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I thought the designers did a lot of work in the 36 hours for for such a large space. That being said, the pergola stuck out like a sore thumb. I don't think there was anything Zen about it. And the price...?

I think some kind of design with wood around the pool made out of wood or even the stones in a more organic shape would have been better than just cement. Now it looks rather cold.

The furniture was just catalogue vignettes, nothing creative.

The worked well together as a team as far as labor and execution but, not creatively on the design. There really wasn't any.

Is it just me or are there fewer posts today on apttherapy.com? Is it the fires? In fact, I would think there would be some post about the fires. How to purify your air, protect it, I don't know something brilliant that this site tends to offer.

25K!
Too much concrete, stones, rocks and bricks for a family with young children. None of the hard edges were softened with plants.

There was no cohesive design element, no focal point. The clients were young but the furniture was blah, and uninteresting.

Would the rules of the show have allowed for a planting crew to be hired? If so, a crew of 3 at $15 per person could have planted the space in 8 hours freeing the designers time and energy for other things. It would have cost about a $1,100 of their $25K. Dollars well spent.

In landscape design you create "rooms" and points and places of interest so that people want to stroll in a garden, sit and contemplate, relax and play. The first room could have been the pergola area, the second the children's play area and the pool was obviously another. There should have been furniture groupings and plantings in at least these 3 "rooms"

The pergola was too formal in design for a space that was intended to be "zen". And way too pricey. But if you are going to spend 1/2 of your budget on a pergola then it should be the focal point and the whole design of the space should have focused/centered around it.

(full disclosure, I am a landscape designer) I was underwhelmed and disappointed with the finished design, again this week.

As the judges said, there was alot of work done but very little designing...
...but what do they expect with a job of that magnitude given the time constraints and the obvious design-by-committee circumstances?

I'm certain that stamped concrete was out of the question given the timeframe, the interesting design ideas (river of rocks) were squashed by another designer, the judges complained about the size of the plantings - but the team had to choose plants that were redily available at the local nursery within a tight budget...

Sure the pergola wasn't the best choice, and the price was ridiculous - but what can one expect off the shelf and installed within a day's time? If they had the time to design and construct something themselves, sure it would have cost less and been better looking. It's also clear to me that half of that $10K price was labor and next-day delivery/installation, and the thing was priced at full retail - no resale ID to get a designer discount.

That said, I'm glad Dan wasn't eliminated - He deserves to win (and not just because he looks great w/ his shirt off)

Another dud of a design. Maybe I missed something, but I don't understand why the bricks around the pool needed to be replaced. They kept the brickwork on the patio. It seems to me that leaving the brick around the pool would have given the yard some needed continuity. Leaving the brick would have given them more time and money to focus on planning and purchasing items that were truly needed. Besides more creative and imaginative furnishings, I would have loved to have seen some sort of outdoor lighting. There are some really beautiful solar-powered lighting options that would have been perfect around the yard and pool.

Also, shouldn't the pool have had a fence around it? I believe that's mandatory for pools in the northeast (where I live). I assume laws are similar in other parts of the country?? Without a fence, I would not want children playing in the yard without an adult being right there with them.

They should've used those 10,000 bucks on hiring more workers to do the work they KNOW how to do... and that would've given the "designers" more time to design. Silly, silly, silly.

What's it going to take to get these designers to start designing and not just shop? Then again, they are shopping at Sears so perhaps their resources are to blame. Each week I'm underwhelmed. The only decent challenges were the white room challenge and challenge number one. I'd love to see this show succeed because there are so few shows that focus on the process of design in a competitive way. I'll just have to hold my breath and wait for Top Design season 3.

I'm with you chairfetish1. I have been underwhelmed on many of the shows. Maybe their fear of not finishing overpowers the need to actually DESIGN a space using their creativity. (I don't want to see a shopping at Sears show.) However, I can't miss next week when they design celebrity homes. I especially want to see Kathy Griffin. Can't wait!

~Tracy
http://www.dailydecorator.com

That pergola was a huge mistake. I don't understand why those two guys (who seemed to be doing a lot of custom carpentry in the first few episodes) didn't just build their own for a lot less money!

Only vaguely excited for next week-- This season is so disappointing so far.

I was just watching some older episodes of Design Star from season 1 and the worst of those designers are better than the best of this bunch. I think this year the producers concentrated on the appearance of the designers rather than their actual talents.

Anybody could walk into a Home Depot and walk out with that backyard.

The children's playstructure was also overpriced-that same structure is under $1K at Wal-Mart or Home Depot, not $4300. And it was horrible looking-Antonio did some wonderful things last week for a little boy. I was hoping he'd throw together something whimsical and original. He seemed more intent in creating drama between the others. He's entertaining and talented, but I'd hate to work with him-it's all about him or it's nothing.

I couldn't get past the unfenced pool and the small child. So dangerous.

I think the program would be much improved if they had more time to plan before the clock started ticking. On Project Runway, for example, there's time set aside for design work, before the materials are purchased and the work phase starts.

The lack of pre-planning time = poor designs and pressure to substitute shopping for designing.

I feel like the designers are totally set up to fail. The show is not about design but speed.

I've watched every season of this show so far and I'd have to agree that seasons 1 & 2 seemed to have more designers that had DESIGN on their brain. People like David Bromstad and Kim Myles were always ready with ideas to take to their challenges.

I still feel like every time Clive says go to this group, it's like the first time they've thought about designing.

I do think of Project Runway and how they sketch out all of their ideas but, just because you only have 36 hours to do something, doesn't mean that you can't sit for 30 minutes to come up with a design plan. It will save you time if you know what you're looking for before you get out to get it.

Also, it seems like Antonio is the only one not afraid to take the lead. When you're dealing with something as large as that backyard, you need a continuous theme otherwise, it looks as disjointed as it did last night.

What's going to happen when one of them gets a show? Are they going to let the sound/camera person design the room?

chairfetish1,

Don't hold your breath too long for Top Design 3. That show had it's own problems.

Has this group really been the best they could find? I'm sure there were thousands of entries. I'm sure personality mix is a factor, but Antonio is the only one worth consideration...and even then... I'm not sure I can watch it anymore.

Ahhhh....memories of David with his shirt off....

I'm really surprised they didn't axe Dan. The entire pergola debacle was his deal.

This season is sorely lacking in skill IMO.

the problem was the scale of the space... 8k sqft? jeez, my 2 bedroom house is a mere 960! had they had more time, it would have been better to demolish the water feature and replace it with more plantings for privacy.. maybe bring the feature closer to the pool; away from the far corner.. .(like dealing with a large room, some times is best to float large furniture in the middle not spread out) the pergola was a nice idea in principle but, I would have liked to have seen it closer to the edge of the concrete like those pool cabanas in hotels... and, yes, it goes without saying that the price was not right... but, a 5k play house? are you kidding? with a lot that size, they should have bought many more plants, even splurged on some mature ones. and, how about staining the concrete? there are plenty of products in the market for that...
overall, underwhelmed by it all....

it was Dan's fault, but Torie was in charge. as the manager she has to take the hit when her employee screws up. i'm not sure why they just accepted that he'd overcommitted them. why didn't anyone get on the phone and tell those people dan wasn't authorized to sign off on anything and they had no money to pay for the pergola?

i think Torie was axed for failing to budget people. if she'd known in advance what everyone was doing, she could have allotted each person a portion of the budget to spend. then dan would have known he didn't have enough instead of trying to tally against the full budget for the project.

I think the judges comments about the furniture looking too much like "sets" was just ridiculous. Have you ever shopped for modern pool/outdoor furniture? It is slim pickings unless you want to spend a fortune on designer stuff like Richard Schultz and even then it is generally a "set" that you end up with. The alternative would be to comb thrift stores, Craigslist and eBay for pieces and the time constraints did not allow for this. I've been working on furnishing my pool area for quite some time now and it is not an easy venture at all.

Did you know they have to source all that stuff at Sears who I guess is one of the main sponsors? I kept wondering why everything always looked so bland and horrible. Imagine only having Sears to use as a resource for home decor. Gross.

I used to think it was just that the designers were TERRIBLE on this show (which they may be) but HGTV put some really intense limitations on where they could buy stuff. Of course it looks like crap, even if your ingenious and want to build everything usually the time frame doesn't allow for all the furniture to be custom built.

This show has just really gotten so much worse, and it wasn't good to begin with. Maybe HGTV needs to rethink the whole quick quick quick thing and focus on good design instead of bland rushed decorating. Every other show on that channel could really benefit from some better designers and more in depth design that looks either less catalog or less cheap wonky handmade. Theres no balance, I haven't been inspired or interested in a design on that channel for years which makes me really sad. I used to love HGTV.

And if I hear "zen" or "asian inspired" I am going to scream. Thats been the buzzword at some point on every show for the last 7 years. I hate "theme" decor.

SEARS???? Now I know why I hate this season. It's not about being creative...it's a big commercial for a horrible department store.

I did this same thing. This place is great.
www.srmconcrete.com