apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

booooorrring............

I actually kind of liked Erik's wall, or the basic idea behind it. It's unfortunate they couldn't have sent Michael packing for home instead. I'm absolutely amazed he's survived into the top 5.

It's obvious the judges' favorites are Goyle and Matt, so I agree they just as well get rid of everybody else and do a final design challenge between the two of them, because it's apparent that's what it's going to come down to in the end.

However, though I have nothing against Matt or Goyle, I fail to see what's made either one of them the judges' favorite. Matt's designs have been OK, but nothing spectacular. In the team challenges, he works very well as a team player and without him and his coordination abilities the end product possibly never would have come together, this week's challenge being a prime example. BUT I fail to see much, if any, of Matt's design ideas coming through in the team challenges.

And Goyle, well this week he really came across as pathetic. Though he's had some good, creative ideas in the past, the last 2 weeks he's been nothing more than a "worker bee". And then this week he nearly cries and complains that his vision couldn't be heard over Andrea and Erik. Though I find Jonathan Adler very annoying on the show, I agree with him that even with design vision, if you don't have the ability to get your team to envision it too, you can't be a top designer. Of the 3 members on the losing team, they really should have sent Goyle home, IMHO.

This show is getting worse by the week, yet I continue to watch.

Of the two spaces, the winner was actually the better, which is a comparative, not a superlative. As for Erik, I don't know that I actually disagree with his being kicked off. I think I've posted a couple of times that this seems to be a contest to find who is the least offensive.

I'm also wone of several who feel that it's going to be Matt with a Matt v Goil finale. I fear Michael and Clarisa(?) are going to be around for a while longer, for "comic relief" if nothing else. However trying to figure out who's going to be kicked off next has the creepy feeling of a dead pool.

I still think the program is ignorant and the designers and judges juvenile. Pull the plug on the whole show.

I didn't think the losing team's space was so terrible. And hasn't Erik been consistently good throughout the show? But he's very shy and quiet--no drama. It's no wonder he was kicked off. Michael and Carissa are at each others' throats, Goil cries, Andrea looks pretty, Matt is too talented to get rid of, and Erik is just... there.

He really got the show off to a good start when he said, totally accurately, that party planning is different from interior design.

i disagree with daily nuance. i think matt's designs have been terrific -- i LOVED his children's room, as well as the armani casa project. two totally different clients, different themes, and he made them both unique with a number of individual design touches that were not replays of the same idea (a la Goil). i think he has exhibited the most range without being a prima donna. i was glad that he was finally recognized and won a challenge -- it was past due.

team goil, erik, and andrea didn't have a finished space, and some of their ideas were terrible (the big draping table cloths were atrocious), and, as the judges noted, their design was not cohesive. but they did have interesting elements. michael, carisa, and matt's room was pulled together, but looked totally generic. i didn't see one original idea in there, except for maybe the bouncer. and if that had been a white-and-gold adorned go-go dancer, well....

i agree that the show pretty much blows. what is frustrating to me is that i don't feel any sympathy or interest for any character, except when they are bullied. so it's basically building loyalty to the designers by having them victimized -- definitely not a fan of that tacky and low-blow approach.

as an example, even though i'm not a fan of carisa, she really was being taunted. i thought in the design stage that michael was giving really good criticism -- don't have a wall or table as you walk in, or people will congregate there and not move into the room. you'll have an obstacle. that made sense to me. but later when he's arguing with her about her standing nearby while he made a "professional" call to a go-go dancer....wtf? she was respecting his call by not speaking -- it's not like she was yelling in the background. the only reason michael got pissed was because he enjoys picking on her and being right, and because he knew he was going ahead with the dancer idea without consulting her and matt about it -- he got caught. and his excuse is that she's not being a team player? he went ahead with an idea without getting the go-ahead from his team members; what do you call THAT behavior?

the eggplant ducks on the wall, the go-go dancer, the assisted living room for the little girl -- if it wasn't for his comment about "toys stained with squirrel urine" i wouldn't like him at all. to me, that was his shining moment.

oh, and next time they do judging intros, they should mention that margaret russell is apparently also a botanist -- "flowers shouldn't be furry!" man, is she closed-minded or what... but funny, nonetheless.

lastly, anyone else see jonathan adler's outfit adn think "mad hatter" from alice in wonderland? tho i actually did kind of like it... hmm.

I think if they pick different judges the show would improve. The three of them are such freaks.

I so don't understand Kelly W's wardrobe. She seriously needs to have a stylist assigned to her. I love bohemian chic, vintage, etc., but this girl has no idea how to put it together. I can't imagine how her rooms look.

Yes, Michael - please get him off the show next week. Carissa can be annoying, but at least she has some good ideas.
I thought much of last night's design was hers, but that was what the editing made me think.

I"ll keep watching till the end jsut to see what happens, but unless they get new judges and better challenges, the show probably won't make it next year.

I'm liking Team Design less and less, sorry, I mean Top Design. I'm really sick of these judges telling the contestants that they have to have their voice heard no matter what...yes that happens in a perfect world but if you have 3 in a team and 2 form an alliance there's just no way the third one can contribute as much as he/she wants. If Goil didn't get to inject his style into the challenge at all then he shouldn't have to go home because of his personality, ultimately it should be his design skills that determine his faith, not because he wasn't aggressive enough.

When you do the team thing, someone's going to be left out, it's impossible to get equal parts and if everyone's voice has to be heard, then nothing's going to get done, there would be just endless arguments and egos flying all over the room. These judges are expecting something different from the team process because they didn't have to collaborate with 3 other designers on their way to the top, so they better get real and not be so naive about this. In short I thought it was very big of Goil to admit that he had to put his ego aside to go with what Erik and Andrea wanted, when was the last time you saw a designer on this show or any other do that?

Matt's looked like a west elm store with a bodyguard out front. Erik's looked like it was designed for an outdoor space but hurriedly crammed into a tent because of rain.

Was that Kenneth Brown in one of the party tent scenes??

ridge--i thought exactly the same thing!!! i rewound my DVR and decided that it wasn't him, although he's only there for 1/2 second so it was hard to tell.

One problem with this show is that it's not unrealistic enough.

Project Runway was at its lively best when the challenges were tasks like "make a dress out of garbage" or "design an outfit to match this dog." As soon as the challenge became "design an outfit for Banana Republic," things got boooorrring.

Top Designer needs things like an episode sponsored by Whole Foods, where the designers have to create a sexy bedroom evocative of the inner spirit of their favorite organic vegetable. Then we'd get to see some baby designer trying to remember which one is the beet and which is the turnip, and judges commenting, "Yes, the curtains are beet red, but I just *feel* this room is more of a Waldorf salad."

i think michael adds color to the show- i'm just glad that carissa didn't want to make the bacardi lemon party color scheme kiwi green and orange (like the rest of her rooms!)... and she said she liked the "margarine" fabric on the ceiling of the tent- that was a crappy idea! it looked like those bad 70s kitchen light fixtures....
clearly Matt, Goil and Andrea are going to be the final three, but it's still kind of fun to watch them all bitch and moan about each oher... and sometimes there are random good design ideas thrown in there! Best one of this episode was the "lemon rope" that Goil put up- great use of space and materials!

but didn't you just feel awful for goil when, after being silenced and left to manual labor tasks, he was finally demoted to sewing through lemons? too funny, in a sad way...

what would've really impressed me would have been if they could have made strings or mobiles of curled lemon peels, like orb-y spirals. that would've been beautiful, but time-consuming and agonizing, too...

make it squirt!

Everyone's comments are so hilarious on these Top Design posts, I still can't bring myself to watch this show though. The whole reality TV thing is really starting to grate on my nerves. I have to say I wish I could watch the first episode again because your comments about Todd made me want to watch him blandly stumble through it.

Not to worry. Catch any episode and you'll see him just as stiff and awkward. I would like to think that Adler's and his poor showings mean that they're embarassed by the proceedings....

best moments; michael talking about his experience with new york parties, kelly walking into the tent in her dress over pants, and goil losing it.

This show continues to be unwatchable. The challenges are ridiculous, the "decorators" all stink. The judges are loathsome. A dim-witted, "up-speaking" former playboy model who's designs are redundant and who features herself relentlessly in her book, a snarky, boring, b magazine editrix who still seems like a spoiled, petulant junior deb at 50, and the cringe-inducing wannabe jonathan adler, tricked out in his ridiculous foulards and high collars, sprayed on hair (shades-literally- of Ron Popeil), and white ankles. He's a design succubus, stealing everything he can getting his hands on and passing it off as his own. What a talent-less, self referential, little twat.

wende, sweetie, light of my life and if i swang that way fire of my loins, u r *living* in a totally unrealistic sho. its called apartment therapy. its like make do with less by buying more. not just one more but like three more.

this show annoys me. waaaayyy too many team challenges. i felt bad for goil until the end when he seemed to start crying. at some point you have to speak up and over ppl to get heard. those chandelier thingys were a great idea but poorly executed. the other room was boring/typical. the judges aren't constructive enough for me and todd lacks personality for me to remember anything he says. i keep watching this show in hopes that it gets better and it hasn't yet. im very disappointed. oh and clarissa/clara/cara what's her name has to go!

As an addict of Project Runway and Top Chef, I can't figure out why changing the formula to design made it so awful. I was SO looking forward to this series. It would be so much better if the designs were actually good. Instead, every week the final products look like something hacked together for a community theatre production. So disappointing. And I agree with Larry that they need to stop these team challenges. I don't think we have any sense of how good or terrible these designers are because they're constantly struggling with each other on team challenges...