Yick to Frank’s room, I agree with what most everyone’s said here. The monkey just might age a little better than we think, since that one designer, Paul somebody?, is pretty popular. When the trend is over they’re going to have a major re-do, though. The doll head cabinet was pure creepy crap and along with the monkey head desk sort of gave the room a ‘mutilated toy’ theme.
Vern’s room was good, but meh. My socks were not knocked off this time. And my goodness, what were they doing that it took all three of them the whole night? Poor babies, that kind of all nighter isn’t fun.
Oh, that would have been perfect! I can see the whole room in my head - big savannah grasses painted in bright shades of green on the walls, maybe some rattan furniture, and a mosquito screen canopy for the bed - I love this idea!
The first thing I thought about when I saw the monkey was how it’s gonna traumatize the kid. Can you imagine after waking up from a nightmare the first thing you see is a giant monkey staring at you? I know it’d scare the hell out of me.
The thing about the monkey is, monkeys are popular now. That’s mostly due to Paul Frank. The trend’s bound to blow over sometime, though, and the kid will be left with a once-popular, now-outdated bedroom.
there ya go, featherlou! that is the idea! i’m seeing a lot of safari and tropical stuff around lately. frank could have run wild with a safari theme.
I remember one episode where Vern wanted Amy Wynn to build false fronts to the drawers on this 80s style bureau. She screwed up somehow, so the drawers would not fully open. Vern was highly pissed.
Personally, I would be more scared of that head on the TV cabinet. But I’ve always hated dolls and doll-like things. The monkey is my friend.
I just can’t imagine what it must have been like for the homeowners who spent two days screwing up that kid’s room under Frank’s direction, knowing just how hideous it looked, to open their eyes and see the incredible amount of quality work that their neighbors had done in return. The feelings of relief, awe, and guilt must have been overwhelming.
I missed most of this episode of Trading Spaces. I saw the finished product that Vern did; I quite liked it. I’ll echo the opinion, though, that the blue on the walls should have been darker to fit in better. I didn’t see anything of Frank’s room, but now I have a burning desire to see “The Monkey Desk.”
And, yeah, I think Ty and Amy Wynn have made about the same number of mistakes on the show. The biggest one I ever saw, however, was one of Amy Wynn’s in the first season. She messed up Doug’s wood tile floor by cutting him only about a quarter of the wood tiles he needed. She tried rushing and cutting the needed tiles, but the saw burned out on her. Doug had to go over-budget to get one of those snap-together wood floor kits. I do wonder, however, how many of the mistakes are actually the faults of Ty and Amy Wynn. Who knows if the producers intentional throw a mistake in (for drama!) or if it’s the fault of one of the carpentry assistants.
Good point!
That guy is a total “himbo”. The producers must have heard his accent and saw his good personality and must have hired him on the spot. Unfortunately, he is not much of a carpenter at all. Nice guy, and quite good on TV, but a bit of a menace in the workshop (and always running behind).
What is the deal on the women “carpenter” (sorry- I forgot her name), seems like she is permenently on sewing and craft duty. They call her a carpenter in the intros, yet she rarely does any building at all- just sews and does the craft work. What up with that?
Now to the show:
-
The monkey desk was neat, but it did not fit the room’s design at all. Actually, not much would. I was expecting alot from Frank doing a kid’s room, and suprisingly he kind of dropped the ball. The room lacked focus. And even more of a surprise for Frank, the paint scheme did not work. The random pattern gig had been tried by Hildy before and didn’t look good then either. Maybe it is one of those things that sound good on paper. I would keep the desk, repaint to room a single bold color with a more neutral trim color and chuck the horrible doll head piece. Everyone has a off day, I think this was Frank’s. When Paige questions the design you know you are in trouble.
-
Vern’s room was nice. Not much of a surprise. He did goof up a few things, which was a surprise. The paint did not dry as dark as he thought it would (that might be a Lowes issue though if he had them do a color match). Also, the wire lamp was cool, but did not fit in with the design as well as it could of. Finally, he really under-estimated the time it would take to execute. Having to pull an all-nighter with your crew is never a good thing. Still the final room was stunning. I would change a few small things myself, but the major elements were very nice.
-
The homeowners. The Tri-couple were nice and really hard workers who never complained about the all-nighter. They came off well. You could tell they doted on their daughter. The other couple was “interesting” to say the least. The “closest we will come to having children” crack was wildly inappropriate. The husband seemed out of sorts for the entire episode. And they are like this as newlyweds?
Yeesh, stand by for our first Trading Spaces divorce special.
I think that about a lot of the episodes. For instance the “hay wall” episode with Hildi. You spend two days with Hildi destoying someone’s home and and when you open your eyes you have a gorgeous cobalt and yellow kitchen, with a new tile-top island/child’s desk.
Another episode where this happened is the one with Hildi (again) putting the records on the wall and spray painting the woman’s grandmother’s chair, those homeowners returned to a Vern room with marquetry wallpaper and new furniture.
It must really REALLY suck to be the people spending the two days making the good rooms only to come over to absolute crap. Talk about getting your hopes up and a huge let-down!
Siegfried, if you’re interested in catching a re-run of the show they usually show it Tuesdays at 4.
Regarding Vern’s super-precise drawings: It seems like he tends to give orthographic drawings, with front, top and right elevations. Then everything possible is dimensioned. Sure, this is precise, but IMHO it’s actually easier to visualize a nice hand-sketched isometric drawing with a few key dimensions labeled.
I have nothing too new to add to the thread. I pretty much agree with what everyone said…
The monkey desk was a little creepy and a little cute at the same time. BUT, did not fit in at all. I hated the walls, and I hated the doll head in that room.
Vern’s room was OKAY, an improvement, but still a little dissapointing. His are usually so great.
And as far as the carpenter’s goofing: I think it’s pretty common to have goofs if you have to do the work in such a short period of time.
IIRC, from what I’ve read on the TWoP boards, Vern is both a licensed architect and a trained designer. So no wonder his rooms kick ass, and the other rooms just look like ass.
I still can’t understand why Frank wanted the shapes drawn on the walls and then painted around, rather than painting the walls and then adding the shapes. I mean, either way it’s a bad idea and age-inappropriate, but at least by doing the shapes over the base color, the base color would look PLANNED. As it was, it looked like it was added as an afterthought. And it’s the base color! Blerg. The whole room was hideous. I did like the rug and bean bags, and the dresser (but not the TV cabinet or doll’s head).
Vern’s room was the first by him that I have not been completely impressed with. The wood panelling, though high-quality maple, was still wood panelling, something I will never like the look of. And quite frankly, though Ty did screw up the bed, I think it was much better to have the mattress ontop of the frame, rather than in it. It looked quite classy, really.
The problem with Frank’s room is there was just too much stuff and none of it matched.
The monkey desk, while slightly frightening, would have been cool in a room filled with the same fiery reds, yellows and oranges, but the rest of the rooms was girly pastels. The rug was cool, but it was primary colours in a room that really didn’t have any others. The walls were a cool idea, but they came off looking stupid and busy - perhaps if Frank had done them himself instead of leaving it to the homeowners it would have been better. The doll cabinet was just ugly.
On a positive note, however, the dresser with the pastel drawers was really nice. If only he’d gone for a whole room worked around that concept.
Verns room was lovely, as always, but I thought the woodwork was a little too busy. I’d have preferred that they left out the cross pieces and just had the vertical channels running up to the ceiling.
Here’s an essay by the home owner with the great nose regarding the episode we’ve been discussing.
Damn. I just finished it. You should check it out.
I think I saw that ep - Jim was physically wincing beside me when he saw that! Apparently,wood flooring has to acclimatize in your house for a couple of weeks before you lay it so it doesn’t warp and gap. Thanks for the el-cheapo floor that turned into gaps and cracks in a month or two. :rolleyes:
I would really love to see follow-up shows on episodes - don’t suppose they’ll ever do that, though, because I suspect there would be huge griping.