sanding it down first, it’ll bleed through when the light hits it, especially when you’re using really light colors like the ones last night. Like when you don’t feather out/sand down your sheetrock patches just right, and wind up with splotches. It’s simply because it’s not at the same level as the rest of the paint… even though it’s a very subtle distinction, it can really stand out. We do unfortunately have to give snaps to Rick for catching that one.

Okay, we know Vern is an architect who has his own design business. Doug is an interior designer with his own business. Hildi does… something in Paris. Where the hell does Rick come from? Other than OdF’s very plausible possibility, though I honestly think Hildi is involved in there somehow.

And have you SEEN the “While You Were Out” carpenter? That accent… ohmigawd.

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:stuck_out_tongue:
The tiny little Grammar Nazi in me picked up on that, too.
I sat there seething, “adjacent TO, not adjacent FROM, you moron!”

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Yeah, I think I saw the commercial for it once or twice.

Or maybe a million times.

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Is it possible that Frank swings both ways, perhaps?

I LOVED Edward’s room. LOVED it. I would kill for a room like that!

Frank’s room was boring, but it wasn’t bad. It was very calm and soothing.

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i only saw the rick dining room and the edward kitchen.

i really liked the edward kitchen. a fun, funtional room. his rooms pull together so well.

i swiffered during the rick parts.

while you were out. the dolls were a bit scary as a group. a very pretty room.

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Edward’s couch and calendar art – best he could do with the money constraint. Let the HO’s find a good slip cover and invest in good art to bring the room to perfection.