How’s this for embarrassing geekiness. Doug and Hildi from Trading Spaces were on an episode of Pyramid (hosted by Donny Osmond) the other day. My wife taped it, and I watched it. In its entirety. And I enjoyed it. And it made me wonder – why Doug and Hildi – are they really secretly married???

Oh Yeah, Trading Spaces has added a new carpenter, Carter Oosterhouse– even better looking than Ty (although we haven’t seen him without his shirt on), but he isn’t as comfortable on camera, nor does he have his own website yet. And they’re doing a new version: Trading Spaces Family. Just what I need – another way to waste time.

Tags: Trading Spaces

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!”

Tags: Trading Spaces

Trading Spaces may have left town, but I can still see it every Saturday night, or via tape delay Sunday afternoon. This week’s episodes provided a double helping of Doug, with sides of Frank and Kia. Doug does great theme rooms that are often impractical. This time, both rooms were great, and practical too. In the White Room, the HOs (Home Owners) wanted a brighter living room. And boy, did they get one – everything, including the brick fireplace and ceiling fans, was painted white. Some artwork, a mirror, and brightly colored pillows on the new white sofas were the only non-white elements. I really liked the look, but I wouldn’t illuminate that room too strongly for fear of snow blindness.

The other room Doug turned a family room into a cozy lodge room. They Venetian plastered the walls, which we paid close attention to since we’re wanting to do it in our bathroom and stairway. When Doug asked the HOs helping him what they wanted to see in the room, they replied “Does it matter?” They’ve obviously seen Doug before. Later though, they kept complaining, especially about putting the top coat on the plaster. Doug finally told them that they could stop if they wanted, but he was putting the top coat on with or without them because he thought it was worth it. He also had Amy Wynn build this gorgeous rough hewn armoire (not four words I normally put together).

Frank took a cluttered, mishmash of a country room and turned it into a slightly less cluttered, mishmash of a country room with much nicer pieces. And Kia — ugh! — the HO’s (both sets even) had it right when they said it looked like a graveyard. She wanted a bed of flowers, so she covered an astroturf “coverlet” with cheap plastic flowers for the bed. The room was repainted in bright (some might say vibrant, I would say garish) colors, she threw in a swing and a brightly painted doll house, and managed to achieve a psychedelic graveyard, an effect not much in demand these days. The HO said she loved it (her friend was silent), showing that there is no accounting for taste. 

The fate of Kia will tell us about the direction of Trading Spaces. She’s done two amazingly awful designs. If she stays on the show, the producers are indicating they want more train wrecks. If she leaves, it means they want design quality.

Tags: Trading Spaces

The lameness continues. Doug Wilson was interviewed this morning on local radio station different from Frank. I didn’t get to hear too much of it, but they had listeners call in and ask questions. When I tuned in, the caller must have accused him of laziness, because he was talking about how the show is entertainment, and while all the staff are competent at what they do, you play a role on it. He said do your really think I sat around in that Adirondack chair for two days, telling the home owners what to do? He also said that he has to spend most of the first day winning the home owners over so that we can have lots of fun the second day. The hosts said they originally were supposed to have Paige Davis on, but that they were happy Doug made it because he was so much fun.

I also came across the safari room homeowner’s site. Enjoy.

Tags: Trading Spaces

How lame am I? 

I’m so lame I call my wife from the gas station to tell her Frank is going to be on the radio in 20 minutes. I’m so lame I sit in my car listening to an interview with Frank Bielec in the parking lot at work. Frank is one of the designers on Trading Spaces, which is in town filming three episodes that should air in November. They filmed in O’Fallon, they are currently filming in Kirkwood (my hometown), and then they will film at Scott AFB (on the Illinois side of the river). Several weeks ago I was telling my mother about the show (my parents don’t get cable) and she said a lady at her beauty salon was going to be on the show. At the time, I was yeah, right Mom. I still can’t believe Kirkwood is going to be on the show (and I hate it when she’s right). A coworker of my wife said she ran into Ty at Schnuck’s (the number 1 grocery chain in St. Louis) over the weekend. 

A local TV news channel even did a feature about the show – unfortunately I missed it. I didn’t realize it, but they get a lot of fans hanging out during the show. Frank said they don’t mind because they are quiet during the outdoor filming. According to the interviewer, Ty took his shirt off when filming in Kirkwood the other day and ladies poured out of their mini-vans for a closer look. Frank joked that while Ty only has six-pack abs, he has the whole case. When asked about his own house, Frank says his wife does all the decorating and that the walls are all white, or shades of white. He finds it very soothing. In response to a question about how to get on, Frank mentioned requirements about parking and electrical capacity etc. , and John Ulett said in that case the Unibomber shack wouldn’t be on, to which Frank replied “I’d like to see what Doug would do with that!”

Tags: Trading Spaces

We watched Trading Spaces last night – yeah, what an exciting life we lead. They were a couple of good episodes, and new too (that always helps in a TV show). In the first one Doug was Doug and had an over-the-top redesign of a small bedroom as “the Safari room” — going for the feel of an tropical hut. Zebra striped walls, palm trees, bamboo ceiling grid and headboard, and a scavenged wood table. When his team objected, Doug gave a vintage Doug response: why bother complaining when you are only going to lose the argument. At the reveal, the wife said she didn’t know whether to kiss Doug, or hit him. Apparently, she made up her mind as they redid the room themselves pronto, removing all trace of Doug, and if you’re quick you can go buy the stuff on ebay. Frank, however, wasn’t Frank as he didn’t do country and he didn’t write anything on the walls. It was actually a pretty good job, with a very cool ceiling painted to look like a kid’s imagination of the night sky. He even put up a new ceiling fan (replacing a bare bulb), and when Ty broke it with his drill, I was worried for Frank’s blood pressure. Apparently Ty went a bought another with his own money to replace it.

The second episode had two great designs, one with the new designer Edward, and the other with old standby and fan favorite Vern. Edward turned a nightmarish floral master bedroom into a really great looking master bedroom, and putting beading up at the wall ceiling joint is now clearly an Edward custom. (I’d go on, but the redesign cannot adequately be described in words, by me at any rate. Not that it was indescribably good, just that I lack the proper vocabulary.) Not to be outdone, Vern redid a completely blah room into a fantastic boy’s bedroom with the theme of planes, trains, and automobiles. He went with blue on blue colors, suspended a working railroad track and a motorcycle swing from the ceiling, added a working stoplight to the wall, stenciled and hung toy airplanes from the ceiling, and built a race car bed complete with matching bedding, and a storage bin in the shape of the hood of the car with working headlights and matching racing stripes. The room wasn’t just outstanding for a kid — grown men would kill for a bedroom like that (not that they would get it if they were married, though).

Tags: Trading Spaces