I was really looking forward to watching this show. First, I had never seen the Novogratz, and second, I'm and elementary music teacher, so I was really excited to see what they would do with a $50,000 budget! Wow!!!
OMG... Mr. and Mrs. Novogratz, please stay away from my classroom!

I just don't get it. Nothing in the room looked pulled together or functional from a classroom pov. The "art" was not child centered and was uninspiring.

I posted a rather long review of the space on another board, and the best response I received was from a woman who said the Novogratz were like the "Emperors' New Clothes." I could not agree more. Sorry HGTV... I'm not buying that these two are "great designers." The room looked terrible, and it was a waste of $50,000.

I just feel badly for the kids and that music teacher.

Here is part of the review I did on the other board:
OMG... then these two "designers" were turned loose on the space and WTF???

A lounge area??? Ummm I see my kids for 30 hours a year... there is no time for lounging only time for musicing! (yes, it's a word... ) And if I wanted a lounge area in my classroom I would hope that the floor pillows would at least coordinate with each other. Novogratz should watch a few Sarah 101 episodes and learn how to blend fun fabrics. They could have at least picked fabrics that looked childlike.

The striped doors were fun, and I liked the boarder of famous musicians around the room. But the "Poof" sign was pointless and ugly, and why where their fake flowers in the top of the piano. A piano is an instrument... don't treat it like a toy.

I would cry if I walked into my classroom and someone had placed all of my quality xylophones on the shelves and replaced them with fancy new electronic instruments. Really? This school looked like it was not in a financially strong area, and they spent a ton of money on mixing boards, electric guitars and laser light shows... Why? More bass xylophones and metalophones please! More tubano drums please. More authentic instruments that can allow children to create their own music!!! With such a large space, being able to have a space where the drums and xylophones were permanently set up would be very helpful since those instruments are rather heavy. Set up time is not time on learning and is often when classroom management issues can arise. Orff style xylophones are appropriate for young children and can really inspire creativity. The xylophones were at least on shelves that were easily accessible. The tubano drums where placed on the shelves above the cabinets, where I would need to grab a ladder to safely get them down... (I use my tubano drums and xylophones everyday with at least one of my grade levels.)

Then there was the art corner with the "designer chairs." What? I'm sure that was a great use of funds...

I don't understand how these two got a design show. Nothing in that spaced looked pulled together, or really functional. The two bonus rooms Mrs. Novogratz created were terrible. Ok, maybe not terrible, but nothing that said a professional designer pulled the space together. The large throw pillows in the babies crib were just dangerous, (ummm... you have 7 kids, you should know better!) and nothing else in either of those rooms were really unique or well designed.

One thing that I look for on design shows are great design tips that help you think about making your space look cohesive and finished. IMHO, that's the reason people hire designers to begin with. The finished look of the spaces they created could have been accomplished by anyone with a decent budget.

Maybe they could've thrown some Fatboys in the lounge area. Doesn't look inviting at all. All that for 50,000...what a waste.

Why aren't the episodes available online? Anyone?

Yeah, the above reviews said it all. I'm becoming less and less impressed by these two after every episode.
I'm honestly surprised that there is a weekly episode re-cap for this show featured on Ohdeedoh. This is what you guys think qualifies as quality design? Oh brother.

I don't understand all the drooling over the Novogratz team. Talk about overrated! Their designs usually tiptoe right on the fine line between tasteful and tacky. They're cheap in the places it counts and frivolous in the places it doesn't. They are obsessed with neon signs. The most hands-on they seem to get is pointing their fingers to tell someone else what to do. I just don't get it.

I saw the episode where they did the surfer girls' house and thought they did a great job. The next time they did a loft or something. I didn't like it at the time, but when i came on here, i noticed that the screencaps looked SO much better than watching on television.

I didn't see the school episode, but i'm not really feeling what i'm seeing on these pictures.

I'm going to watch another episode, because for some reason I really do WANT to like them and all they do.

Wish me luck.

I find it pretty difficult to evaluate their effort because there are no "before" shots, and no explanation of programmatic requirements (I would assume the teacher had requested a lounge space).

Love the Pantons though.

I don't like the Pantons. It's a sculptural chair that deserves to be seen, not shoved under a classroom table.

Actually, I kind of hate the whole room. It still looks like a classroom from the 1970s, just with really expensive chairs and some out of place textiles. If this was my classroom (well, my classroom has 5 kitchens and 25 sewing machines, but still), I'd be disappointed. It's not transformed; it just has a lot of expensive crap thrown in there.

I watched the episode and though not the best I've seen from them, it is definitely an improvement from what it was before. To their credit, I'd be willing to bet at least 25% (or quite a bit more) of the budget went into getting new music equipment, which is very pricey. But I do think the episode of The Antonio Treatment where they re-designed a kids music studio was much better. http://www.hgtv.com/video/the-gift-of-music-video/index.html

Still haven't decided where I come down on the Novo's but find the disparity between the love for them on this site and the hate for them on AT's main site odd. This particular design is not nice, agree w/ keeperrox who says it looks like a 70s classroom and "it just has a lot of expensive crap thrown in there".

I did a reallllly long post on my blog about HGTV's sniping of Bravo's talent and Bravo-style programming: http://homefancy.blogspot.com/2011/08/i-want-my-hgtv.html

The premise is silly. If it's true that "There Are No Rules", as they trumpet in the intro, then there is no good/bad style, so why have a show?

The Novogratzs seem to think it's really, really important that we think they are cool parents (or the world's oldest hipsters). So much of the show is devoted to showing staged interactions with their kids - We throw our kids in pools! We go go-karting as a family! Let's all go shopping for musical instruments together! - that it made me wonder if they actually cared about the design of the classroom apart from how it could reflect on them as parents. In that respect the closing scene of the Music Classroom episode - their kids and a cousin get to play the new instruments while the students (the client!) sit and listen attentively - spoke volumes.

So... the design. As other poster have written, it was not good. Certainly there was more stuff in the room, and the stuff was colorful, but nothing the Novogratzs did lifted the drabness of the classroom. Not even that insipid neon "Dream" sign. For me, the list of musicians they stenciled around the room was the biggest "tell" that they hadn't put much thought into this. Instead of being fun and colorful, they were all done in Arial and painted royal blue. It looked like the Approved List of Cool Musicians, rather than something meant to inspire. To top it off, Bob talked about how he had included some Latin and hip-hop artists out of "respect" of what the kids listen to. We get it, you're late for the Yo La Tengo show.

But no one has mentioned the bafflingly dull bedrooms Cortney did at the home of one of the school's students. White walls and a blue stripe for the boys, white walls and a pink and a red stripe for the girls. That's it, kids, that's your design. Now be grateful!

only good thing in this: expedit on rolls.

the rest ist really horrible :(

I, too, am a music teacher, and I was appalled. I can't believe they just went in there and changed everything around without taking into consideration the needs and wants of the music teacher, and more importantly the students!!! I appreciate how they thought they were doing good for the school by getting all that electronic music equipment, but it was painfully obvious that they have no clue what is required to be a music teacher. Especially at the elementary level. They kept going on about how they provided the tools necessary to inspire those students to make music. The school already had an amazing selection of musical instruments (xylophones, tubanos, small hand held percussion, etc) that were AGE APPROPRIATE and inspirational to the students of that school.

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING blocking the chalk board with the drum set. We are educators. We don't just bring the students into class and bang around on instruments the whole 30 minutes we see them a week. We actually teach about how music works while providing an enriching musical experience that is inspired by the children’s own imagination. A music teacher generally sees 20-25 students in a class at a time, maybe more. The teacher is not going to have time to teach each of those children how to use that drum set or that key board, or even all those guitars to the point where the child feels successful. And putting all those beautiful tubanos above the book shelves was insane. Did they even know they that they put a whole bunch of usable drums in a place that cannot be reached easily by the students or teacher?!?

And that "art" area. I'm all for using visual art and sculpture as inspiration for creating music, but don't they have a seperate art class/teacher that the music teacher could collaborate with? It just takes up more of the wonderful floor space that could be used for movement. They could have expanded the instrumentarium. They could have put more color on the walls. They could have used musical symbols in the fabrics and on the walls, and hanging from the ceiling. They could have found inspirational quotes about music. They could have brought in risers for the students to sit/perform on. They could have put up mirrors on one of the walls for movement activities. They could have purchased carts for all those xylophones to make them easier to move around. Good designers use their creative expertise to take a space and make it functional and beautiful, and these two did not accomplish that in any way.

BTW A piano is a musical instrument, not a vase for flowers!

The Novogratz shows provide me with a lot of separate ideas; although I don't think I could live in their environments, I can (and do) pick and choose from their designs to fit into my own. I found this site by doing a search for the music room -- I was impressed by their use of wall words and wanted to have another look. I am constantly updating my own designs (if you're not changing and improving, you're just stagnant) -- I recently remodeled the lobby of a suite of offices for a large fast food company in Las Vegas. They have an open plan and most employees in a large room; I thought the same type of wall words could be applied to this room, but using more color and the product names, (Western Bacon Cheeseburger, Big Carl, Breakfast Burger) the way the Novogratz used musicians and musical concepts. I can't use the rest, but that one "note" did inspire me, and I thought that was what HGTV was all about, so I don't understand the catty comments.