apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Ok.. . how can I get on this show cuz these kitchens aren't stars of design by any means!! where's the color?? Where's the uniqueness?

i really try to keep any not-so-positive comments to myself, but really? i thought the first kitchen was a "before" shot (awful!) and the second kitchen has nice finishes, but its barren and everyone i know could come up with that in about an hour at home depot. it looks like every other kitchen on many hgtv remodel/real estate shows.

maybe they should allow random people to particpate in that show or create a new show for non-designers! there have been a lot of stunning diy kitchens on AT. there are likely a lot of AT readers who could blow these designers away. (sorry)

Wow - This season's show is a joke.

I hope that the families get some money and professional designers to fix the stuff that was inflicted on their kitchens.

I completely agree with the previous comments. Like rstrtz, I thought the first shot was a "before." I thought the second was a boring "after."

Usually enjoy these design competitions. But this one will lose my attention fast unless we start seeing fresh concepts, or at least well-executed designs. Tanicha has got to go. Sorry, girl.

tip #3

Don't let Design Star anywhere NEAR your real estate. Trust me, you're old kitchen isnt' that bad!!!

Wow, the results are not that impressive, but it's great to get a professional evaluation of "what went wrong" also. Sometime it's easiest to learn by watching others' mistakes.

Both of these kitchens could be improved a lot by fairly minor, inexpensive changes. The basics are good. I don't feel too bad for the families.

I like the hanging lanterns in the first job, but that is the only positive comment I have.

How do I get 20K to blow on a kitchen? It seems like an easy task. A basic kitchen can cost 10K, so that is like having an extra 10K to play and splurge with....

:O

Wouldn't it make sense to ditch the insanely tight deadline for completing these kitchens? I know they do it to manufacture conflict, but it's so unrealistic, leaves zero time for planning and execution, and so of course the kitchens look horrible. It would be one thing if they were just playing around, but people actually have to use these kitchens. Good design takes more than 26 hours! I'm so tired of "competition" shows that are not only totally disrespectful of real life but have no conception of what makes for compelling drama.

gr-oss
I hate both. But COME ON 26 hours, you're asking for it there...but I guess bad taste under a time constraint is still bad taste.

jerseyfresh: you described why I've ditched both HGTV and Food Network in general. The focus upon manufactured hurried drama day in and day out become tiring, uninformative and leaves you wondering about the quality of the projects. I hope they begin to at least mix in a few quality project and informational programs...but I guess that's why I watch PBS instead.

Yikes! Awful, just awful. No creativity whatsoevah!

one team over accessorized amateurishly while the other team didn't even finish

of course, they send in a pro crew to do the job properly whenever this happens (annually). what homeowner would sign a contract without that?

oh, and they kept the utterly useless "designer" just to create more drama in later episodes... so much for really looking for top quality design.

if i were one of the homeowners, i would've been horrified watching the show featuring my kitchen redo. so many of the contestants didn't know anything about construction that even though the kitchen ended up *looking* OK, you just know you'll have some kind of issues down the road. the host said they sent in a "fix it" team to correct one kitchen, but what about the other one? do they check to make sure it's done to some minimum standard?

I watched with my mom- her reaction was priceless. She turned to me, shaking her head and asked "when did Buddha become a symbol of Italian or Moroccan design? Why do people let this show come into their homes?"

I watched the beginning of the show when they described the challenge & immediately began designing in my head. I thought the Moroccan-Italian one would be so interesting to do (everyone's got a modern kitchen design already detailed out in their mind).
I didn't see the rest of the show and I'm SO GLAD, because both the kitchen insult the very concept of design. Nevermind that we ALL could have come up with a way better kitchen, but even in their other reality show where they had couples compete & renovate rooms in their home, those amateur designers came up with way better kitchens given the same time constraints.

>>> I guess the word you were looking for was 'palette' (and not palate). Sorry, but for a not native speaker it's quite confusing.

Although I agree that these rooms are really underwhelming, I think 2 points were the main problem: 1.) how quickly they have to pull everything together (Tashica didn't have time to place her accents) and 2.) making 5 designers work together on one room is just begging for a disaster!

Let's not forget the shoddy and sloppy work which make these "after" kitchens even more disasterous.

im not so sure that this is good.

As a seasoned corporate design professional, I have to say these 2 examples are more than boring. Could say more, but why?

This season is horrible. I've said from the beginning that the show should allow some non-profesional people to come on and be contestants as well. Based on these kitchens...the result wouldnt be any worse.

These shows are incorrectly using the word "designer" and its grating on my last nerve. These shows that involve competition like Design Star have very little to do with planning and alot to do with drama and throwing stuff together in what I'd call photoshoot styling. A true designer spends much more time planning, drawing, measuring and shopping than they do installing and these shows are showing the opposite of that. AND a true designer most likely isnt installing the kitchen. There are designers and there are contractors and they are different things for a reason. How many great designers do you know that design, specifiy, purchase and install a kitchen and present it on TV in 26 hours? The answer is NONE.

These kitchens are boooooooring. I can go to any Home Depot and see these kitchens on display.

Even more interesting that Amy was eliminated because Tanicha was absolute disaster.

These are horrible, horrible designs. The first one is dark and off-putting, and the second one is a standard-issue apartment kitchen.

I feel better about having given up cable TV now.