I’d love to have Gen or Vern – or maybe Laurie – do my room. Frank would be fun to work with. Edward might be okay but I haven’t seen enough of him.
I might not mind working with Doug but I wouldn’t want him, Hildi, or God forbid Kia getting anywhere near my house.
The last two or three Frank rooms I’ve seen have really toned down the country look - one bedroom was positively elegant.
I also like Edwards rooms a lot. He does a lot of neat wall treatments and there always seems to be a touch of elegance to his rooms. Vern is, of course, my favorite, but I also like Laurie, Gen and yes, even Doug, too. I don’t think I’d be unhappy if any of them got assigned a room in my house. Frank, otoh, I’d cringe. I just cannot stand that country kitsch stuff at all.
Hildi’s generally a nightmare, too, but every once in a while I really like one of her rooms. I thought the room with the black walls and wood strips on them was really cool. And I loved the little boy’s room that she did, where she put up a tent and gave the kid a rock climbing wall. You can’t see the wall in the B&A, but here’s the tent part.
This, however, is among her most hideously grotesque designs ever! And the bathroom with the silk flowers stapled to every wall – UGH! When the friend said the owners would be in dusting hell, she wasn’t kidding! Besides, it’s just plain ugly.
But nothing, and I mean nothing Hildi’s ever done – including the circus tent atrocity, can top Kia’s graveyard bedroom! Yes folks, for those who haven’t seen it, that’s astroturf on the floor AND as a bedspread. Not only was “graveyard” my first thought, but even the owner commented that that’s exactly what it looked like. They should’ve fired the woman on the spot. Blech!
Does anybody else remember the episode where instead of painting the living room, Hildi just glued hay to the walls? When the couple told her their neighbors had little kids, Hildi’s repsonse was “well, the children will have to be told to leave it alone.” I don’t have kids, but even I know that’s not going to work in a million years. The woman is a complete moron.
I can’t figure out how to link directly to the shots - but Karen and Robert’s Kid’s Room is Vern’s soccer themed one. Not me - but great for the boy who lived there.
That graveyard is even worse than Tony and Kristen’s Living Room the “I’d need to be drunk” nightmare by Dex.
i went to the home show last saturday and saw frank in person! i even got to ask a question which he answered!
he is a very nice guy, very much like on the show. he did give us a few “behind the scenes” tidbits. doug much more fun in real life. enjoys being with all the crew.
he did let slip that this season we will see: a monkey desk, and a home owner totally curse out a designer that never sets a foot wrong!
he mentioned that every one has him stereotyped as country when he did 4 country rooms out of all the rooms he has done in 3 seasons. he figures if that is the worse you could say, that’s not too bad.
he also said if you put your house on the show, you take the risk and just suck it up if hilde knocks on your door… those are the breaks.
he mentioned that he takes into consideration what the homeowner will have to do to change things that he has done and that he will not do anything that can’t be redone easily and cheaply.
he also stated that he feels that some of the houses were perfectly fine and that the people certainly could have afforded to redo the rooms without the 1,000. from ts. he would like to see more people on who don’t have 1,000. laying around for redecorating. who really need the help and money.
The infamous Hay on the Wall episode…I believe I read somewhere the homeowner’s spent $3000 to fix the shelving (it was coming off after the first day) and 80 hours to take all they hay down.
She also likes to dye furniture with a spray painter. She’s done that twice. The first one, the furniture was left outside to dry…it rained that night…and they had to go over budget by $1500 to buy new furniture.
Then, apparently not learning her lesson, she did it again in another epsiode…
If Kia is the black chick, I hate her too. That cammo room she did was just hideous. Doug’s an asshole, but most of his designs are OK. I love Gen and Frank. I especially liked the Southwest room he did with the rug painted on the ceiling. Frank’s a hoot! We love Vern, but he needs to get a little tougher with people. He gets pushed around a little too much.
Oh, that was AWESOME. I loved the one wall with the woven metal strips.
Did you see the Crying Pam episode?
That’s one of my favorite episodes, Ivy. I hated Doug’s train car and movie theater rooms, but that “do not! paint the firelplace” room looked fabulous. And of course the entertainment value was higher when the homeowner burst into tears because he covered up the bricks with beadboard.
Some homeowners should have never signed up.
My take on the TS designers, in order of preference that they work on my house, with good to bad ratio.
Vern. (100/0) Vern Rules. Everyone knows this. There’s nothing else to be said.
Laurie. (80/20) The problem with Laurie is her tendancy to paint “art” on people’s walls and tables. Fortunately, repainting over her “art” is probably pretty easy and inexpensive. When she does rooms with solid coloured walls, they’re great. Her designs aren’t particularly special and exciting, but she creates well put together, tasteful, liveable rooms. It’s the sort of stuff you’d expect to get if you actually hired a designer to work for you.
Gen. (70/30) Gen is hit and miss, but more miss than hit. Gen’s best rooms are truly wonderful. Gen’s worst rooms have moss on the walls.
Edward. (100/0) I’ve ranked him low because I’ve only seen two episodes, but they were both good rooms.
Doug. (60/40) He often refuses to acknowledge the wishes of either set of homeowners and just does his own thing, which makes a lot of people unhappy, but I usually like his ‘thing’ so I wouldn’t be terribly horrified. The problem is when Doug decides to do a concept room (think home theatre or pullman car) and goes so far overboard that the room loses its function. Doug also has too much love for chocolate brown, and that’s coming from a person who has a huge chocolate brown sofa as the focal point of her whole apartment.
Frank. (20/80) Almost nothing Frank has ever done has appealed to me. His idea of decoration is just not mine. On the other hand, he means well, and he doesn’t destroy things for the fun of it. Most of his rooms could easily be revamped into something acceptable just by removing a few of his tacky decorations from the walls and painting over the inevitable leaf and vine (with optional fruit) wherever it appears.
The Hildi. (5/95) The Hildi just doesn’t get the concept that these rooms exist as anything more than show pieces. From hay on the walls to glass on the fire places to painting sofas, she doesn’t seem to comprehend that people have to live in the house once she’s finished. The idea that children don’t behave 100% (or even 50%) of the time has never occurred to her. Doug is an arrogant ass, but his ego is microscopic compared to The Hildi. I’ve ranked her ahead of Kia, because I liked the one room she did with black/plank walls and seafoam glass.
Kia. (0/100) I’ve only seen a couple of episodes with Kia, but every room she’s done has been a theme room. Theme rooms suck. They suck when Doug does them. They suck when Gen does them. They suck when Frank does them. They suck when Hildi does them. If Vern did one, it’d suck, too. They suck most epically when Kia does them.
Alternately, my take on the designers in order of preference that I be able to work with them (excluding the 'wouldn’t wish their designs on my worst enemy factor, because that would overwhelm all else and leave us with the same order as above):
Vern. Vern Rules. Everyone knows this. There’s nothing else to be said.
Frank. I almost had Frank at number one, because he just seems like such a nice guy, but I’m sure working with Frank would involve having to paint leaves and vines and other such things and I can’t paint for shit and wouldn’t want to have to try on TV.
Doug. I do like a good argument and I’d like to try my hand at being the first homeowner ever to actually hold their own against Doug.
Gen. Gen is just so damned cool, it’d be great just to spend the time with her.
Edward. Again, I haven’t seen much of Edward, but he seems nice.
Laurie. Laurie would probably pretty easy to work with, but she strikes me as lazy - ever notice how much homework her teams end up doing? Also, I’m sure she’s the type to tell endless stories about her kid, and then I’d have to kill her.
Kia. Stupid, stupid, woman and her stupid, stupid theme rooms. It’s not that I wouldn’t want to inflict her rooms on my friends, but that I wouldn’t want to be seen to be going along with her lameass ideas.
The Hildi. She pouts. She climbs up on things while wearing shoes. She sulks. She throws tantrums. The only difference between her and a two year old is that she’s learned to colour inside the lines.
I couldn’t make a choice between carpenters, I’d have to go with Handy Andy. I realize I’ve just skipped to a different show entirely, but Andy is hot and handy and that’s a devastating combination. Ty is too much of a goof to be hot. Amy Wynn is, of course, exceptionally hot, but she’s also a girl and that just doesn’t work for me.
Doug is an actual designer, and most of what he does in the TS houses he has already had someone pay him a buttload of money to do in real life. (Apparently he gets $15,000 for one of his “Venetian plaster” treatments, which to me looks like you hired drunk plasterers but that’s just my personal taste.) He actually cares about what people think of his rooms and is often surprised and disappointed when they don’t like them. (He does have a business reputation to maintain after all.)
Hilde has no design/craft/carpentry experience and has actually said “I love this show because I can try out all my weird ideas!” She does not care what the homeowners think (often saying things like “why wouldn’t they like it?” or “oh well, they can change it then” after the fact.) She goes back to her castle in Paris after her episodes and has no one to answer to and no reason to worry about ever making money again.
For the record, I loved “Crying Pam”'s room as well. I would not have chosen brown but even so it looked 100x better.
Keep in mind Doug “plays” an asshole on the show because TLC enjoys the controversy about it. If you watch some of the shows from the first season he’s downright sweet.
I would let Hilde do any room in my house if I got to spend two days in the presence of Ty.
Best. Room. Design. EVER. I loved that kitchen!
And about that spray-painted couch disaster–wasn’t it rumored that the production crew “accidentally” left the couch out overnight in the rain so they’d have to replace it because Hilde had screwed it up so badly?
I actually thought it was joke when she started spraypainting the couch bright pink.
Bleech.
I need to go think about that for a little while.
Does anyone have a link to the Crying Pam episode? I read the text, but I want to see pictures. I’ve seen Doug do some nice stuff. The nutcase who stapled the flowers to the walls needs to die. I would have cried at that one.
Here you go. I loved it and thought it was beautiful.
** jacquilynne** mentioned the pullman car, and here’s that one, too.
Oh, and here’s Frank’s Serape room, too. You can’t see the cool woven metal wall, but you can make out the work on the ceiling.
Wow! I liked the Crying Pam room. But I can see where she might have thought it was too brown, as I have an almost totally paneled house and I’m sick to death of it.
The pullman car sucked. And Frank’s serape room is just awesome. I have stained wainscoting on my wall and angled ceiling in my kitchen. I just want to paint it and do something cool like that on it. If I can talk Hon into it.
And since I’m on a roll, Doug’s Theater. I have to admit, though, that after giving it some consideration, it appears to have been an extra room that I don’t think they really used all that much anyway. It was, afterall, a converted garage, so clearly they have some other living room elsewhere in the house. And besides, it was previously decorated with dead animal heads, so anything is better than that in my book! So, given that it seems to have been a spare room, I kindof liked it. Well, it was certainly unique, anyway. 