I imagine many of you, like me, spent time watching Trading Spaces with your 20-somethings when they were younger. The show comes back tonight on TLC - will you watch???
“Joining host Paige Davis, who signed on in July, will be Doug Wilson, Genevieve Gorder, Hildi Santo-Tomas, Vern Yip, Frank Bielic, and Laurie Smith. Beloved carpenters Ty Pennington and Carter Oosterhouse will also be back.”
Who was your favorite? Who did you most want to do a room in your home? Who would you NOT want?!
I was a big fan of Genevieve and Laurie and later Vern. I have continued to follow Genevieve over the years.
I enjoyed Hildi - she was entertaining!!! Carter…swoon!!!
Doug could be annoying and I just wasn’t a big fan of Frank.
I’m looking forward to this also. I thought Paige was adorable and I loved Laurie’s and Genevieve’s designs. I’ll never forget Hildi’s hay wall, or the wine-themed kitchen she did for a couple who didn’t drink. Carter over Ty any day!
^^^ So interesting you say that - I thought that Paige looked quite different and older! Hildi looks fantastic. Frank looks the same. Laurie looks the same. Ty looks older. Carter…still swooning! And again I follow Genevieve so I’m used to how she looks. Vern looks fabulous!
I thought this show was beyond awful (referring to the old one, I will not watch the new one.). It was all about manufactured and phony drama. It utterly lacked the charm of Changing Rooms, the British show it was ripped off from.
I only caught the last half hour and Hildi…is that room with patterned triangles on the walls and ceiling not destined to be repainted to a nice beige as soon as the trucks leave?? Awful is an understatement.
The local paper did an interview many years ago with two neighbors who were on the show. In the interview they said the producers asked them to ‘live with the room’ for 6 months before making any changes. The husband said they didn’t make it 6 hours! I remember it was a split level house with a table nook overlooking a family room. It was maybe a 3 foot fall into the lower room. The designer had ripped out the safety banister, and these people had little kids.
The couple did say that what they learned from participating in the show was not to be afraid of making changes to their home. Painting is easy, carpentry is easy, anything can be changed.
The hay wall was classic! Paint is one thing–glue and grass is another. So I wouldn’t want Hildi in my house or even peeping in the window.
Another “nope” for me is Doug. He was always hit or miss. He painted someone’s red brick fireplace white. It was the ONE thing that the couple had asked NOT be touched. Everything else was fair game. I’ll never forget that. I truly disliked him after that.
I wouldn’t want Hildi or Doug. Hildi is just out there, and Doug always uses brown, my least favorite color. I enjoy the concept of the show, but everything always looks cheap to me. Of course, I do understand there is only so much you can do with limited time and money.
Not this show, but my favorite designer was always Candice Olson. I loved everything she did.
Agree on Candice Olson. I rarely saw anything that I did not like. I like Vern Yip too. His rooms, even in the early Trading Spaces days, were always kind of a hip classic/traditional design that I found appealing. I think Vern Yip and Candice have very similar design sensibilities.
I laughed and laughed watching that show. There’s this permanent tension between the milquetoast homeowners and the designers who deep down want to experiment at the homeowner’s expense. There’s a reason Hildy was featured in the premiere episode.
I’ll probably watch the series. But I do think there’s a kind of disingenuous meanness about it.
