apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I just have to say, the top picture of the contestants is really funny - left team looking thrilled (with the 2 best designers and the best workers), fake smiles on the right, with whatshisname looking wistfully over at the left team :)

Poor Nathan, I thought he would be one of the final 3 but twenty hours to build one entertainment center when you could have bought something and got a lot of others things done was a really bad idea.

Everything looked so FLAT in both rooms. Besides the Chevron patter in one room and the Lattice in the other, there wasn't a lot of fabric, pattern, interest in the spaces. It's started to look very, Design on a Dime.

And the screwed in curtains, are you serious?

I absolutely HATED the chevron pattern by Lonni. Yip liked it . . . I think he may be on the verge of senility. I think Antonio was RIGHT . . . ya don't paint tan on a military base/post. I didn't really like either room.

give these people proper times and budgets. this whole series is dreadful. i wouldn't live in a single room i've seen yet and i suspect they wouldn't either.
also, they're shopping at sears. c'mon.

Is Sears providing the furniture? If so, I can't imagine that week after week of middling, pedestrian results won't backfire on the sponsors. After seeing this, I would run, not walk, AWAY from the nearest Sears furniture department. This furniture is beyond boring. It is just as safe and cliche ridden as one would expect.

Why any company would want to advertise that fact on a design show is beyond me.

I thought both rooms where so predictable. Sheesh I thought your supposed to think outside the box and be creative, anyone can put together these rooms.
Don't even get me started with the chevron pattern, it just looks so out of place in the room.

I don't think the furniture was from Sears. There were scenes from both teams showing them going from furniture store to furniture store to find what they wanted.

I *hate* the way both teams scrunched the sectional couches into the corners. It made a small space look even more cramped. I find it psychologically uncomfortable.

I would find the chevron pattern impossible to live with. It's sort of "Trading Spaces," and not in a good way.

It's near impossible to see if any of these people have real talent. These shows are a joke. Good design takes a lot of thought as we all know. Limiting the time takes most of the creativity out of it. It's just a shopping race, then you are just stuck with what your sponsor stores have in stock. To make matters worse, they have to construct items themselves, ridiculous!!! This has nothing to do with reality.

This isn't making good design, and it isn't making good TV. Bummer.

Jeesh everyone, calm down...

It's about coming into an awful, otherwise unusable space (garages, tiny white rooms, military housing), and using a specific budget, making good use of the space, and teaching about new design things along the way.

The ability to think quickly, and differently, on your feet given certain time restraints is key. These shows are about limited budgets (often) and quick deadlines, which is interesting to see a talented designer work with. Sure, you could have a show called Designer Works For Months With Unlimited Budget, and it's nice every once in a while, but uninteresting after that.

Also, remember these are huge team things. I agree this show isn't as interesting until the individual work shines, but for now they also have to be nice people. Because they're going on TV, and no one likes a jerk.

So, they have to be:
1) Fast thinkers
2) Good at construction (or planning construction of furniture)
3) Good listeners to their clients
4) Have great personalities for TV
5) Be able to have new ideas at any time, even if it's just little stuff

So, I haven't seen pink birds on the wall or crazy wall patterns since week one. Give it a break! Or just keep with your "I could do better" - nice.

True, good design needs a lot of work, we must see design based on the time/resources they are given. I was not crazy about non of these rooms, but if i am a judge and i have to pick the best, i wil go for the olson team.

Criv227 The also have to work in groups, is a very very hard task to work with others that are actually your competition.

My favorite episode so far has been the white room challenge, that is where you could really see each person's talent and ability. These team challenges get muddy, too many cooks in the kitchen.

Hopefully we'll see some more individual challenges now that there are fewer contestants.

I can't believe that Jason has lasted this long. Everything he's done in every single challenge has been just awful. Really really awful. And functionable?! The first time he said it I was hoping he just misspoke, but then he said it again to the judges.

I don't get this show. Nevermind that there's very little design talent, there's barely any appealing personalities or hosting talent. What is the point?

does anyone know where the Olsen team shopped for their accessories?

my boyfriend is obsessed with those woven wood panels...

(i deleted my tivo before i could look!) thanks!

Okay, I completely understand the reasoning behind not stuffing all the furniture in a corner or up against the wall, but I have lived in military housing and I can tell you there is very little room to do anything else and still meet the desires of a family. Don't be so inflexible with your design principles...