>> > worst one is Hildi Santo Tamas.
>>
>> Heh.  Loren and I decided after seeing the straw-glued-to-the-livingroom
>walls episode that we'd shoot her if we ever saw her coming toward *our*
house.
>>
>> darkelf, not a Hildi fan, no
>
>neither am I. I've seen her turn rooms that weren't that bad to begin with
>into monstrosities. She doesn't care what sort of house she's in, what the
>person wants, what can be lived with, what's reasonable for the kind of
room
>it is...
>
Where Frank plans thing for the animals and children right into his designs,
Hildi pays no attention to whether or not there are children in the house

>did you see what she did to the livingroom of two women recently -- it was
>quite clearly a "country" style, and while they were in to something
>different -- she had this hideous scarf from Paris I think. Awful colors.

Not only that, but colours that didn't go together

>Decided that was her "influence" for the room... so to echo
the circles she
>put *records* on the walls! OF A LIVINGROOM! Nailed the damned things to an
>entire huge wall...

Turned what had been a reasonably pleasant living room, if non-descript,
into a disco-style rec room

>then covered the couches in slipcovers that had such
>thin fabric the stripes of the couches were clearly visible and the colors
>were bright pink and turquoise I think....

And a hideous yellow and green - but to excused the cheapness of the
slip-covers, she had ordered good quality material that the shipper didn't
get to her and at the last minute (when she couldn't wait for it any longer)
she had to rush out and buy whatever she could find

>Then, she SPRAY PAINTED the
>woman's favorite chair -- everyone loved this chair. Don't do anything to
>the chair. Woman hates black in her house... what color was the chair
>painted? Black. It was hideous... absolutely hideous.

That was the completely unforgiveable thing. If she'd slip-covered the
favourite chair they could have at least still had the chair, but by
painting it black she destroyed the one piece they said mattered to them

On the show they did in Seattle, where she painted their furniture bright
red, and the tarpaulan blew off in the night so that the furniture was
rained on and they had to buy all new furniture and slip-cover it - I've
always been suspicious that the neighbour who was so upset about painting
the furniture sabotaged the tarpaulan so that the painted furniture would
have to be replaced. Good for him if he did

>Now -- the kitchen
>with the wine labels... other than the wine labels (do the designers know
>*anything* about the customers? I mean jeez... wine labels/rack in a
>minister's house) I thought the room was kinda cool -- though BLACK!? When
>they *plainly* and *clearly* stated they wanted something lighter? What a
>wench.
>
Since there are extensive interviews with the particpants ahead of time, and
all of the other designers know about things like children, dogs, and what
they do for a living, it seems that Hildi ignores everything like that and
simply does what she feels like doing. In a fight with one home-owner, where
they were trying to stop her from painting their neighbour's carpet orange
(I was proud of them, they did manage to stop her that time) she said "I
like Trading Spaces because I can do whatever I want. I get an idea and I do
it, then I leave town"

>Doug does a lot I don't like, the blonde can get a little out there at
times
>(she put moss all over one couple's bedroom walls) but she's ok for the
most
>part.

That's Genivieve. Mostly she pays a lot of attention to what the people
living in the house really like and want, even if they didn't know they
wanted it until they saw it. She looks at what their treasures are. Most of
her designs are not things I would want personally,  but people get so
touched by what she does for them, because she brings out things that really
matter to them.

> There's a new woman -- can't remember her name, but she's a black
>lady...

Kia somebody (double barrelled last name). She has the same name as my cat,
even if spelled differently

> I'm thinking she may actually be gone because I haven't seen
>anything from her in ages,

There was a new one from her this weekend, and it was a good one.

>but she didn't do a single room that had *any*
>merit to it at all, and she always had some sort of theme... Egyptian,
>"Garden"... where she did a bed with an astroturf bedspread
that had fake
>flowers WIRED to it... the bed was a sort of platform inside a section
>marked off with brick... it looked exactly like a grave... everyone
>commented on it. Atrocious.
>
She envisioned a garden, but it did look more like a graveyard. What she had
in her head did not translate to the room

>the only one's I'd let anywhere near my house are Vern, Laurie and Frank.
>And even then -- what's done is only as good as your friends can do.
>Painting walls is ok, but furniture takes a bit more skill if you don't
want
>it looking like crap, and on many shows, if they lighting is right and the
>camera angle right -- you can see how badly some of it is painted.
>
I've seen some shows where the people had never held a paint brush before,
and the results were sad

>so while I like the show... I'm afraid there's no chance in hell any of
them
>are coming near my stuff.

Me, either

>And Surprised By Design, or While You were Out --
>are RIGHT OUT. Only thing worse than having someone mess with my stuff,
>would be to have it done while I don't know about it! Ghastly.
>
I'm afraid something like that would be a relationship ending experience for
me
>
Laurie you touch my nest, you go up in the explosion Phoenix
>

--- Rachel's Little NET2FIDO Gate v 0.9.9.8 Alpha