# Trading Spaces--Which room was the worst ever?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spaces-which-room-was-the-worst-ever/191185
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 27, 2003, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spaces-which-room-was-the-worst-ever/191185 "2003-07-27T01:52:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spaces-which-room-was-the-worst-ever/191185/81 "2012-07-05T17:30:41Z")
While perusing this thread before realizing that it’s a freakin’ zombie, I remembered one episode that I channel-surfed onto where they made the person’s bedroom look like a birdcage. With a birdcage-bed. I thought it was hilarious - the homeowner, not so much.
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### Author:  [@ehoag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ehoag)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2014, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spaces-which-room-was-the-worst-ever/191185/82 "2014-12-17T03:01:58Z")
I think it was the bathroom somebody covered in fake flowers. It looked hideous and I cringe when I think about how dirty they would get and how uncleanable they were. And the “before” bathroom had been so sleek and lovably cleanable!
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### Author:  [@dada2fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dada2fish)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2014, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spaces-which-room-was-the-worst-ever/191185/83 "2014-12-17T04:56:19Z")
Wow! I almost forgot about this show. ACEplace57 mentioned the black and white rooms? I vaguely remember a very dark bedroom, which could’ve been the black room, where the floor and some of the bedroom furniture was made of cement and the entire room was black. Did I remember this correctly? It was a father and son I think. They were very quiet during the reveal.
Also another episode, one of the designers used felt instead of wall paper. Used a heavy duty adhesive doweled on the wall, then rolled a darkly collared felt material over the whole wall. Worst part was, I think the homeowners had cats. ~off to YouTube to look up old episodes~
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2014, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spaces-which-room-was-the-worst-ever/191185/84 "2014-12-17T06:46:30Z")
Buzzfeed lists 5 of Hildi’s worst rooms
> **[The 5 Most WTF Room Makeovers Hildi Santo-Tomas Did On "Trading Spaces"](https://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/the-5-most-wtf-room-makeovers-hildi-santo-tomas-did-on-tradi)**
>
> Nothing struck more fear into the contestants of this TLC show than knowing that Hildi was redecorating a room in their home.
I really loved the early seasons of Trading Spaces. I guess others did too because they are still writing about the show.
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### Author:  [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2014, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spaces-which-room-was-the-worst-ever/191185/85 "2014-12-17T08:04:47Z")
I can’t believe this show was on in 2003. It doesn’t seem like that long! I also can’t believe Hildi’s horrendous feather room didn’t make the Buzz Feed list, or that no one mentioned here. Man, it was awful.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2014, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spaces-which-room-was-the-worst-ever/191185/86 "2014-12-17T13:45:07Z")
I would love to watch re-runs of this show, ideally on HGTV interspersed with good stuff like The Property Brothers or Fixer Upper.
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### Author:  [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spaces-which-room-was-the-worst-ever/191185/87 "2014-12-17T19:30:37Z")
Apropos of practically nothing, my cousin is a buyer for Hobby Lobby (please don’t flame me or her) and spent the day yesterday with Vern Yip. She said that he was delightful.
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### Author:  [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2014, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spaces-which-room-was-the-worst-ever/191185/88 "2014-12-17T20:02:02Z")
The one that looked like a 1960’s junk shop: [Trading Spaces: Boys Soccer Room with Vern Yip - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIs57tGh7zk#t=3302)
And here’s a photo of the hay room (scroll to bottom)
[The 5 Most WTF Room Makeovers Hildi Santo-Tomas Did On "Trading Spaces"](http://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/the-5-most-wtf-room-makeovers-hildi-santo-tomas-did-on-tradi)
ETA: Arrghhhh!! Zombie got me!
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2014, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spaces-which-room-was-the-worst-ever/191185/89 "2014-12-17T23:33:01Z")
In the forum to the right, some posters were talking about reading a thread and thinking a post is exactly what they were thinking, only to realize it was a zombie thread and it really was what they had thought – a few years ago.
I read the title and thought- man, what a great idea for a thread, only about 5 or 10 years too late.
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spaces-which-room-was-the-worst-ever/191185/90 "2014-12-18T00:07:01Z")
But Genevieve Gorder’s hay-covered walls haunt me still …
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spaces-which-room-was-the-worst-ever/191185/91 "2014-12-18T00:16:06Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#):
>
> But Genevieve Gorder’s hay-covered walls haunt me still …
It wasn’t Gen, it was Hildi. I thought it was her and was super surprised when she got her own show a few years ago. It wasn’t bad at all. It was then that I realized Hildibeast was not Genevieve at all.
The mosaic of herself is the epitome of The Beast’s design style, self-centered and ugly.
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### Author:  [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spaces-which-room-was-the-worst-ever/191185/92 "2014-12-18T00:16:56Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#):
>
> This one gets my vote for sheer ugliness, with Hildi’s recent Hell’s Dining Room a close second, and the Graveyard Bedroom third.
>
> For destructive-worst, the Hay Wall and the Bathroom Flowers have to be tied for the worst. I don’t know that there are any estimates on fixing the one where she stapled 6,000 fake flowers to the bathroom walls, but 24,000 tiny holes in a steamy, moist room is not a good idea. Plus, there’s just no way to clean them. Can you imagine how filthy those flowers would be, with the steam and dust and overspray from deodorant and hairpspray?
The flower bathroom was the worst. I can’t imagine the combination of dust and urine mist that covered them after a short time. I may have actually gasped when that room was being done.
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### Author:  [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spaces-which-room-was-the-worst-ever/191185/93 "2014-12-18T00:21:59Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#):
>
> But Genevieve Gorder’s hay-covered walls haunt me still …
That was Hildi, not Genevieve.
Genevieve, OTOH, can haunt _me_ anytime… 🆒
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