In typical fashion, before I get to the live reveal, I have a few comments about the other Trading Spaces episode that aired before the live reveal show, which I’ll get to first, just to build suspense. And before I tackle that, I’ll just mention that I’m just now getting around to blogging about a show that aired 4 days ago. I know this is the internet with its own faster time, but I’m not one to get up from the couch and run upstairs to the computer immediately following a TV show. Unless, of course, I’m going to play Civilization III or Diablo II.
Early in this season, my wife and I wondered if Hildi was still on the show. Every episode, we’d turn to each other after the designers were announced and say “still no Hildi”. And since the claim was that Kia and Edward were replacing Laurie on maternity leave, maybe, just maybe, they were also replacing Hildi. No such luck. We’ve now had a steady diet of Hildi – including the London show with the awful Handy Andy. Too bad she didn’t stay behind, but she’s back. She continues her signature of wacky wall coverings – straw, records, flowers, and now wine bottle labels. NO MAS, NO MAS HILDI. She took a pretty good kitchen and turned it into the black hole of Calcutta. Laurie was her usual good self, but what was the deal with that top? Yeah, I always dress up in some expensive shirt with long dangling sleeves and no shoulders to do home improvement projects. My wife thought she was tired of being a Mom and wanted to be elegant Laurie again. And this was another episode where they get done and you say to yourself, what cost a thousand bucks in those rooms?
OK, now the Live Reveal. First off the kiss. I get quite a few hits (for me, anyway) on this site from search engines of people looking for the sexual orientation of various cast members, and Doug Wilson is one of the people often inquired about. I have no idea, and I try not to speculate, but after the kiss between Hildi and Doug, well, let me just leave it at that. I thought given the time pressure, the designers would try to keep it simple. Hah, shows what I know. I wonder if they kept to a thousand a room budget on this one. I think they both decided to go for very bold designs to spark some reaction during the live reveal. Doug continues to use Venetian Plaster. He must know how to do it right, or is expecting a different effect, because the time I did it, well, you can paint right over it and we did get a refund. Maybe the secret’s in the wax. He pulled the design from Doug’s cliche’s — browns, blues, chrome, and striking. I hate to say it, I did kind of like the room.
I was surprised by the celebrity cameos. Even if Trading Spaces is a hit, it still is a hit on a cable network, and it shows with the celebrities. Having Robin Leach was perfect and since he was first, a real surprise. Penn and Teller were good, the Elvis impersonator was OK, and Rita Rudner was terrible. What was the point – did she live in the neighborhood?
Hildi, Hildi, Hildi. Well, I’m glad the room wasn’t a bedroom, or you couldn’t sleep at night. She bought a print (in London, of course) of Escher meets Mr. Psychedelic and then tried to make the room match. She actually did a good job, so if you think a physchedelic Escher living room (minus the stream running up a waterfall) is good, you’d like the room. (Kia would have tried to add the stream running up a waterfall, despite her failure with the pyramid fountain). Doing it live actually worked, even if it was a gimmick. Both sets up homeowners, despite their bug eyed initial reactions, claimed to like the rooms. The reveals seemed to go on for longer than usual, and it was nice to see Doug, Hildi, and Amy Wynn run out at the end. I think we were all secretly hoping for a good cry or hissy fit, but had to settle for jokes about stripper poles and cries of “look, a mottled purple ceiling!”
