Another week has flown right by, which means it’s time for another Design Star recap! Are you ready? Grab a bowl of popcorn and settle in.
Tonight’s episode starts with Clive making his entrance through a regular set of doors inside the house, which is kind of disappointing after seeing him arrive on boats and planes before. There’s not even a bullhorn or air horn in his hand. He simply greets the gang and beckons them into the work area.
They line up and Clive gives them their challenge for the week. They will be designing suites at Nashville’s Opryland Hotel. Not only that, but the decorating must be inspired by multi-platinum recording artist Sara Evans. The Designtestants have 28 hours and $15,000 per team to pull it off.
But first, they will choose teams–dun-dun-dunnn–”playground-style.”
Jen and Trish get to pick their team members because they draw the lucky paint lids. Jen immediately picks Matt, proving that she’s no dummy (kind of expected her to go for her BFF Steph, though). Trish chooses Mikey V, who immediately sweeps her off her feet.
They are thrilled to work together. They say, “We’ve been wanting to work together!” Did we know they were so close?
Wow. I mean, they are really excited.
Then Jen chooses Steph. That was a no-brainer. Tracee already has a bad reputation when it comes to teamwork and this is only episode 5. Poor Trish has no choice but to let Tracee join her team.
Mikey V. isn’t gonna lie. He’s not looking forward to working with Tracee.
(On the HGTV message boards, someone commented that Tracee’s “Barbie Dream House Gondola-Bed” room that she did last week would’ve looked more Italian if she had smeared spaghetti on the walls. I say, let’s not give her any ideas.)
So. They get to ride in Sara Evans’ tour bus to her house to ask her what she’d like her Opryland suite to look like.
Matt tells us that his team got to interview her first. He’s good at asking questions. For instance, “What do you want people to see and feel when they walk in the Sara Evans Suite?”
Sara explains that she really, really loves Shabby Chic. Like, a lot. Even though no one really talks about Shabby Chic much any more, do they? She loves it, though, as you can see from the Shabby Chic colors on her walls, her Shabby Chic chandelier, her Shabby Chic kitchen, etcetera.
What Sara doesn’t like is “matchy-matchy,” like where the bedspread matches the curtains and screams “Quality Inn!”
Her style, she says, can be summed up as “Southern Elegance.”
They ask what her favorite thing is in the house and she says, “I’ve replaced all the doors with old doors. I’m really proud of them.” Okay. I didn’t expect her to say that, did you?
They show a close-up of some of her doors and the words “shabby” and “chic” are mentioned about 15 more times. I think we all get it.
Okay, is anyone else wondering if this is REALLY Sara Evans’ house? How can her house be so tiny? They practically walked in from the front door into the kitchen, and it looked like a regular size. This has to be the guest house behind the main house or something, right? I mean, it’s very nice, but not Country Superstar Nice.
Back on the tour bus to go to the Opryland Hotel, y’all. Clive is waiting for them. He says “Your time…starts…NOW.” (But this week there is no checkered flag, and I’m afraid some of the excitement is lost without it. No bullhorn? No flag? It’s like Clive isn’t even making an effort any more.)
They rush off to check out their identical suites. The front room of each “has a circular plan,” as Matt says, and he likes the possibilities. The bedroom is in a separate room behind it.
Jen’s team cleverly picks a color called “Silver Sage” because it mimics the color Sara had on her walls at home. They also remember to measure the opening of the doorway leading to the suite and the stairwell before running off to shop for furniture. Smart thinking, guys! They conclude that 7 feet is the max for a sofa. Bigger than that and it won’t fit. (This sure has the feeling of foreshadowing, doesn’t it?)
Over at Trish’s team, Mikey V is anxious for them to come up with a POA, “because a Plan of Action keeps you organized.” Trish keeps calling it a POV by accident, and he shouts, “POA! POA!” “Right,” she says. “POA.”
Trish wisely assigns Mikey V the job of “creating and keeping the POA for the day,” which seems to please him. And let’s face it, he would’ve done it anyway. He lives and dies by the POA! (Must be that police-force training in him.)
Jen’s team immediately finds a (short-enough) sofa, a sofa table, and a coffee table. Jen says they “totally scored. Now we just need to start femininizing it.” Femininizing must be the professional design term for “shabby chic-ing.” I’ll have to mark that down.
Matt says, “Sara Evans loves old pieces incorporated with new,” so they make a beeline for a room piled with antiquey pieces. This is all part of femininizing the space. There’s a fantastic armoire, Matt says, distressed and in pieces, that they snatch right up. (For some reason my closed captioning refuses to turn off tonight. Technology hates me.)
Meanwhile, over on Team Trish, Tracee is already messing up Mikey’s POA and making him crazy. She’s taking wayyyy too long to shop and make decisions. To tell you the truth, she looks an awful lot like I do when I’m shopping. “What about this? That is so pretty. How much is that? I can’t decide. This might work. What do you think?”
Trish rolls her eyes. She’s not having any of it. She’s staring daggers into the back of Tracee’s head, but Tracee remains happily oblivious.
Trish: “We were like, let’s go, let’s go, and Tracee was like, ‘Let me see all the options.’” There’s a funny montage of Tracee happily shopping away while Mikey grits his teeth and Trish looks exasperated.
Back to the suite, Jen is rolling Silver Sage on the wall. She says, “Wouldn’t it be funny if they chose the same color?”
Cut to Mikey V, painting what appears to be the exact same color on the walls of their suite.
KNOCK-KNOCK!
Matt says, “I know that knock. It’s a Clive knock!” Sure enough. “That was such a showbiz knock,” he says. Clive looks at his watch and says, “Time’s up!” Again–no whistle? Nothin’? Is the props guy taking a personal day?
Commercial break and then it’s the next day and the gang is back to work. Some will stay and paint while others will go out shopping. Trish is painting the bedroom for her team (antique rose, since the lemon they tried the night before looks neon in the daylight), while Mikey and Tracee go shopping together.
First stop: a door store, where they try to choose four that they can use to make headboards. Tracee wants something really rustic and beat up and old looking, with the paint chipping off, since “that’s Shabby Chic,” in case you didn’t know. Mikey isn’t sure they should have paint flaking off on peoples’ heads when they’re sleeping in the bed.
But she insists: “I’ll take ownership of this. If the judges don’t like it, I’ll take the blame and let them send me home.”
(Please don’t get my hopes up.)
Back at the ranch, Matt is hanging pieces of the old armoire around the room, making bookshelves, and other creative things. He says, “It just evolved.” So far, it’s looking promising. Very Shabby Chic. (I’m starting to wonder if Rachel Ashwell is sponsoring this entire episode. I haven’t heard the term “Shabby Chic” thrown around this much since, oh, about 1998?)
Stephanie is off shopping. She is not coming back as quickly as expected. Matt is stressing, but Jen reassures him that this just means Steph is getting lots of good stuff. She won’t come back empty-handed. Don’t you worry, Matt. It’ll all be fine.
Whenever they say things like that, you know the other shoe is about to drop on them.
Steph returns at last and says, yeah, she got some good stuff, but you guys still need to do a little shopping. Like, for a sofa, and an armoire, and, you know, about 50 other major pieces of furniture. But, hey, she got a couple of pretty vases, I think. Good to get those checked off the list!
Matt is not happy. But he and Jen take off to hit the stores. No time for chewing Steph out or anything like that.
They end up getting everything they need but the sofa. That’ll have to wait until tomorrow. They can put Stephanie in charge of that. Stephanie can handle that kind of responsibility. They’re sure of it.
No worries.
Tracee and Trish go shopping and find a great little antique store. They pretty much clean it out. They’re getting along great now and even give each other a happy high-five.
Back at the suite, Mikey V has the door-headboard finished by the time they return, and they squeal with delight. He did a great job. Tracee reminds us all that she’s totally claiming them, because she was the mastermind behind those old, flaky antique doors that he used to make the headboards with.
Suddenly Team Trish seems to be surging ahead of Team Jen. What’s happening here? Trish explains that Tracee really wasn’t so bad to work with this time around. They didn’t let their differences in the past get in the way and worked together well.
Sara Evans sends both teams shadow boxes with platinum albums in them to use in the rooms. Matt explains that they’ll put it off to the side because “she isn’t a flashy person.” You won’t see it when you first walk into the room. They’ll just tuck it around the corner where it won’t smack you in the face with how big-time and accomplished she is. She wouldn’t want to look all braggy.
Stephanie comes back with the sofa, but, d-oh! It doesn’t fit through the stairwell. How did that happen? They were the team that actually measured!
Matt is exasperated. He asks, “What is Plan B?” Steph shrugs. “I guess we don’t use it in the room.” Matt thinks this “sucks.”
And I think, Why is ‘give up’ their Plan B? Is there no freight or service elevator in this entire, sprawling Opryland Hotel? Is there no way to take the hinges off the door to try to make it fit? No one at the hotel you can ask for help? Nothing?
Time is winding down. Clive is walking stealthily through the hotel hallways, air horn in hand (finally! a prop!).
He is momentarily distracted by the giant sofa still stuck in the stairwell doorway.
Clivey (as Lisa LaPorta calls him) blows the air horn. The fourth challenge is complete! Yay. Trish says she feels “amazing.”
Clive says that they will have their first real hosting challenge now. They must explain their rooms to the viewers. We don’t really get to see that, though. After the commercial break, it’s time to face the judges.
We get to see little snippets of each of the contestants doing their best to look intelligent on camera. It proves harder than you’d think. Tracee stutters a lot–which she insists is not like her at all. She’s usually so confident. Stephanie thrusts out her chest like she’s flirting with us. Mikey V. appears to be challenging us to a fight. Very intense. Matt, Trish, and Jen all look comfortable enough as far as I can tell.
But frankly, there’s just not much for us to go by here. I want to see more of their videos.
These producers need to talk to Tyra.
Tyra Banks knows how to show us all the behind-the-scenes flub-ups when her girls on America’s Next Top Model make hilarious attempts at stringing two sentences about lip gloss together for a Cover Girl commercial. Don’t they know we love that stuff?
So. After that quickie montage, Vern tells Mikey V, “I’m scared of you. It’s like, This is shabby chic. You’re gonna love it or I’m gonna hurt you.”
They say the best hosting job is done by Trish, but how can we tell when all we saw was about three words coming out of her mouth in the clip? I guess we’ll take their word for it.
Vern tells Tracee to try to look like she’s having fun when she’s on camera.
He tells Stephanie she needs to channel her “fun personality” so she looks more professional, and to stop thrusting her chest out at us. (Not a direct quote, but I think that’s what Vern meant.)
The others? I dunno. Martha said something about them all having their own distinctive style, yadda yadda.
Okay. On to the room reveals. Team Jen is first up. Here’s how it turned out:
Sara Evans loves the distressed wood, loves the green walls. She has a lot of these colors in her house, she points out (what a coincidence!).
She loves white furniture and how they mixed and matched the chairs around the table (she hates “matchy-matchy”). She loves that things don’t match.
HOWEVER. The leather sofa is “uncozy” and has. To. Go. (Apparently that pillow got the message. It’s already on its way out.)
Moving to the bedroom. Sara Evans loves it! She loves the Shabby Chic-ness of it all. (Why does no one ever mention the fact that there is a big honkin’ fluorescent light smack dab in the middle of the ceiling? In a bedroom?? I have to say that is NOT very Shabby Chic.)
Sara immediately climbs into one of the beds. It’s so comfy! Just like her bed at home!
HOWEVER. It really would’ve been nice if they had painted all four of the walls and not left one stark white. (Why DID they do this? I don’t remember any discussion of “Let’s paint all but one wall in the bedroom,” do you?)
Martha says she loves the artwork. They show three tiny pieces clustered together on the wall. Okay. Vern approves of the color choice, which is deemed tres Shab, tres Chic (yeah, I took French in college, so I can throw foreign words around like that).
“But what’s with the empty desert of nothingness in half of the front room?” Vern wants to know.
Um, well, lots of hemming and hawing over this one. Stephanie blinks hard and says it was a strategic decision made by the team because they didn’t want the suite to feel too crammed with furniture or anything.
Huh?
Vern calls it a really, really bad strategic decision, if that’s what it was. He looks skeptical.
Jen tries to give Steph about five chances to come clean and just tell the people what happened: the sofa was too big to fit through the door. But Stephanie sticks to her story.
Ooh. It’s, like, really awkward now.
Cynthia Rowley–wearing WHAT exactly around her neck tonight? Who does she think she is, Kelly Wearstler?–wants to know who did what. Stephanie acts like she can’t really remember, and turns to her teammates for help. They stare at her and give her meaningful looks to communicate: “Just tell them what happened, Steph! You’re making this all very weird for us here!”
Martha reprimands Steph for “not owning what you’ve done.” Clearly, the judges know exactly what happened with the sofa behind the scenes and they’re trying to drag it out of her.
She isn’t budging, though. I’m almost embarrassed for her. Now she’s turned a simple mistake into what feels like an incident. The Missing Sofa Incident.
Why the cover-up, Steph?
Vern tries again: “We need to know where the accountability lies here.”
They finally give up on getting anything out of Stephanie, although when they ask whose responsibility it was to get the sofa, I think Steph does manage to raise her hand real quick before darting off the stage. That wasn’t exactly the tearful confession I think they were hoping for.
Up to Team Trish. Well, Sara love-love-LOVES their room.
She can’t believe how great it is. How perfect!
She declares it “THE Sara Evans Suite.”
They weren’t stupid enough to bring leather into a Shabby Chic room, or leave one stuck in a doorway downstairs, either. It’s just a big, fat success all the way around.
She especially seems happy to see the big basket of coffee and goodies on the bar. This is what she was talking about!
She loves the turquoise nightstand. She looks like she might be plotting to take it home with her:
Oh, and she’s a big fan of the distressed doors-as-headboards, and Tracee is totally claiming the victory.
I’m stunned that somehow The Team with Tracee didn’t totally screw up. And the team with Matt did. Can’t Matt catch a break here? If he goes home over this, I’m warning you, I’m gonna be upset. The recapping might get ugly.
They march back to the Green Room, where the gang immediately bursts into tears, as usual. Jen says she’s “gonna do a Michael.” I love that Awesome Mike inspired a catchphrase like this after last week’s dramatic exit. (Don’t cry for Awesome Mike, though. He’s in a better place now, I’m sure–with his Momma.)
At the judges’ table, Vern says he would’ve thought Team Jen would’ve had better results with their room. I know! My thoughts exactly.
They bring them out. Whew! Matt is safe. He’s sent back to the Green Room. Will it be Jen or Stephanie? I think we all know.
Yep. Clive tells Stephanie that her show has been canceled. Her “On Air” light flickers and goes dark. So sad.
Stephanie steps bravely into the Service Elevator of Doom (what do you want to bet the hotel had a similar one she could’ve used for that sofa?). Her chin quivers as she thanks the viewers for giving her the chance to make her dreams come true. She believes the experience has made her a better person. (Maybe. Except for, you know, the part where she made up a story about the missing sofa.)
Roll credits.
And that does it for Episode 5. What did you think? Did you like the Shabby Chic-ness of it all? Was anyone else iffy on that wall that Tracee stenciled behind the bar or did you guys like it? Were you surprised that no one painted anything black? Did the right person go home tonight?
Let the comments rip!
If You’re Hooked on Home-Improvement Television:
- Design Star Recap of Episode 4: Taking the Plane to Nowhere
- Design Star Recap of Episode 3: Stand by Your (Haunted) Mansion
- Design Star Recap of Episode 2: Clive Was Just Kidding, You Guys!
- The Design Star 3 Premiere: Guts. Glory. Goofiness.
- The HGTV Green Home 2008 Has a Winner!
- Stephanie Dee Wins the HGTV Dream Home But Doesn’t Look All That Thrilled
- Bravo’s “Top Design” Gets New Host for Season 2
If You’re New Here: Hooked on Houses features decorating inspiration, celebrity house tours, fabulous before and afters, real estate news, fantasy open houses and more fun stuff. I love hearing from my readers, so I hope you’ll leave a comment and join the conversation!
{ 41 comments… read them below or add one }
While I have seen some Shabby Chic rooms that I’ve liked, all of those from Design Star just look like the time my cat swallowed a bunch of birthday ribbons and the puked them back up again.
I think my new kitchen is Shabby Chic, though. Not sure what I’m going to do about that.
I’m always working when this show is on, so I never get to watch it. Luckily, when we move in about two weeks, we’re getting a DVR.
OKay, I DID NOT read this because I missed it this week….but I will check back and read it after I watch it
Jen R
Seems there was no real “drama” this week. We have been
blaming Tracee for all the drama but could it have been Michael
stirring the pot each week that caused the drama?? I really
think it is lame to cut someone because they did not put a sofa
in a room. Considering what gets to slide by in other weeks.
I know they have to cut someone and yet it is a three person team
with team being the key word so how do you go about picking
one person.
The other two could not say hay what about a freight elevator??
or gee it ruins our whole design having no sofa so lets fix it.
very strange.
Oh by the way I hate yes Hate Shabby Chic!!! so neither room
won as far as I was concerned.
I agree, Jane. They all got along pretty well without Michael around to stir things up, didn’t they? I was definitely missing him and his shenanigans as I was recapping. He was always good for a keeping things lively.
It is like they didn’t even try to solve the sofa issue. Steph gave up, so they did, too. It must’ve happened right at the end when they were out of time? That’s all I can figure.
I wish the judges had explained their decision a little better. Was her hosting video that bad? Were they mad that she didn’t tell the truth right away about the sofa? What? -Julia
I was so nervous Matt would get the boot. When/If he does go that’s when I’ll stop watching. Mikey V. may have the muscles, but Matt is too adorable for words. With a great personality as well.
Okay, what kind of designers are these people? Not from watching the show, but judging from this recap these shabby chic rooms were LAME. Maybe it’s harder than it seems because they can only go to certain stores or whatever, but I would love to be given $15,000 for a project like this!
I think the right person went home. At least from what we saw, both Matt and Jen were directly responsible for a lot of the elements that worked (i.e., the bedroom woodwork that Matt did and all the shabby chic-ing of the furniture and the artwork that Jen did. Stephanie was responsible for getting the sofa and she failed in that, so she was the obvious choice to go. The other team’s room just looked more finished. I personally liked Matt’s wall treatment better than Tracee’s door headboards, but all in all, Team Trish’s suite was better. When I was watching Tracee doing that stencilling on the wall behind the bar, I thought it looked good. But in the end, I couldn’t tell why the wall just stopped on each end as though it was a piece of wood just stuck there. As for shabby chic, I agree that is a design style that has come and gone. I think there are still elements of the style that have resonance and can be used well (for example, in a seaside cottage, white furniture is nice and some of the fabric treatments are still pretty and workable in various designs). But a whole suite or house of shabby chic is just too, too. . .But, totally in keeping with a country music star, ha ha!
I was a little bored last night watching this show. I guess I missed Awesome Mike too? Tracee didn’t even annoy me. Once. I even commented to my husband that she had a cute dress on when they went before the judges. lol They were all dressed up…except for Stephanie- who looked like she was Jennifer Beals in “Flashdance”. Speaking of Stephanie…she was the only one who could have gone last n ight…no hard decision there. All she did was SHOP. And she couldn’t find a couch to fit in the room? WHY did they ever buy that leather couch? Even my husband was yelling at the tv “Sara Evans is going to hate that! It’s not shabby chic!”
I didn’t “get” that stenciled wall Tracee did either. I thought the judges would hate it. Apparantly I was wrong. lol
I’m not so sure that Stephanie should have been the one to go home. It seemed like they gave up on the couch thing so quickly. Surely someone could have figured out how to make that work. They had measured the space allowed for a couch so you would think that the couch she picked would not have been that far off. Stephanie’s work thus far has been much better than Tracee’s. I don’t know. I guess it would have been unfair to send someone home from the winning team though.
I agree they gave up way too quickly on the couch. I was even thinking, “Do they have enough time to run back to the store?” LOL Julia love your recaps!
Finally remembered to watch it! I think the right team one, although I didn’t even notice that fluorescent lighting! I also thought shabby chic was a little old…maybe they could have given it a new name!
I can’t believe I’m saying this…But Tracee did a good job (there. I said it.). (And I agree that the right person went home.) Jane brings up a good point…Maybe Michael was the pot stirrer. I couldn’t believe how well they played together. (Maybe Mikey V. is just awesome. He POAd his team to victory.) I admit…I missed the drama a bit.
Shabby chicily yours,
Laura
I’ve got to admit, this was the first episode I’ve watched. I enjoyed watching them try to do Shabby Chic rooms, but I was surprised that some of them had trouble. I mean, it’s not a rocket science style or anything! I really enoyed watching it though.
I have to say, this is THE MOST detailed (and hilarious) recap of any show EVER. And I write recaps!!
Read my not-worthy recap here:
http://daviddust.blogspot.com/2008/07/design-star-episode-five-big-comfy.html
I cannot believe they didn’t even try to get the sofa into the room. It was like they just gave up. I am glad that Stephanie went home though. She really got on my nerves.
P.S. Shabby Chic is very much a dated and old look! When was the last time you saw it in a magazine…1999 maybe?
I haven’t watched it yet but thanks for bringing me up to date
I hate the headboards- yuck. I’m glad that S.E. liked them though since that’s probably the only thing that counts.
Cynthia R is wearing either 2 pieces of a very large slinky or shrunk metal hoola hoops. That’s my take & I’m stickin’ to it.
What did Stephanie do design wise besides shop.
Liked the leather couch.
You can see the Nashville star houses here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php?Number=613301&t=k&om=1
Most of them live in bland houses in middle-class subdivisions.
Sara’s house in on there, if she still lives in the same one. I was soooo embarrassed by her for some reason. She seems very nouveau riche and gauche squawking on about her passion for Shabby Chic. Had it been 40 years ago she would have wanted FFF, because that is what (she thinks) the rich folks have.
I’m shocked she didn’t ramble on about how she can only live with granite counter tops & stainless…
Thanks… I love it…. Thank you for showing me this idea.. Susie H~
Is that fluorescent lighting above in that bedroom?
Thanks to TNGIRL for the link. That’s fun!
Yup, that’s fluorescent lighting in the bedroom all right, Darla. Very strange for a hotel bedroom, let alone a suite like this. What really bugged me was that no one ever mentioned it–not the judges, not the contestants. You’d think they would discuss whether or not there was any way to change it. A Shabby Chic room is really screaming for a chandelier, don’t you think? -J
I have given up on watching this show because a) your recaps are so much more entertaining and don’t suck an hour out of my life and b) all of the designs are so hideous. I have yet to see any talent emerge – they do too many group projects, so you don’t get to see anyone’s individual style. And it all seems a little white trash craft shop. That is the best they could do for $15,000?? None of these people deserves their own show, unless it is CryBaby-Star.
You do such a great job of recapping this show, I don’t even have to watch it! You give just enough detail and enough pictures to get across the gist of the show.
Thanks, Julia. I really don’t have to time to watch it, but I love reading your synopsis here!
There’s definitely something I find very comforting in the colors and softness, but most of the time it’s just so sweet it makes my teeth hurt! A place I might like to visit with some girlfriends, spend the night with some wine and a good romance novel, but I never wanna live there. And my husband won’t walk into a store with a shabby chic theme.
Even though I liked Stephanie, I do think the right person went home. They were the losing team and the judges had to pick somebody. I think of the three, Stephanie was the logical choice. They measured the couch and still came up with an inch to an inch & 1/ 2 over clearance., which says to me that she measured the length of the couch because that’s the size they needed, but didn’t take the time to measure the dimensions. We don’t know what was edited out, but I think at that point, there may not have been an option to go to a plan B.
One thing confuses me. Sara Evans LOVED the thick comfy comforters in the first bedroom. Squealed, climbed in and said, “They did everything I asked them to.” But then she declared the second bedroom with the chenille bedspreads “The Sara Evans Suite” and didn’t mention the bedspreads. I guess I must have missed something, since I missed the first part of the show. I’ll have to re-watch that. I’m not a fan of chenille, but I did like that room better.
And I didn’t like that stenciling. To me it looked more like something from the 70’s than shabby chic, and the color was a bit distracting. But that’s just me.
OK, just read back and realized that they measured the door, but not the stairwell or elevator. Hummm…. still…. You gotta get it UP there some way! It’s a common mistake (a designer friend of mine had to take her living room windows out to get her massive couch in!), but too bad at least one of them didn’t think of it.
I think these were Hospitality Suites, that might explain the florescent fixture in what would be a conference room. I don’t remember seeing a bathroom, but I do not pay close attention, so I could of missed it. A Hospitality Suite’s head would be plain in comparison to a Guest Suite’s.
I miss Mikey; if he was stirring the pot, then it was to Trcaee’s benefit, it made her good TV. Now with out a foil she just a mediocre decorator with a bad girl rep.
BTW IMO both rooms sucked.
This was such a great recap!
The fluorescent lighting in the bedroom was the strangest thing I’ve seen in a while. And where was all the shabby chicness they were talking about? It just didn’t look that way to me.
I have to say , though, my favorite thing is that you left close-captioning on – the “I love white furniture” cracked me up!
Haha seriously y’all. I’m in shock. I don’t think that “shabby chic” or whatever you want to call it is outdated as far back as the 90’s. Maybe 2005ish. Do any of you read Romantic Homes magazine?
Maybe my shabby chic is different from yours!! French decorating + vintage eclectic…. I think it’s all very in!
Jessica–Rachael Ashwell’s book came out in the mid-90s and I just haven’t heard anyone use that term much lately. Do they call it that in Romantic Homes? I’ll have to look. -Julia
Good point, Billy! Maybe these were hospitality suites and they turned one of the rooms into a bedroom for the show. That would explain the fluorescent lighting–and why they weren’t allowed to change it.
Mamacita–the closed captioning in the photo with Matt clutching his face is my favorite: “MATT WAS UPSET.” -J
Again, thank you for such a great recap. I’m on vacay and have no Tivo. Why is that not in suites now? It’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity! The OLH does have a freight elevator! When dh was stationed in TN, we went to a military ball there and dh was on the set up committee. They had a large piece of military something or other that needed to go into the ballroom, but was too big for a regular elevator. Guess what? The staff took them to a larger elevator in the “back of the house” to get it up to the room. I can’t believe none of these yahoos thought of it! Can’t believe I missed it, but sooooo glad you do such fab recaps!
Thanks for solving that mystery for us, Mom in High Heels! I knew there had to be a freight elevator in a hotel that size. So strange that they didn’t even mention it as a possibility. -J
This is so great to read – I’ll bet even funnier to watch.
I really didn’t love either room all that much.
Hey, I just watched it last night, so your recap was fun to read! You were right on. This is a fun show to watch. I did really like the 2nd room that they did. I thought it all came together very well & yes, I was pretty skeptical about the stenciling that Tracee was doing, but after I saw it in the room, I thought it looked pretty good. All in all, a fun episode to watch!
Rhoda
Hi Julia
I would rather read this then watch the show. You are hilarious! Those two rooms were awful! Shabby Chic? Really?? More like shabby shack. They really had NO clue LOL
hugs,
rue
BLECH… Shabby Chic?.. . who picked this?….THAT is probably why Cynthia Rowlings was chained to the judges desk with that thing around her neck. I’m sure she had to be restrained to discuss Shabby Chic for an hour…
I’m surprised none of them did something creative with the curved room, partitions? built-ins? and no, I was NOT crazy about Tracee’s stencils.
I think Jen’s whole team messed up, they went to the furniture store a total of 4 times with wads of cash and couldn’t find any cream couches that fit? meanwhile, the other team found two on the first trip? NOT impressive … and poor Jen needs some VO5 hot oil treatment, stop the damage!
And maybe its just me, but I’m not sure why that combination of a tangy orange wall with that Turquoise desk was GENIUS. In the end, the winner will be whoever paints a wall black and gets a Turquoise shabby chic desk.
Boring. No more drama. Shabby Chic – SO not in except maybe at the beach. Sure, Steph deserved to go home, but gollie – when is Tracee going home?!?! I thought the judges would HATE the stenciled wall – I’m iffy on it…Maybe the judges didn’t actually love the wall just the overall suite since it was so much better?? Maybe…
Did anyone see the previews of next week’s show? It gave the impression that someone got hurt bad.
Perhaps Shabby Chic has a new name, but surely it is still a viable decorating strategy? We can’t ALL love modern and contemporary, right? I think I just recently saw a room that I would call Shabby Chic and it was being touted as “budget glam” or something.
Great recap. I think the best drama was just the fact that the “wrong” team did a better job. I liked Team Trish’s chairs, but not their bar stools. I actually did like the stencil. I think the scale of it made it pop and it detracted from the ugly stools!
I can’t believe we’re having a double elimination this next episode. Too much too soon, it seems. I do like Matt the best. He is cute, talented and seems like a great guy.
love to read your posts about my favorite show–i agree with you all about the rooms being really boring.
i just wanted to say that on a different reality show i have watched, the people mentioned having to have flouresent lighting in their house for filming–maybe that is the reason, but I will bet it wasn’t supposed to be shown! They will probably change it after the taping!
very good recap!!
I just spent a week in this hotel….UGHLY!
Imagine Disneyworld with a country/French quarter theme, then enclose the whole thing under glass….Truely the worst of Las Vegas meets Disney. Desite acres and acres of tropical plants you’ll never find a more artificial environment.