Trading Spaces 6/29, Or Ivylass Passes the Baton to Bibliocat

Cafe Society
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In Spartanburg (?) SC, with Doug and Edward and Carter (drool), Doug redoing a den, Edward redoing a living room/dining room.

After seeing Hildi painting a dining room jet black, I did not like the “plum gray” that Doug painted the den. But then, I’m not a huge fan of dark colors in a room, so YMMV. I thought the purple pillows relieved the starkness somewhat, but the posterboard on wires? As Paige pointed out, a dust trap. Wouldn’t it also be a fire hazard with the bare lightbulbs? And I thought I heard the HO say the room did not have AC, so taking out the ceiling fans was a definite no-no. I thought the ceiling looked cheesy. It was funny, I thought the red on the walls beneath the baseball wallpaper border was paint. I didn’t realize it was also wallpaper until I saw them steaming it off. The banquettes were nice, but I’m not sure the pillows are thick and big enough to provide much back support. Overall, I’d say a C.

Edward fooled me. He said he was doing a “Moroccan” theme, and after seeing Kia’s idea of Morocco, I was curious to see what he would do. But I completely forgot he was doing it until he brought in that gorgeous light fixture. The mantle looked too big at first…what the heck were they spraying after it was painted black? Something to make it shiny? With the turquoise ceiling, the gold walls, and the red stucco on the fireplace, it didn’t seem pulled together until after they loaded and accessorized the room. Then I saw what he was doing. It seemed very luxurious, but I would have liked to see more of his plans, like the rugs and the chairs and the plants, before everything was said and done. I loved it.

Is it my imagination, or is Paige becoming more critical of the design ideas? She had no problem telling Hildi that the yellow color in the black dining room was horrible, and she questioned Edward only tissue papering two walls. I also thought Edward should have stood up to the HO and done all the walls, although since it’s a living and a dining room, the different textures might work in the separate areas of the room.

And now, in the interest of giving someone else the opportunity to start the weekly TS thread, I am handing over posting responsibilities to Bibliocat for July. Perhaps Otto would be interested in doing August? Although I’m not sure how many more new episodes are left. I will be happy to take over again in September, unless someone else wants a turn.
:slight_smile:

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It is not your imagination, Paige is speaking up more. I like it, especially when she says something I am thinking. :slight_smile:

I ended up liking Edward’s room in general, but not the turquoise ceiling. IMHO, it would have looked better the color of the fireplace. Doug’s room, OTOH, could not have been uglier and less practical. The banquette looked like it belonged in a waiting room and would be horribly uncomfortable after about 5 minutes.

Does anyone know where Neal and Lena were from? My husband thinks maybe South Africa.

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I couldn’t see the direction either room was going in.
There didn’t seem to be a lot of explanation from either designer as to what was going to be happening, so the final product from both was quite a surprise.

The whole way through, I found myself scewing up my face thinking I really don’t like that. But in the end, I enjoyed both rooms, but for different reasons.

Yes, the plum grey was too dark, but the light accents were kinda cool. I just didn’t see the room being that useful or inviting. And yes, I thought of the fire hazard issue in regards to the ceiling too.

Loooved the Morrocan room. Maybe not such a huge fan of the fireplace mantle, though. It was an absolutely luxurious looking room though, and I just wanted to go and sit in those gorgeous chairs and read a book.

Overall, a “meh” episode.

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I thought Neal and Lena might have been from Germany.

No, no hard facts, just a guess on the accent.

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i’m not sure about germany, german is the only lang. (other that english) i know bad words in. i would have caught the crap expression.

i just checked twop and a poster there said south africa, that there was an article about the home owners. afrikaans would explain the slight germanic influence.

i liked edward’s room. i would have put gold star stencils on the ceiling, no doubt influenced by poopolina. everything came together very well. i really enjoy the way edward uses palm trees. he gave them a room that had two areas.

doug’s room… a bit dark, and i think the ceiling is rather cheesy. the banquette needs more fluffyness, and i have seen the pillows he used in a catalog some where. elm something or something elm. the same colours exactly and with buttons. i’m not sure how comfy those buttons will be.

i did like the little wall by the dog area. rather cool and easy for the owners to get around or over.

i did snicker over doug’s “pretty boy” comment. paige and the iguana were very good together.

having just completed home improvement week, i can understand how frank goes through shirts like tissues. the only days it hits the 90’s in philly and i’m working on the ceiling; i went throught an average of 3 sets of shirts and shorts a day. of course now that i’m going back to the office it goes back to the low 80’s, in the office it will be in the low 50’s.

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I really liked Doug’s room divider with the woven slats…that’s about it, lol. I sorta liked the ceiling treatment but I think fabric would’ve been a much better choice (and you can’t tell me some cheap, silky lining fabric would’ve been much more than a thousand sheets of posterboard!) Wall color-wise I think a color about halfway between the first grey and the second grey would’ve worked better. My big problem with Doug rooms is that while they might work in theory, they really look crappy in execution. I mean I could sorta see where he was going with the tube legs and tube stools, but the end result looked very, well cheap and tossed-together. One of the other designers would’ve been able to pull it off much better I think. I had the same reaction to his bar/porch in Florida earlier. Cheap-looking. I also don’t get the appeal of the banquette seating. (At least he’s getting away from the “twin bed on a platform = couch” fetish he used to have.) There wasn’t that much IN that room, I find it hard to believe he couldn’t have scrounged up a halfway decent couch instead. His coffee table/ottoman’s (ottomen?) always look way crappier than everyone’s as well.

Edward’s room looked very nice, but just wasn’t my style. (I don’t understand the latest craze for Indian/Moroccan decor…I’m noticing it on all the home shows lately. It’s a cheezy “I dream of Jeannie” look to me.) I thought the stucco on the fireplace and the alter-ish mantle were a bit “yikes” but they ended up looking professional at least. (I wasn’t too sure when he was spraying the mantle with “FleckStone” or whatever that was. I’m curious what it looks like close-up.) I didn’t really dig how he had two rugs sorta overlapping each other at odd angles in the seating area, but other than that the accessorizing was great. Edward & Vern (and to an extent Laurie) are really good with the whole package while most of the other designers seem to focus on the paint/color palate and leave the rooms looking a bit unfinished. That’s my theory this week anyway, lol.

I especially loved that although Edward was having a craptacular day one, HE DIDN’T MAKE A BIG STINKING DEAL OUT OF IT!

Re: Paige questioning the design/asking more questions in general…I think TLC is trying to better anticipate some of the questions viewers (and messageboard posters) would want to know, such as: What exactly is your reasoning for this bizarre choice? or Where did you spend most of your money in this room? (Laurie’s standard answer: “Fabric!”)

Did anyone know what Doug used to make his woven screen? I was thinking some slats from an old set of vertical blinds might work (or would they be too “bendy?”) I’d like to try making a thin one with a single row of skinnier pipes.

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I HATED both rooms!

Edward’s room was a nice try, but still ended up looking tacky. The hideous mantel looked like something out of a stage set for Hansel & Gretel. The colors were hideous! Yikes!

Doug’s room was sleazy beyond belief. Who could live in a room like that? The ceiling stuff looked like it was already coming down in places. It would yellow quickly, catch dust and maybe go up in flames after first developing scorch marks from the lights. The walls were depressingly dark. The “artwork” was a sham. The crappy little stools were just that. . . crappy little stools, crappily made. And the room divider? Well, let’s just say it wasn’t worth the time, trouble or money. The coffee table/ottoman was a bad idea badly executed and the banquettes looked to be hideously uncomfortable. What could you DO in this room? It wasn’t a place to relax and watch tv. Lighting was inappropriate for reading as were the seating pieces? Is this supposed to be design for design’s sake? I did it because I could? If so, fuggedaboudit!
TRADING SPACES is going downhill fast! Except for Carter the Eye-Candy Carpenter! Now, him I like!

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Everybody always says what I’m thinking before I get a chance to (didn’t even get to see the ep until this morning because I was watching the finals of the World Poker Tour), so I think from now on my major contribution to the TS threads will be the Carter Oosterhouse Porn Star Quote Of The Week[sup]TM[/sup]:

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I loved Edward’s room, I think it looked luxurious and inviting. I liked the colors – up to and including the ceiling, which I didn’t like when he opened the first can of paint (the bf and I, in unison: “Yow!”), but it worked well with the other colors. I agree that some more interim steps would have been nice – like, where’d he get those chairs? They were gorgeous.

Doug – let’s take him out and shoot him, shall we? he takes a den/family room and paints it black? Leave no comfortable furniture in it? Well, at least he didn’t weld the butt end of a car to the wall.

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Doug reminds me of a serial killer who is decompensating. He’s getting sloppier and stupider with every room he does. Would it have been so hard to skip the pillows and do a color-block back banquette so that the seating was at least sofa-like? And why do a ceiling treatment at the expense of doing more color on the walls or more reasonable seating? There was nothing wrong with the ceiling as it was. It was functional and practical and plain, but it wasn’t dangerous or silly or something that would require a lot of work to clean. He really needs to give over on the “whole room transformation” thing and get practical for the way real families live. I wonder what his life was like on the farm, growing up. Did they not have comfortable chairs and rooms where they could engage in multiple activities?

Edward’s room was delicious, I thought, save for the mantel. It could have been big or it could’ve been that fleckstoned black, but not both. It stuck out just a teensy tad too much, even with the overall comfortable busy-ness of the finished room. I would’ve loved it if it was a fleckstone over the ceiling color and 50% of its size. That would’ve really tied everything together all the more. Ditto on the calls for more detail on how he dressed the room and the myriad other elements he brought in other than the mantel, the paint and the tissue-paper treatment. Rugs, furniture, all kinds of things ended up in that room that we had no idea abut, that seemed goofy to me. Give us the details!

I’m pretty sure that this was it for new episodes until the fall. July is “Viewer’s Choice” month (go to the TLC website to vote) and August is going to be something special as well, I read in an article but it’s eluding my pregnancy-addled brain at the moment.

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I just saw the episode this morning too, as I was working when it premiered last night.

I think the stuff used for the divider was Masonite. I’m only offering that word up because I heard Doug say it, and I don’t remember the word coming up again elsewhere.

Edward…oh Edward…I just can’t deal with him. I was SO happy when they finally stopped having Dez (that was her name, right?) do rooms, especially with all those awful horrendous lamps she made. Why the hell have they hired Kia and Edward? Edward chooses badly mismatched color combinations. Kia does themes (which usually include putting up a border, gahh) that look ridiculous.

It aggravates me to no end when they’re the designers for an episode, and I immediately get nervous for the homeowner. And then it drives me more nuts when the homeowners love the room!

My ideal would be to have Vern or Laurie doing my room, and to work with Genevieve. Gen could do my room, too, but she’s gotta be the most fun to work with b/c Laurie is so full of herself.

And don’t get me started on Hildi. STRAW?

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I’m here, I’m here. I was out of town yesterday… I was in twickster’s neighborhood at the Franklin Institute for the Grossology exhibit. Very cool, if you’ve got kids!

I agree with most of what has been said. Edward’s room was nice, but too a little too busy for me. I liked individual pieces of it, but all together it was too much. The fireplace was nice, but the mantel looked splotchy.

Those little stools in Doug’s room were just like the stools he did a couple weeks ago in the patio/martini bar room. I can’t imagine they’re very comfortable. I liked the banquette, but the color of the room was just too dark. It was like a flashback to Hildi’s Dining Room from Hell.
I liked that Paige mentioned the ceiling was a dust catcher, but I can’t believe she gets up in her suspended ceiling to dust.

That’s true. I think several of them just design for the reveal, not for how real people live.

It’s funny. Look at how sparse Doug’s room was compared to Edward’s. Where the heck did Doug spend $1,000?

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Ditto on that. I kept rubbing my eyes because it kept making me dizzy. From one angle it looked like a coffee table with a top to match the other area rug.

I did like his room over all. I agree that it was quite busy, but it seemed busy in a good way. I think I could really enjoy reading a book in the living area, or eating a meal in the dining area.

I can’t imagine what the hell Doug was thinking. Does he even make a sketch of the room so that he can get a visual of what he’s getting himself into? Family room?! C’mon! That room was so cold and impersonal. The funniest part is that the woman home owner said that it wasn’t as bad as she expected from him. Ha!

As far as editing the episode goes, I wish they had spent more time in Edward’s room and less time in Doug’s. Although I really enjoyed the home owner’s working with Doug, especially the woman, his room was so non-existant that I felt like I had only seen half a show. There was a lot going on in Edwards room that we missed for no good reason.

I taped it Saturday and watched it yesterday with my mom. She casually remarked that she thought Carter wasn’t a carpenter at all, but just eye candy. :smiley:

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Hmmm.

Edward really is showing his design chops. That room did not look like a $1000 room. He listened to the HO’s and overcame adversity to design a stunning room. He is becoming my second favorite behind Vern. In a few ways he is better- he tends to have a wider range of designs and has a real artistic bent.

Doug’s room was definitely more “out there” but seeing how horrific the space was to start with, it was definitely a conversation piece. The dog wall and ceiling were great, and the built in’s made the room useful. I liked the color in theory, but the room needed more contrasts. It is the sort of room you need to live it a bit to make up your mind. Still, compared to the stark white bowling alley look. . .

The ads for Trading Spaces Family showed all the regulars (except some really lame new host) doing the shows. I guess that’s why Carter was brought on-board (that and to add to the required beefcake quota). I wonder if they will need extra designers too?

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Yes, and yes, as I understand it. Carter is there to fill out the expanded schedule and they’re getting two new designers to do the same. My take on it is that the only show specific cast members will be Paige and the new host who will be doing TS and TS Family, respectively; otherwise, we will see all the regular characters on both shows.

It’ll be interesting to see Kia on TS Family…

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Ok, I confess: When he squeezed out that giant glob of glue (that felt totally staged to me, BTW) and he was yelling “eek! Get a rag! Get a rag!” I yelled at the tv: “YOUR SHIRT! YOUR SHIRT! IT’S A RAG – TAKE IT OFF!”

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Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Carter.

Other than that, I thought the episode sucked. Doug’s room was dreadful, probably the worst he’s done (with that patio/bar thing a couple of weeks ago a close second). It’s not about the darkness, it’s about the cheapness, and the ugliness and the 70sness. Anyone else think you could have thrown Hildi’s light fixture from the black and yellow dining room into that room and had it fit in perfectly?

We didn’t see much of Edward’s room during the show. Overall, I thought it sort of worked, sort of didn’t. I usually like Edward’s stuff way more.

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I thought the same thing, jac. Do Doug and Hilde meet for lunch on the sly and say, “Now, I’m going to paint a room entirely in black and put in an atrocious light fixture that violates building codes. Think you can also paint a room black? Except, don’t call it black. Call it plum gray.”

Then they laugh evilly and toast each other with 12 year old scotch.

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I have to wonder, don’t they have rules they have to follow-so far as fire hazards and such?

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It does seem hard to believe that the waiver the home owners sign could protect Banyan from things like negligence, doesn’t it? Hasn’t there got to be some minimal expectation of professionalism?