Trading In Trading Spaces - When the Facelift Flops, The Homeowners Take Action

Washington Post ^ | 5/29/03 | Annie Groer

[Chancellor Palpatine]

The instant she opened her eyes -- after two grueling days and nights of giving her neighbors' kitchen a facelift -- Ruth Nelson was stunned by her own tarted-up Alexandria living and dining rooms. "I love it," she blurted as TV cameras recorded the moment.

Trouble was, she didn't.

A wall, once eggshell, was painted four-alarm scarlet. Two print sofas were obscured under hastily made off-white slipcovers with exposed seams stitched in black and red. A poster-size photo of her teenage son, Chris, showed only his chin; another just part of the family cat. Also baffling were 24 fluttering gold and silver paper squares pinned like insect specimens to said red wall.

Designer Genevieve Gorder, a regular on "Trading Spaces," the wildly popular TV decorating show, called the look edgy on the episode that aired in November 2000.

[Howlin]

Last fall at the home show over at Dorton Arena, Vern was there; he was SWAMPED......and the people running the show were stunned at the turnout. They didn't see it coming!

[Howlin]

Hey, I like the AFTER; it's warm looking, isn't it?

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Yep - this is why I could never go on. I can see myself, busting my butt with Frank or Vern, making something attractive and presentable - while Doug put metal foil on my walls and covered my windows, or Hildy covered an entire wall with old dartboards.

[MotleyGirl70]

That's the one! The woman was acting like a bully. She was ready to kick some series arse!

[Howlin]

The one problem with "While You Were Out" is that hostess.

AMEN!

[finnman69]

Vern, Genevieve and Laurie are consistantly good. A few that Doug have done are great but it's scary, same with Hildy, sometimes she really pulls it off. The two of them just have a more adventurous approach to decorating.

It's not decorating which Doug and Hildy engage in...they experiment. I think they actually think, "what kind of outlandish thing can I get away with this week". Soooooo not cool for the owners who have to live in their crap.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Frank's OK, and his stuff is always presentable, even if not awe inspiring. The black lady's stuff is a little over the top, but her palette is interesting.

[socal_parrot]

Genevieve gets a taste of Frank...

[MotleyGirl70]

I love "While You Were Out" , but Chase gets on my nerves soooo bad. I like it when Andrew and the others talk about her behind her back. LOL!

[discostu]

Doug and Hildi do some good stuff we just remember their crazy (and generally awful) rooms that we remember. Hildi's rock climbing room for the kid really redeemed her in my eyes. I love Lauries rooms but could never live in one, none of her rooms would look good with a beer bottle on the table. Kia (that's the new black lady) has some good ideas but takes things too far (floating bed anyone). I dig Frank's touch and my wife and I are seriously contemplating replicating the Mexican restaurant kitchen. Genevieve's rooms fit my style best and she's fun to watch even if the room sucks.

[HairOfTheDog]

BEFORE:

After: I love the red wall! Cant judge the content of the artwork pinned up, but I do like the paint!

And they obviously liked the dramatic effect of the dark wall, if not in red. This is their fix. I do like their window treatments better, but no one is ever gonna be able to watch TV during the daytime with the TV there.

[Howlin]

I kind of like Hildy's "Tiffany bedroom."

[The KG9 Kid]

What's the name of that feisty redhead with the curly hair and the Texas accent on the show? She's the one that wears a lot of lime green and stretch pants.

She's the best part of the show, IMO.

[mtbopfuyn]

Oh gawd, some of the nighmares that have come out of TS. I used to HAVE to watch it every week the first 2 seasons but lately with all the must have controversy (all since Lowe's took over) I watch it only when nothing else is on. I agree with others here that if Doug or Hildi showed up they'd be met with a double barrel and a very itchy finger.

The Hildibeast should never be allowed around children. She hears there's children in the home and she intentionally creates the most hazardous room imaginable, i.e. hay glued to the livingroom, broken glass rods sticking straight out of the fireplace, cement floors.

Doug thinks everyone should be single and living in a Manhattan apt. One livingroom the lady had to leave the reveal to cry and her husband's only comment was all he saw was firewood. That was in Nantucket and Doug had appropriately named his design Nan ___ it. The couple were crafty, homey, and comfortable types but he turned it into a dark brown studio with 4 awful uncomfortable chairs and threw a temper tantrum over no one tells him not to touch anything so promptly covered up the fireplace in such a shabby way that when they uncovered it to get to the controls the saw dust had already caught fire. Another of Doug's was a family wanted a family room but got a movie theater which the tv fell off the wall. He once put in two cars into a 4 year old's room which left no floor space to play.

Gen is ok if you have just left your parents' home and have nothing to start with. Her moss and toe stumping slate bedroom was ripped out first thing. Recently she did a Cuban bedroom (or was it South America?) but it had ugly old cowboys pictures glued to the closet. How anyone could fall asleep in there is beyond me with them watching you. She's big time into rust and will put it on entire walls and furniture. One homeowner said she'd ruined a filing cabinet with the rust treatment so that it looked like dogs had peed on it.

I used to like Laurie but she can only use one color and that's yellow. Well, actually every episode she claims it's not yellow but buttercream, butter, cream, gold, amber, pumpkin, melon, daisy, sunburst, lemon, citrus, etc. And tries to impress the peons that she's an artist by explaining 47 times that the room was inspired by x,y,z's art and that she's going to replicate one of their paintings as the focal point - enough already.

I've met Frank and he's a wonderful gentleman. He's trying to get away from his country decors but he's done some of the better designs or at least not gone out of his way to insult the homeowners.

Vern also has some of the better rooms. Don't look too closely at his work, he's anal and a perfectionist, but with only 2 days it's still sloppy. His only fault is he does too many red asian rooms.

Kia is nice in person too but with editing it doesn't transfer to tv. If they'd just have her do teen theme rooms, not so many folks would criticise her work.

Edward is a neat guy too and has some wonder ideas. He is more art deco and classy. Too bad they don't show him more.

[Japedo]

I guess I was the only one that liked that room! lol I thought the woman was ridiculous! The fireplace wasn't touched.

I'm with you on that, I quite liked the room and thought it was very classy. To me that family looked like Frank was more suited for them Farm Animals , Country theme, n such.

Personally I had contempt for the women that ran off crying, I honestly can't understand why she didn't love the room. Also, she signed the contract and agree to have "NO SAY" in her room. I don't think people give Doug enough credit. Yes sometimes he's outrageous, but as a whole I like his taste. I also think he's hilarious.

The two I'd have issues with would be Hildy and Frank.

Frank is getting better, but doodles on everything, I find his rooms to be much to busy, and I'm not a big fan of Country style. Hildy, well what else is there to say, sometimes she doesn't get her way.. Remember when she wanted to dye the rug pink and in the end had to settle for putting rose petals on the floor! LOL

[Howlin]

I was totally surprised when that woman went off like that; I thought the room looked a LOT better than it had before.

[Wright is right!]

"Yeah, but Doug made up for it by stapling alimunum(sp?) all over the bar and what was that purple lighting all about? It reminded me of those rediculous tricked out Honda Civics with the purple lighted licence place covers."

If you look very carefully at the "BEFORE" shots, that purple lighting was already there - Doug just left it. It didn't show up well in the daytime against the wood bar. But it showed up big time against the aluminum.

Michael

[MotleyGirl70]

Decorating isn't that difficult.

Keep clean with fresh colors of paint (NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE WHITE).

Keep it simple.

And no little pieces of "dust collectors". That's just junk and belongs in the basement.

[discostu]

While You Were Out just isn't as fun, only having one couple and one member actually involved in it takes away a lot of the fun. And one of these days their tapes will be supoenaed in divorce proceedings.

[RockyTop4GOP]

Black lady and faggy guy - Haven't seen enough of their designs to form an opinion

Actually, Edward (as well as Laurie) is a born-again Christian. He's an old-fashioned Southern Baptist. While he does act rather gay, he's an acomplished fashion designer. He designs couture wedding dresses and was the behind-the-scenes sewer for the first two seasons. When he's not doing an episode, he's sewing all the slipcovers, window treatments, pillows, etc.

I'm one of the biggest TS fans around. I make my mom tape every episode b/c I don't have cable at school. I've seen every single episode at least two times.

Laurie, Edward and Vern are my favs. I've actually copied several of Laurie's art ideas, and they turned out fabulous! Laurie is the only designer to have an interior design degree. The rest are artisans, except for Hildi, who has a finance background.
I also love Frank! I would love the opportunity to work with him. He's so much fun!