We had Frank and Kia this time, doing a bedroom and a gameroom.
I don’t think they ever fixed the backgammon side of the game board. The chess pieces were just bizarre.
Frank was more toned down that usual…he still got some artsy projects in, but for the most part, they kept the furniture intact.
Kia grates more and more on my nerves. I think she’s also getting on Paige’s nerves too…explaining the tiny holes in a blind help raise and lower it, honestly! I loved the HO telling Paige the blind project wasn’t going well, and that if he were in charge, he wouldn’t let Kia get away with it. I’m waiting for a catfight between Kia and Paige.
Overall, I liked both the rooms…not too bad, and I didn’t think the gameroom windows needed blinds anyway. They weren’t that big.
I didn’t dislike Kia’s room, but I really don’t like her in general.
What was wrong with the Backgammon board? I got distracted and missed part of the middle of the show.
Kia seems to me to have these grand visions of how things have to be - she reminds me of Doug, but flakier…and not in a good way (I’ve started to like Doug more. Not everything he does, but more than I used to.)
Frank’s room surprised me a lot - I really liked it, but it was so different from what he usually does. I don’t know that I liked the coffee bar in the bedroom though…that’s not my thing, but it looked nice.
I think there were the wrong number of points on the backgammon side. The HO said there were supposed to be twelve on each side, but there were only eight. There was enough room to add more, I just don’t know if they did.
The thing is, Kia keeps running out of time, on each show she’s done there’s been some crisis (although to be fair, Doug monopolized Ty’s time installing car halves in the kid’s room while she was waiting for bannisters.) that prevents her from finishing some project.
In addition, Kia set up the chess board wrong. The first square on the right-hand side is supposed to be white and Kia’s was black. “White on the right.” I couldn’t tell based on her odd pieces whether she set up “queen on her color” or not but the way the board was oriented the players would have to sit at the long ends of the table top.
And no, she didn’t fix the backgammon board or from what I could see provide stones or dice. So the game board top was basically useless, which made me laugh all the harder when Kia started in on “form following function” during the pre-reveal chat.
And those blinds were a stupid idea from the start. Glue cloth to paper then paper to metal, and do 250 of them in two days, not to mention ruining your own reversible effect by writing on the blinds in indelible marker instead of, say, bits of tape.
I liked the restraint in Frank’s room, although he just couldn’t stop himself from adding those goofy painted dot things that he has to include in every room he does. I liked the coffee bar and am pleased that he didn’t paint vines all over it. I did worry about the refrigerator, though. I couldn’t see if there was enough room for heat to dissipate off the motor without creating a fire hazard. Speaking of flames, did anyone else think the husband from that room was gay as the proverbial goose?
Was the Hollywood show new this week? I don’t remember seeing it before. If I’d have walked into a room with that red stencil work all over it I’d have been looking for a roller in about twenty seconds. Way too busy. I can’t imagine what the 'serpentine" thing Doug was planning for the ceiling was going to be.
Otto, yeah, I was thinking the same thing about the flaming husband.
I don’t know if the Hollywood show was new, but I did catch the “Makeover Story” that aired earlier in the day when Trading Spaces carpenters Ty Pennington and Amy Winn got made over for the daytime Emmy awards where they were presenters. Backstage after they presented, they meet up with some people identified as Amy’s friends, and then a guy who was identified as a Trading Spaces guest. I didn’t know who he was at the time, but he turned out to be the homeowner/comedian from the Hollywood episode that aired that night. I seem to remember hearing about Ty and Amy’s “Makeover Story” several months ago, and apparently that happened after they had filmed last nights Hollywood episode. So maybe it wasn’t a new one?
The Hollywood episode is from season two and it’s one of my favorites. Both rooms were an amazing transformation and well suited to the young “hap’nin” homeowners.
The new episode was pathetic. I can honestly say this is the best room Kia has done so far, which really says a lot when you think about it. Her game table was a joke. You can’t just slap a premade black jack felt down like that on a huge piece of wood – either the dealer or players won’t be able to reach the cards! Her colors were better than usual (She was able to reign herself into just the two, right?) but everything in the room looked half-assed as usual. (Was that dinky popcorn machine actually supposed to make popcorn?!?)
Frank’s room was lame to me because I thought it looked exactly the same with an extra piece of furniture in it. (I had the exact same reaction to the fridge, btw. That there wouldn’t be enough room for proper air circulation in that snug cubby.) I have to say though, that with a bed that ugly and overpowering there wasn’t much they could do to draw attention away from it. (It looked like it was made from old telephone poles or something!)
The third episode (in the spot usually reserved for While You Were Out or new programming) showcases one of Lauries biggest bombs. The two paint colors she chose ended up being nearly identical to the existing paint. The freakish wood units she had made to showcase the homeowner’s (in my opinion) completely uninteresting china ended up costing I think $450 instead of the $250 she had budgeted for them so they had to return the two area rugs she’d purchased and were one of the only things that had made a difference in the room! The light fixture (in the kitchen) was a major improvement, but the cheap swag lamp in the dining area was craptacular.
Frank’s room was typical Frank. (Twenty or so colors slapped everywhere, random junk hung on the wall as “art.”) The Mission-style armoire was lovely and barely acknowledged (not to mention too nice for the room!) The veggie-cacti were bizarre. Wouldn’t it have been cheaper (and more permenant!) to just buy real cacti? A lettuce “cactus” is only going to last about long as it takes the truck to roll out of their driveway.
I can’t stand Kia. I still don’t hate her as much as Laurie, though. What did she expect with those blinds? Adding a layer of cloth and a layer of paper to each slat–how are they going to raise them with that much thickness added? It’s a shame because the copper blinds would have looked nice, IMO.
That stupid pyramid she tried to do in her “Egyptian” room & the grave she had in that bed room. She’d be the worst person to have show up at my house.
The husband was indeed ringing my gaydar like a bell. He’s not the only male half of a mixed couple that I’ve seen on this show who registered as “obvious queen” to me, either…
Observation/question not related specifically to Saturday’s epis. Doug sometimes wears leather pants. I wonder if he’s copying Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen from Changing Rooms (BBC show that is the parent of Trading Spaces). I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. (And I did wonder if the husband in the bedroom/coffee bar epi was gay but then I realized I was reacting to his voice).