apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Honestly, even the best of theses rooms were very weak. HGTV should consider giving the designers in future seasons a little longer to plan out and implement their designs. Everything is so rushed, from the planning to the execution, that the rooms come off as very amateurish. I am guessing the tight timeframe is to create a sense of action and urgency but I really would like to see more focus on good design...that is worth watching.

I installed floor-to-ceiling navy velvet draperies wrapped around two walls of my bedroom - not just the window wall but also the entire windowless wall behind my tall upholstered headboard.

Not only does it give the vague impression that there's another window back there (It's a featureless common wall with the next apartment) but the vertical folds emphasize the height of the room, and the heavy fabric dampens noise and makes the room feel extra luxurious.

I agree with the first poster.... I know it's a challenge, but the time constraints are somewhat artificial, and produce rather pathetic results.

I usually don't watch this show, but did this week. I must say, I'm extremely underwhelmed. My husband glanced at the screen and commented that I would do a better job.

That wasn't to toot my abilities, rather it was mainly a criticism of the "pros" on that show. The rooms above (except for the blue room for the teen boy) overall look cheap and junky. One thing is for certain, those contestants are no Vern Yip.

wow...these are awful. Fabric tacked to the wall?!? I could do this, I'm pretty sure.

Not only were the placemats bizzaro, but he didn't even use clear pushpins. They were yellow, blue, red...WTF was he thinking? Buh-bye

Man, these are terrible. Especially that light pink room. What is that behind the bed? Pieces of fabric tacked to the wall?

These are really terrible. I agree with the first comment. I'm sure if they had a little more time they could have done a far better job for 5k. I know I could have.

I agree -- they should get a little more time, especially when (like poor Jason) the carpenter "help" is a loss. (Maybe they could have a total of three extra hours through the course of the contest to use when they need them, or something.)

I use a large tapestry as a headboard in my guest room, which is tiny. It hangs nearly to the ceiling and is the width of the full size bed, and takes up no space, leaving more room to get around the bed.

Also, I bought a large, heavily carved, mahogany panel from a thrift store, meaning to use it as a headboard. Since that guest room was the only practical location for it, and I used the tapestry, it has just become decor leaning against the living room wall. (I should probably sell it... )

RE: Jason's princess room. I gave myself a "princess suite" in my new house. (Never too old!!!) Pale robin's egg blue walls, white dupioni silk drapes (on sale at Linen's & Things going out of business sale) floor to ceiling, quilted aqua silk-look comforter set, Asian style (second-hand) headboard, dresser, and side table, second hand Shaker style night tables, Asian console table (Pier One) as a small writing/laptop table, second hand carved wood and damask "desk" chair, white leather (repro) Barcelona chair with ottoman, oversized sunburst mirror over the bed... I spent maybe $1100 total and got a way prettier room than Jason's, but I shopped over time to do it.

At first I thought that the time was too short but, when you watch the things they spend the bulk of their time on, it seems more like bad time management. Last week, Nathan spent 10 hours building a entertainment center and sacrificed other things that would have made the room better. Then this week, even though Lonni's baseball wall come out ok, it took a nice amount of time to cut and paint all of those pieces whereas, the rest of the room looked rather dull.

I don't know what Jason was thinking with the placemat/pushpin headboard and that thing around the window...poor girl.

And just because someone tells you their favorite colors doesn't mean that you paint each wall one of those colors. It's called, "Accents".

All around, there was no Wow Factor with any of them.

I have to agree that I'm completely underwhelmed. I don't feel so bad catching this show on Saturday afternoons rather than 10pm Sunday night. Not worth it to stay up for! It would be much nicer if they gave them more time and a smaller budget. And personally -- I can't stand when they build their own items -- yeck!

Laura
http://www.justalittlebit.net

Ya know, the judges made the comments that they're tired of the designers asking "What's your favorite color" and slapping it on the walls...

...but given the significant time constraints - paint color is about all they really have control over. If the owner/occupant's favorite color is pink, they can't paint the room - say teal - and be certain that they're going to find pink draperies, pink bedding, pink accessories, etc. in-stock at the local Sears (Not a professional designer's best resource) in the time allowed to give it the accent color that's necessary - but they can be darned sure they're gonna get some pink paint! (That certainly doesn't excuse that placemat mess - Jason deserved to go for that dumb move alone)

They also criticized on Week 4 (Garage Challenge) that one of the teams should have made an entertainment center rather than buy one off the shelf (probably done due to time constraints) - then Week 5, Vern criticizes and kicks off one of the contestants to taking too much time to build an entertainment center rather than buying one off the shelf!!!

What impressed me the most - despite the result - was that Dan did what I have always wanted to see in a design challenge: Utilize the local resale/thrift shops as a resource plus reuse some of the owner's existing items to create a room out of un-new stuff. IMO, if he had skipped that fuschia line all over the place and had created a tall/flat headboard from the bamboo flooring with the wrought-iron mounted above, he would have had the winning room.

Seriously, this season is the worst - that's all I can say.

I'm afraid that all of the design I've seen has been so very amateurish that it's embarrassing these people even call themselves designers.
Sticking fabric samples on the wall with push pins? How utterly stupid!
As a professional, I'm appalled! It does make for good TV, however I'd call show "Design Mistakes"

These are pretty lame rooms.

I really like this show, but I agree with the commenters above. I really wish they would give the contestants a little bit more time so that they can actually pull the rooms together.

Personally, I think these rooms are horrible...but the designers seem like they have potential.

I don't know maybe I take that last statement back. The more I look at these rooms, they are just horrible.

this is the first time i've watched the show this season. those rooms were pretty ghastly. the dinosaur room was really tacky, with that graphic of the kid holding the TV, cartoon dinosaurs. ever since david bromstad everyone thinks they're a decorative painter.

and the judges were digging that blue wall with the baseball home plates??? they were all pretty weak.

These rooms suck, which is not surprising to me given what I've seen so far this season. I stopped watching this show after they kicked Tashica off. I just didn't appreciate the way they edited her, made her look incompetent, and the disrespectful way that they dismissed her. Looking at these pictures now I really wonder if they kicked the wrong people off the show too early because they didn't "get" how to play to the camera right away or assert their ideas in the obnoxious way the others have.

is tpgirl = tashica? hmmm

This is the first season of this that I've watched and I'm really surprised how bad it is I always wind up feeling sorry for the people they design for. I hope that HGTV comes in and fixes the crappy stuff later (Like the place mat headboard Jason did for that poor girl. It looked so cheap and poorly done. Hell, the whole room looked cheap and poorly done. And was it last week that a team hung curtains on nails from the inside of a valance box thus making the curtains inoperable?) The hosting skills part was terrible, too.

I agree with the commetors about giving them more time to plan and execute, if only because real people end up having to live with the results!

I honestly don't think that time is a factor. None of these rooms shows a glimmer of imagination or design aesthetic. It's not as if any one of the contestants had the beginnings of a great idea but just didn't have the time to finish it.

It does seem that way Rhodajr, maybe they need more planning time?

i hate to say it, but these rooms really are awful. i have friends who have had waaay less money to spend redesigning their kids' rooms & only had a day worth of babysitting to shop & do all the work themselves. you could use an entire target theme of items and it look better than any of these rooms. it might be completely unoriginal, but it would be better.

i've mentioned it before, but there are a lot of people on AT that have done much better jobs, on all sorts of budgets & time constraints. i wish there were a show for the "amateur" designers out there.

These rooms are a joke. I agree that time doesn't seem to be the issue - it's clearly a matter of taste. A good kid's room should be more timeless and less like a theme park or a color wheel throwing up. The audition process for this show should be improved so the "designers" on the show actually know what they're doing. All of these rooms suck.

Bepsf, I agree that the judging seems inconsistent from week to week. Do they want to see great ideas in an unfinished room, or finished rooms that have been done better before? In defense of the judges though, Bromstad and Myles were able to come up with great ideas and pretty well finished rooms on their turns. So it can be done. Tpgirl, I agree with you that the show treated Tashica shabbily.

A good question to ask a client is "what color don't you like...". That leaves a designer free to use all the other colors in the spectrum.

Designers dream about what they would do if given any amount of money and the time it would take to complete the task. Were these contestants surprised by the notion of designing a child's bedroom?

The final designs lacked forethought and creativity. 5K and 20 hours is paint, accessories, rugs, a bookcase or two, a working sense of basic design and smart furniture placement, which IMO none of these designers exhibited on this challenge.

Oh wow, with 5K and 20 hours I'm pretty sure I could redo at least half our apartment. And it would look good, as opposed to amateur and unfinished like these. Good lord, fabric tacked to the wall? And the painted elements are wavery and poorly done/ don't look like the paint coated properly.

Also, there is nothing in these rooms that expresses the personality of the kids...

Those weren't fabric swatches tacked to the wall, they were placemats. Just awful. I don't think Jason had a good design in any of the weeks, but he didn't have tough competition.

They should have more time. Yes, they should use it better, but they're just too rushed. Good design takes time!

Exactly ah2Bthee,

As a designer, the ideas should be swirling around in their heads at all times. The clients should basically be an opportunity to implement those designs.

This crew seems to approach every challenge as if it's the first time they've been asked to think of a cool design and 5K for a kids room is a lot to play with.

Also, I got tired of hearing Jason say, "functionable"!

There were some goood ideas in the begining but they got lost before the rooms were complete. 5k is a lot of money for a kids bedroom and all of the rooms look like they are done with $500 budget.

I'm fan of the show and I watch every episode but this season is underwhelming.

I love DesignStar, but this season is the worst so far. I honestly cannot imagine any of these designers with their own show. When David Bromstad showed up to give advice, it made me think how FAR behind these designers are in terms of professionalism and style compared to David (and Kim Myles for that matter - another past season DesignStar).

The problem is they just don't have enough time to execute truly fantastic design ideas. I think the show has greatly underestimates how long it takes to shop for furniture and other items. When you are rushing rushing rushing - you tend to just grab crap to fill up a room in order to make it look "done".

The first season was the only good season. Every season after that year, the producers tweaked and fixed the outcomes to give us a show that they believed was more "entertaining". They should have either left it the way it was, or just have the show go one season. If the first season was treated the way the subsequent seasons have played out, David Bromstad wouldn't have won. He's the only Design Star that still has a show.