Design Star – Recap & Review – Kids’ Room

photo: hgtv

Design Star
Kids’ Room

Original Air Date: Aug. 23, 2009

Patricia Morris Buckley —Staff Writer
pmb@thetwocentscorp.com

This was the week for one designer to really shine and show us they were the one to watch. To prove they were the designer to beat. To make us root for them.

And no one did.

With five contestants left, this individual challenge involved designing a kids’ room with $5,000 and 20 hours. All five loved the challenge and their interviews with the kids (who ranged in age from 5 to 17) were fun to watch. But as each room came together, they just didn’t have the “wow” factor that David Bromstad, making a guest appearance, encouraged them to incorporate.

Lonni hoped for a girl’s room and instead got Nico, a 17-year-old baseball fan. She made a critical error by not pulling up all the carpeting first to see that a good portion of the wood flooring had been damaged and the whole floor needed to be replaced so he could have the wood floor he asked for. So she started out behind and never seemed to fully recover… sound familiar?

Once again she took a pattern and repeated it in white and blue on the wall and it worked well. Her furniture choices seemed right on for a 17-year-old boy and she added a nice shelf unit for his trophies. But did she forget that he asked for storage for his bats? And once again, she didn’t get to finishing everything.

Helena, Dan’s 11-year-old client, wanted eco friendly and a larger TV, because she has vision problems. I liked the way he made the large TV into a piece of art and reused her old furniture in new ways. He brought the bamboo flooring up on the shelves as well. His use of bright colors was overwhelming and one judge said they caused “retina burn.” But, in Dan’s defense, Helena probably loved colors that she could really “see.” However, the room just didn’t have the “pulled together” feel and he could have done better with the wrought iron arch he found at a thrift shop and used as a headboard. But taking her gumball machine and making it into a light is nothing short of genius!

Antonio seemed at a loss with 5-year-old Connor, who couldn’t really tell him what he wanted and even asked for “a mountain of spaghetti.” Antonio pinned him down as a dinosaur lover (what 5-year-old boy isn’t?) and went with that. Antonio’s was the most fun room but many of his choices seemed pat. The plywood stones around the bed weren’t exactly the cave that he claimed it to be. The dinosaur wall stickers seemed placed randomly and the cut-out of Connor holding up the TV was cut off at the waist — something he didn’t hide with furniture placement.

Torie seemed in sync with 8-year-old Carina, who wanted an artists’ loft. Torie spent a great deal of time on huge letters that spelled her name on the wall, which would have worked well except for the horrible mixture of fabrics behind them. She also chose modern furniture that didn’t say “girl” or “artist,” and the placement seemed awkward.

Jason squealed when he discovered he’d be doing the room of Paulina, a 17-year-old who wanted a princess motif. And quite frankly, his was the only design that felt fully realized with a pretty black mirror and fun chandelier. But his execution once again proved shaky (placemats as a headboard?) and he made some obvious choices. He tried to blame some of this on his first carpenter, who he fired after four hours, but the carpenter didn’t have anything to do with the painting.

Contestants also had their first opportunity to host and Jason really did do the best, with Lonni second. Dan’s appealing personality came through, but the judges didn’t like his nervous laugh. Torie seemed wooden and while the judges liked Antonio’s rough and tumble hosting, it grated on me — I couldn’t watch him on TV every week like this.

The judges let Antonio and Lonni go to the green room first, leaving Dan, Torie and Jason for the elimination. I could see both Torie and Jason leaving, but Jason had such a track record of poor choices, that it seemed right when they “canceled his show.”

So now we have four designers left (two men, two women) and next week they’ll tackle a backyard as a team. Sounds like fodder for lots of arguing. I just hope that the show doesn’t follow the same format it has for the last three years — one man and one woman in the final two. It’s clear that Dan and Antonio are ones who really think outside the box.

I just wish they’d both done better with this challenge. Who did you think did the best job this week? Was Jason the right designer to go? Give us your Two Cents…