Trading Spaces 7/19: Hildi and Kia, or, What horrors will these two dream up?

Cafe Society
21

I’m gonna really go against the grain: I actually liked Hildi’s room. I liked the color, though it would have looked better with more charcoal/black thrown in, possibly in the form of curtains.

I didn’t like the couch. The back board looked thrown together…but then again, it was thrown together, so not bad, considering. The snake-skin was frightening. And Guin, I normally catch things like that, but changing the lights in the legs…how would they be able to do that? Good question.

I hate glossy paint, but considering that’s what she used, the walls looked pretty good. And I really liked the floor. Honest. This is probably because I love checkered anything, and I loved that the floor was checkered in grays and not a stereotypical black/white pattern, and then that the pillows complimented that in purples. she certainly went over-board…not that that’s anything new. And she even incorperated their snow globe collection. On the whole, I liked it a lot.

Hildi’s room was (for once) what the home owners’ wanted, though I agree: They might not have been as crazy for it as they’d made out.

Kia’s room was mediocre in my opinion. The HO’s got more storage, sure, but had virutally no seating. (Didn’t like the restored booth seat thing at all). I liked the colors she picked, but I was very disapointed that she hadn’t done anything with that awful original floor; at least it went with the new color scheme. I also didn’t like the way she camoflauged the holes in the ceiling with that vined boarder. Ugh!

Also, these people were rock/alternative type musicians, and Kia brought in that sheet music and brought in that upright bass thing (which I did not like at all…it just iritated me that it wasn’t strung tightly [maybe because I am a bassist], and that from the neck up was ornate, well, legit, and the body was just shoved together looking.) They seemed to like it though, so that’s good. In my opinion however, it was a just okay room. I’d neither have been pleased or apalled had it been mine.

22

Originally posted by BiblioCat
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Yeah, Hildi has no concept of what kids are like. Remember the India-themed bedroom with the pink carpet, the Henna stamps on the ceiling and the gold trim? The HO’s specifically requested a kid-friendly room. The trim turned out to be very delicate…it only got one coat of the gold paint or something like that, and would flake/chip easily. Her answer? Something to the effect of “Oh, well, as long as they’re careful with it.” screams

In regards to the hay getting mildewy, I’m not sure, but you’d certainly think it would. Likewise, remember the episode with the 600 fake flowers in a bathroom? Those would have to get disgusting! Think of fall the steam, all the water, and all the places for dust to settle in those damned things! It’s hard enough to keep tile clean in a bathroom, and here you have (horribly ugly) fake flowers. My God!

23

Well, I liked Kia’s kitchen. She brightened it considerably and although she should have done something with the floor (Vern would have, pout pout) I didn’t even mind the border. But I’m an ivy fanatic (hence the user name) so I loved the border. It wasn’t even a true border, but just something to cover the holes in the ceiling. The HOs were musicians and she used a music theme for the kitchen which I thought was rather nicely executed.

Hildi’s room hurt my eyes. Isn’t it rather stereotypical to paint a gay couple’s room fuschia pink? Jeez, lady, show some compassion here. It wasn’t even a functioning room when she was done with it. They had an office, and she turned it into some type of orgy room, complete with soft spongy floor. :rolleyes:

At least we know now the designers are responsible for paying any overage. Although when Hildi spray painted the furniture pink and left it out in the rain, I don’t think she had to pay back the $1500 she went over.

24

I really really liked Kia’s kitchen, especially the color (I’m in a huge minoirity, perhaps of one. I don’t dislike Kia’s rooms and usually find several things to like about her work). I also didn’t quite get the restaurant bench sitting by itself in the corner. I noticed how snippy Paige was to Kia at the pre-reveal–that she was $79 over budget, yaddayaddayadda. She isn’t that rude to the other designers, even when Hildi completely ruins someone’s furniture and has to replace it. And Hildi…that room was a mess. If she called that pink snakeskin “leather” once more, I was going to reach into the TV and rip her a new one. It’s farkin’ vinyl, you moron! I’m sooooo tired of these designers taking a slab of MDF, covering it with 2 inches of foam and calling it a couch. And it was a crappy paint job–during one close up you could see all the cracks and places around the trim and windows that didn’t get covered. I’m with Veb–can’t believe I watch this and even worse, have an opinion!

25

I can’t say that I thought it was as bad as most others in this thread. It looked like the paint job was really poorly done, although that may have been my tv or the surface it was painted on, etc.

What really bothered me about the room was that the window frames were the same color as the walls. I didn’t mind the “purple” too much, though I wouldn’t want it in my room, but it was too much of a solid mono-chromatic block. It’s like how Chritina Aguilera’s hair used to be that platinum blonde with absolutely no highlights–it has no texture, flavor, or depth. I think she could have done a much better job without changing her design too much by breaking it up a little with different colors and maybe a large canvas painting.

I guess the most shocking thing about Kia’s room was that it didn’t suck. But I can’t say if it was really good–I’m not sure how prejudiced I am because of her past designs. I hate the theme stuff she does. Even though it was much more muted this time around, it is still just too cheesy.

26

Exactly. I hated that they painted the entire room the same color. The door, the doorknob, the trim, the window frames, the radiator…all that bright fuschia. If they’d used a different color for the trim, if wouldn’t have been so bad. A light or medium gray would have been great.
It makes you look lazy, too, IMO. How hard is it to tape off and paint another color?

27

:smiley: I hadn’t thought of it that way. That’s funny!