Design Star: back on track

My favorite TV show, Design Star, redeemed itself from last week’s awful kitchen challenge. Phew! There really was nowhere to go but up, since the contestants embarrassed themselves and the show. Now my favorite designers are back in the lead, and can you believe that Torie, everybody’s weak link, is right up there with them!

This week’s challenge was my favorite: the white room, where each designer starts off with an identical white space. It’s a total blank slate, and a perfect opportunity for each designer to showcase their talent, imagination and ability to execute their design.

And—are you ready? All the design elements had to be purchased from a grocery store. Who dreams up these things? These producers are insane! They must be laughing their butts off, coming up with ideas to make things as difficult and high-stress as possible.

The top three rooms selected by the judges were my exact picks. My favorite was Dan, who raided the produce aisle and chose apples as his main design element. He created a very moody, sophisticated, rich-looking room in reds and browns. It was phenomenal. Vern Yip said it was the most thought-out room he’d ever seen on Design Star—total high praise, and well deserved.

Nathan painted his walls a matte black and dripped milk down them to create an interesting striped effect. Then he strung up his own fresh orange chandelier, which totally killed. Those strings of sliced oranges must have made the room smell divine!

But the shocker was Torie, who was voted onto the show by her fellow contestants because they thought she’d be easy to beat. Last week when the designers were choosing their kitchen teams, Torie was chosen dead last.

Well guess what? Torie totally stepped up and pulled off a hip, young space, with vibrant colors that went from magenta and yellow to black and white zebra stripes on the floor. She even scrunched up garbage bags and colorful napkins to make some bold wall art that everybody was asking about. A bit crazy, yet not chaotic, because there was uniformity in the stripes and balance in the colors.

The rest of the group was mediocre at best. But let’s face it. I know I’d be hard-pressed to come up with ideas for decorating with cereal boxes and fruit!

Again, I have to give it to the judges. They voted out Jen, the color specialist, who never proved her ability in what was supposed to be her strong suit. She tried to be eclectic and create this contemporary Japanese room, but the colors didn’t work, her idea fell flat, and her scale and proportion were off. Her room amounted to scatterings of little things, and there was really nothing to draw your eye in.

I can’t wait for the next episode. Unfortunately, that’s going to have to wait until I get back from my trip. I’m mixing business with pleasure—this is our family vacation, but I’ll also be teaching a home decorating workshop aboard the Crystal Serenity. I’ll be posting photos as we go along.

But first, AAARGHHH! I’ve got to get back to my packing!

Kitchen disaster

On Design Star, they call it the dreaded kitchen challenge, and for very good reason. The second episode of my favorite show was really disappointing.

Not one contestant, in my opinion, truly stepped up and showed their talent. One team finished, but the end result looked amateurish, and the other team did not even complete their kitchen.

The homeowners who got a completed kitchen had asked for a Moroccan/Mediterranean theme. Accessorizing is my favorite part, but it looked like the design team went shopping at Ross and picked out everything that had a mosaic or was red or green. The guy in charge of accessorizing was Jason, who brags a lot, but his staging skills leave a lot to be desired. Has he never heard of the concept less is more?

Had the losing team finished their concept, I think they would have won. But they had very poor time management and execution. Their leader, Amy, was voted off because she was a weak leader, crumbled under the pressure, and really didn’t step up herself.

However, I did not feel that she was the one who should have been let go. Tashica was in the bottom two again, and I think it was definitely her time to go. So Tashica, you better step up, because three strikes and you’re out!

The losing team’s kitchen was so poorly executed, and it belonged to a real family that was pinning their hopes on the quality of the design contestants on the show. But cabinets weren’t set properly, counters weren’t aligned and baseboards were missing, so Clive actually announced that an HGTV crew would be going in to clean up the work. The losing team all looked like they just wanted to hide.

I've tried to post pictures, but for some reason that's not working for me this week. But you can see the results for yourself if you go to www.hgtv.com.

So, sad to say, I give my favorite show two thumbs down for this week. Let’s hope things get better this Sunday!

It's gonna be good!

Did you tune in on Sunday night to HGTV’s Design Star? If you didn’t, you missed out—the show was fabulous! It blew away last season by a mile, and let me tell you why: Everything was better—the judges, the contestants, and the design. And the home that they’re staying in!

Judges Candace Olsen, Vern Yip and Genevieve Gorder were brutally honest, fair and very helpful in their critiques. One contestant even mentioned in the waiting room after being ripped to shreds that she learned more listening to the judges than she had in school.

All in all, the contestants seem better, stronger and more interesting than last season’s lot. I’ll just mention what I thought were the best and worst designs of the week.

First, the worst. NataLee and Tashica’s room was unfinished and poorly executed. Crybaby NataLee got booted off, and deservedly so. However, I do not believe they had the worst design. They had a decent concept and design, they just could not execute it well. I still think Natalie should have been voted off, but in my opinion the worst design belonged to Jason and Jen. They tried to be unique and interesting, but their design fell flat. After they explained, in response to puzzled questions, that the room was designed with a National Geographic writer in mind, Candace Olsen even said that no space should have to be explained. It didn’t make any sense, it wasn’t functional, and it wasn’t designed well. There was one lonely chair in a corner, a chair at a desk was way too small. A room can be interesting and over the top, but still cohesive.

The best design, hands down, belonged to Dan and Nathan. My prediction: These will be the guys to beat. They both seemed cool and collected, had good vision and execution, they worked well together, and right away came up with the brilliant idea of going bold with a wall mural that Nathan drew from one wall down to the floor and up the other wall. Simply amazing. Dramatic, beautiful and in his word, chaotic.

They balanced that chaotic feel with wood planks on an adjacent wall that added something natural and with more symmetry. And Dan built a big, bold, white dining table that grounded the space and created balance, because it was such a big space with a lot of chaotic pattern. It blew me away. All the judges loved it.

The worst idea of the show was allowing the 10 contestants to pick their 11th cast mate. They brought in three more design contestants, each said a few words and showed their body of work and credentials. Then the 10 contestants cast their blind votes. Obviously they weren’t going to pick the best possible challenger. They voted in the least threatening, who became the final contestant, Torie. The strongest one by far, who should have been on the show, was the brunette.

So, if you didn’t get a chance to tune in, I’m telling you, this is a show to watch! Check it out this Sunday night—and let me know what you thought!

Time for Design Star!

I saw a commercial the other day that got me jumping off the sofa. The new season of HGTV’s Design Star is starting this Sunday. I love that show! Do you love that show?

The first year’s winner was cutie-pie David Bromstad. You remember him, the guy who couldn’t keep his shirt on? Men and women all appreciated him taking it off, but that got to be old news after a while. He won Season 1, and that was a very well-deserved win.

The Season 2 winner was Kim Myles. She now has her show, Myles of Style. She’s got a great smile and personality and good design sensibilities as well. Both of them seem to have done very well with their own shows.

But hmmm, whatever happened to Season 3’s winner? Come to think of it, I cannot even remember who won last season! I think it came down to two people who I wasn’t all that excited about, and one of them won. So I guess that tells you that not everybody is cut out to be a design star.

Hopefully this season will have a better group of candidates. I’m always amazed at the challenges they come up with, and how the designers are able to pull off some pretty incredible rooms in the short time frames they’re given. It’s drama, it’s catty, it’s over the top, and it’s fabulous!

The show will be on HGTV Sunday nights at 10/9 Central. I’ll be tuning in and giving you my thoughts, and I want to hear what you thought also!

I’m going to watch—are you?

Bravo network’s Top Design Season 2 is premiering tomorrow, that’s Wednesday night, September 3^rd. I’m so excited, I love this show! In fact, if I had to be honest, I thought Top Design Season 1 was better than HGTV’s Design Star. Why? The winner didn’t have to be a good performer. They only had to be good at design.

The challenges were better and overall, the designers were more—dare I say it?—talented. Top Design wasn’t looking for somebody who was captivating enough to have their own design show. It was truly all about the design, and last season’s winner, Matt, had the most consistent, sophisticated design sensibility.

This season the show promises a new host, which is great because I can’t even remember who the original host was. But the same judges are returning, including Jonathan Adler, who has the most quirky sense of style; Margaret Russell, the editor of Elle Décor magazine; my favorite, Kelly Wearstler, who is so beautiful and talented and such a style and design icon, and designer and mentor Todd Oldham.

You can bet I’m going to be following this season, Tivoing it and giving my opinions in this blog. I want to hear what you think, too!

What a weekend!

This year’s Remodel It Right Expo is now history, and it was an absolute whirlwind. I went in looking forward to two things: a chance to meet you—style students who’ve been learning through our workshops and website, people who have heard of us from friends or seen our ads or television spots, and those who simply chanced by and connected with our mission of teaching personalized home design and décor. I was also looking forward to introducing our Starter Set, which combines our DVD series and Training Guide in an affordable package that many of you had requested.

Guys vacuuming and working while I eat--that's the way I like it!

The expo was a great success on both counts. So if you were one of the thousands who stopped by, thank you! Did you notice our booth? In the middle of the cavernous Hawaii Convention Center, we were able to transform a 20x10 space into a beautiful sitting area layered with colors and textures. I’ve been teaching about harmonious colors, and that’s exactly what we did—we mixed neutral colors with harmonious greens, darker yellows and creams. We pulled the space together by subtly featuring these colors in artwork, an area rug and accessories. Some of you said you wanted to move in!

Al, Gordy and Nick, aka "The Dudes"--responsible for the construction of our beautiful booth

And to my delight, when expo workers laid down the aisle carpet, guess what color it was? Green! Unfortunately it was a cooler shade than I would have liked, because we decorated with warm colors, but oh well, it was still harmonious. Compared to the bright blue carpet of the BIA Home Show last January, this one was much better!

One of the highlights was when a woman named Kathy came to meet me, which was so nice. She divides her time between Honolulu and Guam because she has a home furnishings store on Guam that also does design work. She purchased a Deluxe Style Kit a while ago and was so happy with it that she shared it with her employees. They all loved it, but what she really loved was that whereas before, she had to train her staff on how to help clients, now she can let me train them through the DVD! She said they feel so much more confident about layering textures and colors and pulling together styles that they’re able to help their customers better. She said who knows? She might even offer, as an incentive for her staff, a Deluxe Style Kit or even a chance to fly to Honolulu to attend one of our workshops.

If any of you have had the experience of putting your heart and soul into making the best product you possibly can—as we at RSVPstyle did for nine months—then you understand how happy I was to hear that Kathy is using our Style Kit and DVD to make her job easier.

Now it’s time to get back to regular work. We’ve got a whole lineup of exciting things coming up. Just wanted to say I enjoyed meeting all of you!

P.S. As I predicted, Jennifer won America’s hearts and votes and emerged as the winner of HGTV’s Design Star. Even though I was so impressed with Matt’s architectural design and his strong sense of style, Jennifer was ultimately better able to combine sophisticated, artistic style with a bubbly personality that just shined on television—even within the impossible constraints that the show threw at them.

I still think that given enough time, Matt could have pulled off much stronger designs. Good design can’t be pulled together in 24 hours. But he still fell short on personality, even though he improved over the course of the show, and in the end the format proved a better showcase for Jennifer’s strengths.

If you watch Matt’s last video on HGTV.com, he says it was an honor to lose to Jennifer. So it was a bittersweet but satisfying ending. You can bet I’ll be watching Season 4!

P.S. Did you catch the showdown?

As expected, last Sunday’s finale of HGTV’s Design Star was a great show with a lot of really good moments. Vern Yip, who is one of the judges, has his own show called Deserving Design, and I don’t know if it was his input or not, but the two beneficiaries of the final challenge were a police officer and a firefighter who happened to live across the street from each other in New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina came along, and basically their families have not been able to live in their homes for three years—can you imagine that? So they were definitely deserving, and there were tear-jerking moments.

The finale presented the biggest and most extensive challenge of the season: Matt and Jennifer had to completely design and decorate the entire downstairs, from kitchen to dining room to living room.

Matt really stepped up his personality a notch for this last episode because remember, not only do you have to have good design, you also have to have a personality that people want to watch, or you might as well write a book! He seemed a lot more comfortable. Maybe it’s because when you do something like this for someone, you can’t help but really get into it. Matt showed more heart and personality and I thought he did a really good job with that.

But my personal feeling is Jennifer should be the winner. She has that natural personality that works well on television, she does have a good design eye, and in the final challenge I liked her design better. In Jen’s kitchen the family wanted something with color and boy, did she give it to them! Her use of red on the cabinets really popped, even though the white tiles were a strong contrast.

Her dining room felt elegant yet comfortable, not overdone or slapped together because of the time constraint, like Matt’s did. The stripes Jennifer painted on the walls gave the room a pulled-together look. There wasn’t a lot of time for art or accessories that make a room feel more finished, so those stripes added a lot, and overall it looked very polished.

I give them both credit—for the amount of time they had, what they were able to accomplish was extremely difficult. It’s easy to be an armchair quarterback, but knowing how long the design process takes, I think they did a very good job. These shows are also about entertainment value, and part of the fun is the stress of the competition and the ridiculous time and budget constraints: let’s put them through the wringer and see what they can come up with! I know that both Jennifer and Matt, if given enough time, could do a lot better work than what’s reflected in these challenges.

The winner will be announced this Sunday, which just so happens to be the last day of the BIA Remodel Expo, so as I’m in bed recuperating, I along with millions of others will be tuning in to see who’s going to be the next Design Star. Will you be watching?

Who’s getting your vote?

I don’t have a lot of time to watch TV, but I make it a point to Tivo and watch my favorite show, which is—no surprise!—HGTV’s Design Star. Obviously it’s right up my alley, but the drama, the fun, the chaos, and even the cattiness all really make for an entertaining show!

If you haven’t yet caught it, it airs on Sunday evenings at 9:00 in Hawaii. I try to go to bed early on Sunday nights and I always Tivo it, planning to watch it later, but then end up staying up to watch because I can’t stand to wait!

I think the reason I enjoy it so much is because I can so relate to what these contestants are going through. They not only have to design and create spaces, they also have to be fun and show personality on camera. I remember my very first scene when we were filming our DVD series. I had to open a door and walk in, and when my producer/director said, “Action!” everything went out of my head and I just froze. It’s not an easy thing to do!

Now Design Star is down to the final two contestants who are vying for their own show on HGTV. Although I think Jennifer and Matt are great, they’re completely different designers and television personalities, so I’m going to find it very interesting to see who the viewing audience will vote for in the end.

Jennifer has a bubbly and infectious personality. She seems like a girl next door you’d love to go shopping with. She has a very ethereal quality about her design, she’s artistic and creative. In most of her work she does her own artwork and painting and stenciling. My personal opinion: I just don’t know how diverse she can be, or at least the show has not shown her to have a lot of different styles. The last room that she did was a personal room for her sister, and she did her signature paintings on the wall and her sister loved it. She painted beautiful leaves which added a nice touch without being overdone. Sometimes painting and artwork on the wall can look a little crafty and not so polished, but this had a nice finished look to it.

Matt, on the other hand, seems a lot more serious, and he tries really hard to have a personality on camera because I think he’s lacking in that department. Where he makes up for it, though, is with strong design, especially when it comes to architecture and construction. When he did his audition, he showed the most amazing design board—creative and with a really strong sense of style. But he was not nearly as creative under the gun. They were all given a little cubicle to decorate, and he even said, this is a true test of your design skill. You’ve got white walls and a blank canvas. And he just crumbled. He stacked these brown cubic ottomans to look like a Southeast Asian temple, but to me it looked almost like Stonehenge, just awful. He almost got voted out. His design concept was good in theory but just did not translate.

Both of them deserve to be in the finals. It’ll be interesting to see who wins out: Jennifer’s strong suit is her personality, but if Matt is able to showcase his architectural and design sensibilities, I think he will win. I think he by nature is more of a designer and Jennifer is more of a decorator. On this show, you really kind of have to have both.

But hey, who am I to say? Tomorrow night is the finale and afterward, you’ll be able to vote for your favorite design star. You can bet I’ll be tuned in!