apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Interesting challenge they had. Dan's was so rich and incredible. I think he will go all the way in this competition. He really has a great design aesthetic and seems to execute with such ease.

Nathan had a nice room, but Dan's room was FULL of ideas
I agree w/ Beauty - Dan is gonna win.

At the other end of the scale, Tashica is darned lucky that Jen and Jason's rooms were so blah.

I thought they did a pretty good job. It's interesting that Jen's was the color expert but, she always had the least colorful work. Dan's skill level reminds me of David Bromstad, the winner of Season 1. What happened to last years winner?

I like Dan and thought his concept was very interesting and well-executed. He used his materials creatively, but it was just too busy for me. Too much going on.

Nathan had some original ideas - the drippy milk paint was such an interesting use of the grocery store, the orange chandelier really nice and the sofa with the writing on it really strong.

Why is Tashica still there? The best that could be said of her room was that it wasn't quite as bad as her earlier efforts - and that was partly due to her use of someone else's idea. Jen's was worse, but still....

Dan's The Man -- he's also one of the nicer contestants. I want him to win. (I'd watch his show.)

Nathan has talent, but maybe not the strength of personality and skill level for his own show.

Tashica should already be gone. She is terrible at time management, she is messy in execution, she got cornered to admit her ideas aren't very original, she would be a disaster in real homes.

Antonio is too full of himself. I would boycott any show he was given just because he annoys me a LOT! (I don't even care if he's got talent, which I haven't yet seen anyhow.)

Obviously I consider this a good season, since it has me taking sides already!

(But those KITCHENS! So depressing! They probably do those early in the season while there are still enough people to make up teams, but they REALLY should be given a real, experienced, carpenter since only some of the contestants have the required skills and the problems are things people have to live with a long time...)

This challenge is always a part of Design Star, so you think the designers would already have an idea of what they are going to do before they arrive at the show. In past Design Star shows, participants had to create a room from different sources (pet shops, beauty supply) but a grocery store has a little bit of everything---and more. A point: almost every participant looked like they were buying white flowers---but there weren't any in any room. And, really, why does Tashica continue to survive? Her work has been sub-standard (challenge 1 & 3) or non-existent. (challenge #2.)

Jen's was bad but Lonny's was clearly worse. I know she'd had other plans but the end result was so bad she should have been sent home.

Rooms without windows...tough. There needs to be more organic feeling/looking materials to offset the otherwise artificiality of the space.

http://www.modernests.com

dan's was amazing

I have not seen the show (don't have cable) and HGTV does nto show their stuff on the internets like just about everyone else but judging by the pics here, I find pretty much all of them kind of ameturish, some more than others in their execution and some have some good ideas going on.

Dan's room is much too busy, if he took about 1/3 of his things away from the walls, I think it would improve an already strong contender.

I actually liked Tashika's execution of the horizontal stripe and her color choices, it works for me, less IS more, even if not the most original and both have busy stuff as part of the design.

Both Lonny and Jason had some great ideas, but I find Lonny's much better in his color choices of the green and yellow which work well against each other to allow the bright colors to pop against the white, Jason's brown/tan washed out the bright yellow and he did too much of an ameturish stamping design and even tried to "frame" in the end tables which to me just don't work IMO

And Jen's room is the most ameturish of them all and her execution just read ticky tacky and poorly executed. Heck even the fruit was not on the wall evenly and the "shape" was lopsided.

Granted, they only had a limited time but still...

Ciddyguy, I am surprised you have so much opinion about something you see on tiny pictures ... Tashika was absolutely terrible with design and execution! And Dan's maybe it looks busy on that picture was absolutely amazing!

I must say that I have not paid too much attention this time out. But I was wondering what happened to Jennifer from the last Design Star? I work 2 jobs and sometimes I miss things. But didn't it come out in January this year??

"What happened to last years winner?"

She got preggers and had a baby - I recall reading that she did a guest spot on someone else's HGTV show...

"I actually liked Tashika's execution of the horizontal stripe and her color choices..."

If you'd seen the closeups, you wouldn't be saying that...
...it looked ok from 15-20 feet away, but the details were an unholy mess.

alidmc - recently saw an ad on HGTV with Jennifer. She took time out to have a baby and is now gearing up for a new show next season (I think).

Jennifer (Design Star 3rd season) had a baby. I think her show is still in the works, and she has some stuff on the HGTV web site, but since I was wondering what happened to her as well, I looked her up.

ciddyguy, I think the shows will be on HGTV when the show has been on longer. People are still watching the season on re-broadcast, and I suspect they want to viewers.

Meanwhile, the challenge was to use stuff from a supermarket, and they got points for actually doing that successfully -- part of the challenge is to make good visual (NOT practical) use of weird materials. The floors are mostly stuff like beans and charcoal and cereal, not anything remotely suitable except for viewing on camera. Dan's room implemented firewood sawn into chunks to make a mosaic, apples nailed in patterns to the wall, existing furniture reassembled to new configurations, carefully planned colors... and he was using "deconstructed orchard" as a concept, which most of the other contestants didn't really have. Hence the enthusiasm. You can't look at these vignettes as "real" rooms. They are much more experimental than that...

I see in Dan's room t he same kind of memorable imagination that Bromstead and Myles showed... and they won.

Sofik and bepsf,

True, I was only seeing the shots here but in Tashika's case, she did a decent use of color and the basic elements of the horizontal stripe, at least in this shot, it reads reasonably good to me, now I DIDN't say the room itself was great, just her color choices and the stripe worked despite the design within, which I think wasn't necessary and busy's up the overall look and further looking I now have to agree, the stripes Tashika used are much too thin to really do much for the room and the walls needed something else I think.

Mind you I love the supergraphic and her execution of it could be much better but in this case, it works to a point, much better than Jany's busy yellow rectangle that breaks up the blue.

For Jany's room, I would have gotten rid of the busy yellow on the back wall and ran the blue across that back wall and rehung the artwork down much lower, like vertically centered within the blue stripe, which is why I preferred Tashika's execution even though she has those dots or whatever and her stripes are much too thin to really add weight to the room which it depserately needs for everything kind of looks small in comparison to the mostly blank walls.

ciddyguy--

Tashica's "dots" are one of the few items in her room that came from the grocery store - Those are green apples nailed to the wall (in an uneven line) And for the minimal amount of painting she actually did (remember, the rooms all start out painted blank white) you'd thing that she could have executed her little bit of paintwork in a far cleaner and professional manner. Then of course, reusing someone else's idea of the backlit table on the wall from a previous season did her no favors either - She's alotta talk and no walk...

The judges actually rather liked Jany's room, except for the "Respect" sign made of bamboo skewers on wax/craft paper (RH wall) Vern suggested that if the word had been integrated as a part of the blue supergraphic that it would be more cohesive and make more sense rather than as a tacked-on afterthought.

Last week, I thought Tashica should go. This week, hmm. She may be someone who starts slow and picks up speed. HGTV must have seen something special in her work to win a spot on the show. I want to see what it was.

Tashica did so something interesting with the couch.

Tashica should be kick off for stealing someone else's idea and then acting as if she didn't know she had stolen it!!! Can't stand her!

Furthermore, they all knew this competition was coming. Why did most of them only start thinking about it after they were in their white room??? Sorry, I think they're all hacks.

Tashica just brings the drama factor - that is why she is still around.

All the rooms are interesting but overall pretty hideous if they were to executed in real homes.

"Why did most of them only start thinking about it after they were in their white room??? "

Well, there is a certain element of surprise in what the retail source for your "White Room" challenge is going to be...
...it's hard to preplan very much when you don't know if you're going to be using stuff from a Beauty Supply Store, an Auto Parts Store or a Dollar Store (all past resources)

But I agree w/ your assessment that several of these folks are hacks - Tashica and Jen are certainly at the top of that list for me!

Amazing, but Torie's pink thing looks so much better in a teeny tiny picture.

Ok, now I'm totally convinced that Tashica is related to someone at HGTV. She "plagiarized!" She stole an idea and I truly believe she wanted to say she didn't realize it but her confession just slipped out.

I feel really bad admitting this, but I find myself now watching to just see how bad the challenges are going to turn out! I'm not inspired or wowed by any of the contestants except for Dan. I knew in the first few episodes of season 1 that David would win, and I have a strong feeling about Dan!

I've never liked these stupid designing competition shows. No one, not even the judges, knows what they're doing and I think it just gives bad name to real interior designers out there with real experience and a degree. It gives people a false sense of security.
I agree with Kit_Kat; I watch, if I watch the shows at all, just to see how bad the rooms will turn out lol.

CANNOT believe A, that they loved Torie's design so much. And, B, that Tashica is still around.

Fail. Twice.

Le sigh.

Can anyone tell me where I might be able to watch episodes of Design Star online? I'm in Australia and desperate to watch (and earlier seasons too)! I've tried youtube and it's just no go...

Any help would be much appreciated.

y y y they all put the couch in the same location? if im the judge, i'll let whoever placing the couch differently win. lol

i think candice olsen knows what she's doing times 10. her show is the most upscale thing on that network.

I thought Dan deserved to win. I can't believe they liked Torie's design. The floor was great, but the rest of it? No.

I caught part of this show for the first time the other night. All the rooms were so symmetrical! I wondered why no one tried anything different? Was the couch made from some kind of vinyl? Do they not shoot the show on digital video? It looked like the late 80s. I think Dan's room had the richest feel, busy or not.

For me, it always seems like the level of professionalism and polish in the designs and behavior on Design Star is a little sub par, especially for the contestants who are actually interior designers. I am usually disappointed in the execution, especially the past two challenges, but I do feel the judges are doing a great job this season in eliminating people who deserve to go. (Though I wonder how Tashica made it to the competition in the first place.) Candice Olsen has been a great addition to the judging panel, and I am glad that they aren't holding back from telling people when their work is truly awful. I, too, am picking Dan as this season's winner.

All that being said, Color Splash is one of my favorite shows on HGTV.

I love Vern.

oh, and did anyone else recognize the house they're living in from the movie Dreamgirls?

Go Dan!

I loved Nathan's couch. And other than her couch, which I also liked, Tashica continues to disappoint.

I like Nathan and Jany (why not) Dan's room too much going on that i really dont know where to look, but yes very creative guy, the rest....zzzzzz

Go Dan! The look was very pulled together and showed an inventive use of materials.

Tashica...she should play the lotto. With luck like hers she'd surely win. I just don't get it. She's had three chances to prove herself thus far and has failed each time. And yet she's still on the show.

Am I the only one who misses Top Design on Bravo?

I don't like any of them..?