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

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

[TontoKowalski]

Kia. That's her name, I couldn't remember. The show where she pinned fake flowers on astroturf as a coverlet for the bed? it did look like a grave (as the homeowners kept saying), and the little fence around it just reinforced that.

[ozaukeemom]

I don't like Kia, more for her attitudes and mannerisms. Vern and Laurie are my favs, I think. I like Frank as entertainment.
The bathroom the other night was awful! Can you imagine all of the work to get that crap off the walls? Can anyone say "mildew, dust, mold etc"? Ugh!

[Servant of the Nine]

You have got to be insane to trust strangers inside your home when you aren't there, even if they weren't going to intentionally destroy it.

So9

[Johnny Gage]

The difference is that shows like this do nothing to "redo"

I love the TLC show "While you were out".

[Spiff]

My wife watches the show, so I've seen enough episodes.

The worst I saw - I don't remember the designer - but the redid a bedroom. They made the bedspread out of astroturf and attached to it some cheap plastic flowers. Astroturf!! They fenced the bed completely off with a white picket fence. You had to step over the picket fence to get to the bed. They also did a weird patch of gravel in the room. It was hideous, and stupid, and the designer had to have been high. If I was working on my neighbor's home and some stoned designer said we were turning the entire bedroom into a fake flower bonanza and putting astroturf on the bed I wouldn't have cooperated. In the reveal you could tell that the couple HATED it, but wanted to be polite on TV.

[Hatteras]

The "graveyard bed" was exactly what I had in mind, too funny. Frank is a little too artsy-craftsy for me. Seems like a good guy though. Doug is getting a little better but I still would be extremely hesitant to let him in my house. Vern seems to be the most conservative decorator of the lot and I'd probably prefer his tastes. Of course, I certainly wouldn't mind spending a few hours of "homework" with Genevieve... rrrrowwwwwlllll..

[finnman69]

here is the example they showed:

Before "Trading Spaces": Ruth and Chris Nelson's living room started out with neutral walls and a dated look.

After: The "Trading Spaces" crew saw red, with artwork consisting of 24 paper squares pinned to the wall.

After After: It wasn't long before the Nelsons repainted walls and pulled off slipcovers. The fluttering paper squares came down.

After all that, I have to say the room designed for them was far superior to the before and the after/after. People with no taste whatsoever should not apply for this show. What are they thinking putting the ugly couches back, and painting horrible black on the wall with yucky window treatment. They even put back the awful side tables. Granted there have been some unbelievably bad designs inflicted on some homeowners, but this is not the worst. They should show Hildys flower bathroom, her straw on the wall room, or her records on the wall design just out. Any of Doug's dark urban funk disasters with weird dark colors ar frightening. The two newest designers are pretty wacked out always, and lest not even talk about Frank, the flamboyant pink/multirainbow hued arts & crafts freak.

Vern by far is the best designer with Genevieve a close second. Laurie can sometimes pull it off as well but she only knows how to do one color, yellw/orange.

[smith288]

Charge commision to some ilegal aliens to destaple the walls...6000 flowers with 2 staples in each?!?! No thanks.

[rintense]

Hildi, to me, is the one who usually gets it wrong. I like Frank. He usually comes up with very tasteful yet exciting stuff.

[finnman69]

Trading Spaces ping

[Hatteras]

The one problem with "While You Were Out" is that hostess. She's awful. I hate people that sneer out of habit.

[sam_paine]

Who cares about the stupid designers. From an engineer's perspective, interior decorators are nothing but random number generators. They throw something wacky out with mystical "artistic" fanfare, and then wait to see if people are duped.

Now the real sexy personna is Amy the Carpenter. There's a hardworking girl who can take a pile of X and create Y with her tools just as it appears in her mind (or the mind of a "designer.")

Chicks with power tools....ARRRGH.

[smith288]

Thats show could use Alex McLeod(sp?)

[SaveTheChief]

Vern and Laurie are also my favorites. They both seem to have everything well-planned and have a definite vision for what they think the room should be. I have seen Edward a couple of times and it appears he has some good ideas, and has a good concept of design as well.

I have no idea why Hildi is on the show. In my opinion, she and Kia are the worst. Some of their concepts (the turf bedroom that looked like a grave, the flower covered bathroom, the tiffany box inspired bedroom) are absolutely horrid.

I do enjoy watching Frank, as he has some clever "artsy" ideas. I really liked his candle holders he made out of pipe fittings that were to go into a batchelor bedroom.

[CougarGA7]

What I don't understand about that episode is why those people wanted that bathroom redone in the first place. I was beautiful before Hildi got ahold of it.

[Charles Martel]

I enjoy watching the show. I have seen some rooms that I really thought were well done, and have seen some that were absolutely hideous. A thousand dollars is not enough money to do anything of quality. Those expecting something lavish out of the Trading Spaces experience are fools.

They could do better quality work, regardless of the price limit. I've seen a room that was the victim not of Trading Spaces, but While You Were Out. The paint work was (literally) spotty, the carpet joints were sloppy, and so on. They left quite a lot of work for the homeowner to complete (or correct), but the camera does not pick up the flaws that are easily seen when you're standing in the room. If the Trading Spaces crew left a similar mess in their wake, it would not surprise me in the least.

[rintense]

OMG, the Nelsons have no taste whatsoever. I like what TS did to their room. If it isn't their style, however (which, when looking at their after after photo, it isn't) then of course they wouldn't like it. The Nelsons bit off more than they could chew with this show.

[Dead Corpse]

Hildi is the anti-Christ of the decorator world.

[shadowman99]

Actually the worst one I've seen was on "While You Were Out"

The husband was sent off for a few days and they trashed his den. He was a movie fan, and had some sci-fi films, so the dingy blonde airhead designer latched onto that. She designed a look to make the room look like a "space station"

They painted everything powder blue or white. The ceiling was blue with large white circles. The carpet was blue with large white circles. They trashed his couch with a blue appolstery and transparent blue inflatable pillows. They stapled a wall with cheap aluminum metal plates to look like a "space ship hull"

They guy comes home and gives the blank stare and a "it's great. i just love it."

A look is exchanged between he and his wife that says "WTF!!!!" and "THIS SHIT GETS FIXED NOW!!!"

My wife and I are watching this and I told her "never ever do that to me"

[CougarGA7]

Doug is pretty bad too. And on top of that he's so damn lazy that you can see it annoying the people he's working with during the show.