RoomFu

Did you watch last night’s premiere of HGTV Star, a.k.a. Design Star Remixed? Well I did, but only because the DVR remembered it was go-time. I’m feeling so ambivalent about it, I forgot it was even starting. A reader recently asked if I was going to do my usual cast critique and I kept meaning to get around to it, but have you seen the portfolios of these people? They kind of all run together. I’ve never seen a more stylistically homogenized mix of people make it onto the show before. I don’t remember thinking anyone particularly sucked, and some were better than others…but there wasn’t (to my recollection) anything that stood out as a big, giant WOW. Well, except maybe for Brooks Atwood, but we’ll get to him in a minute.

Kind of like last year, I’m not invested enough to do in-depth recaps or reviews of everyone’s work this season. For the first episode, I’ll just share…

Little Known Facts

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

The cast of HGTV Star, with host David Bromstad.

1. Challenge winner Brooks’ secret identity? He’s really a Royal Tannenbaum.

2. It turns out leopard print is a color. Who knew? Pantone is trademarking that crap as we speak.

3. Due to a wardrobe mixup, Vern Yip appeared in his son Gavin’s outfit.

HGTV Star judges Vern Yip and Genevieve Gorder join host David Bromstad.

4. Thirteen viewers died from Gratuitous Store Promo Syndrome.

5. The only way I’ll ever watch a TV show hosted by Abby Vasek is if she agrees to start smoking pot and chill the eff out.

Perpetual crazy eye.

6. Brooks’ signature scent? The sweat of Frank Gehry, with notes of ozone.

7. Separated at birth: Boris Eckey and Brüno Gehard.

Bruno (left) and Boris.

8. Anne Rue made a big deal out of Boris losing her bedding so she wouldn’t have to admit how fugly her wallpaper was on national television.

How could you possibly sleep in this crazy space?

9. Brooks’ hair makes me miss Project Runway star Daniel Esquivel’s moustache.

Austin fashion designer Daniel Esquivel.

Final Analysis

I chatted with last year’s runner-up Britany Simon last night, and when I asked her who she thought would make it to the finale, she said, “I think the chick with the wacky red hair (Anne) is a strong competitor, and Jessie and Abby seem to know their brand and look well. So I think they will go far.”

If you take a close look at the marketing side of this show, Abby is featured pretty prominently in the on-air promos, the show’s website and their photo gallery. Assuming that’s no accident, I predict they’re focusing on her to get a head start on marketing her show. Gawd help us.

HGTV Star airs Sunday nights at 8pm, EST.

Between my chronic knee issues and the two hours of horror stories I heard off the record from one of last year’s cast members, I had no desire to try out for Season 8 of Design Star. I’ve interviewed so many people who’ve been on the show and gotten close to some of them over the years and for every anecdote of great opportunity arising from being on the show, I’ve had to sit through 100 other conversations of bitching and moaning about how used and abused these people have felt. In the beginning, I’m sympathetic but some of the ones I’ve stayed in touch with were traumatized too much and can’t let it go. I don’t want to become one of them, yammering on years down the road about how they were set up to fail time and time again. And if you think I’m just talking about the ones who didn’t win their own show, you would be wrong.

That said, I’m always curious about the new cast, always hopinghopinghoping the new season of the show will surprise me and be about good design.

So when San Diego retailer Debi Beard emailed me about her Design Star Season 8 audition, I thought I’d share it with you. If you’d like to read the story of a 40-year old doe-eyed innocent from San Diego who made it far enough through Season 8′s casting process to get a trip to NYC out of it, read Part 1 and Part 2 of Debi’s story.

I would tell her what last season’s whistleblower told me: Be glad you didn’t make it onto the show.

Another new year is six days away, can you believe it? I’m actually looking forward to ’13 because unlike most people, I consider thirteen to be my lucky number. I actually turned thirteen on Friday the 13th and lived to tell the tale…since then, magical things happen to me when that normally-avoided-like-the-plague number crosses my path. I expect great things to happen next year and hope that is true for everyone else!

My friend Jeannette and I have traded resolutions every year for probably the last ten years or so. Sometimes they’re funny or ridiculous, sometimes they’re drop-dead serious. I’m happy to say that most of the goals nearest to our hearts have come to fruition, but others–like getting birthday cards/presents to everyone on my list ON TIME–has been one of my recurring resolutions that I haven’t yet mastered.

This year, I thought it would be interesting to find out what resolutions some of my favorite celebs in the design world would be making for 2013, so I polled several of them for a post at Williams-Sonoma Designer Marketplace. I ended up with thirteen for ’13:

• Antonio Ballatore (The Antonio Treatment)
• Emily Henderson (Secrets of a Stylist)
• Mary McDonald (Million Dollar Decorators)
• Kim Myles (Myles of Style)
• Taniya Nayak (Restaurant Impossible)
• Jeffrey Alan Marks (Million Dollar Decorators)
• Jeanine Hays (AphroChic blog)
• Jennifer Bertrand (Design Star)
• Chris & Peyton Lambton (Going Yard)
• Jason Champion (Design Star)
• Sandra Espinet (HGTV’s Celebrity Holiday Homes)
• Linda Merrill (Surroundings blog)
• …and me!

Check out the post–some of these resolutions will shock you!

Room Fu Decorologist Claire Patrick has pulled her favorite posts from the blogosphere for another monthly wrap-up!

1. At its origins, I fully intended on writing these “best of” monthly posts without repeating a particular blog – there are SO many of them in the blogosphere, you’d think there would be plenty of posts in the world to pull from. Alas, in month three, I’m already revisiting a favorite…and I’m sure it’ll happen again and again. Emily Henderson is just that good. And this month, she happened to tackle the seemingly difficult task of kid-proofing a living room of another one of our favorite bloggers, Joy Cho. You’ve probably seen the original before and after on an early episode of Emily’s HGTV show, Secrets from a Stylist.  Emily took a room she’d already made GORGEOUS and pushed it even further, making it safer for Joy’s toddler in the process. How often is kid-proofing not a deal-breaker, in terms of home decor? Emily explains the how’s and why’s of what she did in this post. High-fives all around!

Emily Henderson

2. Jenny Komenda of Little Green Notebook gave us a really useful formula for mapping out furniture in your home, as an alternative to computer spaceplanning: painter’s tape + existing furniture = no surprises.

Little Green Notebook

3. We always love a good IKEA hack, but this is one I haven’t seen before. Sarah M. Dorsey Designs creates two skirted ottomans out of two LACK tables, shower curtains and a camping pad. She features an excellent step-by-step photo tutorial in this post that you should definitely check out before you haul those beat-up LACK tables out to the curb.

Sarah M. Dorsey Designs

4. Ah, November. Seems like the mili-second Halloween is over, all blogs point to Christmas. And there’s an awful lot of red and green. Belinda at The Happy Home gives us some great tips on how to make your own ornaments – in any color scheme you want – by using clear glass baubles and adding all sorts of fun stuff inside! So if you’re jonesing for a fuchsia and orange holiday, you’ve got it!

The Happy Home

5. Jessica Jones is quite multitalented – she’s a graphic and textile designer AND a badass blogger. And apparently, she’s a pro with the roundups. This month, she collects some fantastic tutorials for funky, unique, colorful DIY holiday gift ideas on her blog, How About Orange.

How About Orange

6. And how could we let this roundup pass us by without a mention of our favorite potter and design idol, Jonathan Adler, whom we met last week. Thanks to the lovely Erica of Design Blahg, we are treated to a little more time with him this month, via the 99 conference. It’s eighteen minutes of awesomeness – his story and his philosophy. We kinda love him over here. And not just because of this:

But that certainly does nothing to temper our adoration of him!

A big thank you to Room Fu Decorologist Claire Patrick, for another monthly blog roundup! Claire has gathered her favorite posts from other interior design and decorating blogs:

1. Just for fun, let’s keep the tradition of starting this list of favorites with a blog that’s close to home – with Lindsay over at Makely School for Girls. She’s an Austin DIY blogger who shares not only our fine city but also Room Fu’s love of color. This month she posted before and after pics of her newly completed kids’ playroom.  Get ready to oogle this goodness!

Playroom featured on Makely School for Girls

2. The next spot on our list goes to Ashley of Sugar & Cloth, who did a guest post over at Poppytalk Handmade. She was kind enough to teach us how to use everyday objects for totally unintended purposes – pipe fittings and ketchup for planting succulents? You’ve just gotta see it to believe.

DIY copper planters featured on Poppytalk Handmade.

3. Speaking of succulents, for those of you who have black thumbs like myself, take a gander at these faux babies who look insanely real – all because Kristen of KFD Designs decided to plant them in dirt! I’m gonna copycat the heck out of that one.

Faux succulents planted in real dirt. Featured on KFD Designs.

4. Apparently I dug a lot of plant-related blogs this month – maybe my thumb IS greening up. Just in time for winter. Here’s a round-up from HGTV’s Emily Henderson (Secrets of a Stylist, Design Star) of some of her favorite planters on the market right now.

Secrets of a Stylist host Emily Henderson shares her favorite planters.

5. Now we’ll head on over to a blog post from a new boutique specializing in artisan-crafted, handmade furniture, art, and accessories here in Austin: Mockingbird Domestics. (Check out our post about them a few weeks back.) They interviewed Guild members Tyson and Gable of Petrified Design, who produce beautiful heirloom-quality furnishings. These two love what they do and it shows in the details of their work:

Petrified Designs' fab furniture, available at Mockingbird Domestics.

6. Speaking of furniture and meticulous details, check out this awesome Lego-topped table over on Ikea Hackers, created by Netherlander Joost Bakker (more details on his own blog).  His patience paid off – this is a super unique piece!

Ikea's Torsby table gets Lego'd up on Ikea Hackers.

7. What, no pumpkins in this roundup? You might be like me – a Halloween Humbug (once you’re too old to go begging for candy it’s just no fun, amiright?), and need a vacay from all of the orange and black that abound in the blogosphere this time of year. Don’t fret – CasaSugar rounded up some fun, funky Bohemian boutique hotels all over the U.S. so we can escape! I might have to mosey on down the street to the Austin hotel featured – Hotel Saint Cecilia – and book a room til’ the ghouls go away.

Austin's Hotel Saint Cecilia.

Ever since I watched the finale of Design Star All-Stars, I’ve pursued my final Skype convo with finalists Matt Locke and Jason Champion only half-heartedly. Nothing against them, of course. I’d talk to those two any day of the week. But making the effort to get buffed and puffed at the end of the day just to talk about some lame show? I just couldn’t muster the enthusiasm.

Design Star All Stars–I’m just not that into you.

In what world does this:

Leslie Ezelle took the "shipping" in "shipping container" literally, designing a cluttered, nautical mess.

…trump this:

Hilari Younger's feminine mid-century design.

…or this:

Tom Vecchione's old-world design.

I don’t get it.

Matt didn’t get it either. He phoned to tell me there’d been glitches in the stream when he tried to watch the episode online and he hadn’t been able to see the ending. “Hilari wins, right?”

No, Matt. The lady with the worst-looking pod won. Believe it or smoke it.

Claire texted me after she watched.

“Leslie???” she asked. “I didn’t like her shipping container at all, really. Bahhhh.”

Yeah, ditto.

Even my client Valerie was incredulous about the outcome when she called to touch base last week. No one I know thought Leslie did the better job. So what gives? Hilari consistently designed visually appealing spaces and was funny and comfortable on camera. Leslie was pretty hit-and-miss in the design department and on camera as well.

My apologies to Matt and Jason for not making more of an effort to hook up, but geez. Who wants to waste good makeup just to talk about a crap show? The only reason I’m even spending the time to write this post is to explain why I promoted the hell out of the Skype thing and then didn’t follow through with providing it.

Bah humbug. It’s done. It’s over. Now back to the “real” blog!

Kevin Grace brought a lot of personality to Season 6 of Design Star, so it is no surprise to have a great time chatting with him today. In this video, we cuss and discuss last night’s episode of Design Star All-Stars and we get his take on Kellie Clements’ controversial comment to fellow All-Star Hilari Young while the judges were deliberating in the first episode. Bonus? You’ll die over the room he’s sitting in.

Fans can catch up with the latest info on Kevin by checking out kevingracedesign.com and his Facebook page. If you’re in Chicago, look for his roving reporter segments on what’s hot in the Windy City!

When Reality Worlds Collide: Design Star (Kevin Grace) vs. Top Chef (Dale Levitski).

Come back next week for our All-Stars finale wrap-up with Design Star Finalists Matt Locke (Season 3) and Jason Champion (Season 4)!

Design Star alumni Jason Champion and Matt Locke.

In this video interview, my seemingly disembodied floating head chats with Design Star Season 4 Finalist and Showhouse Showdown Winner Jason Champion–the funnyman himself. We rehash his thoughts on last night’s episode of Design Star All-Stars and which designer he thinks will nab the dubiously-termed “appearance” on an HGTV show.

If you’re a fan of Jason’s, you’ll want to check out his website, at jasonchampiondesign.com!

Be sure and come back for our convos with these illustrious Design Star Finalists as well:

NEXT WEEK:  Kevin Grace (Season 6)
FINALE WEEK: Matt Locke (Season 3 Runner-Up) and Jason Champion (Season 4)

On deck: Design Star Finalists (from left) Jason Champion, Kevin Grace, and Matt Locke join Room Fu's Design Guru for future Skype interviews about the All-Stars season.

It was great chatting with Design Star Season 2 Finalist and Fan Favorite Will Smith today, but the interview didn’t exactly go off without a hitch. Although one of the technological glitches I experienced last week when I spoke to S3 Finalist Matt Locke had been eliminated, my portion of the video below is still laggy. After a test that revealed these remaining technical difficulties, I thought I would have to ditch the video, so I didn’t give Will a proper introduction or wrap-up. The audio’s in sync, however, and you really came to see Will anyway–so on with the show!

Will dishes on his favorite All-Stars and what worked or didn’t work in last night’s episode. He also catches us up on his new showroom in Charlotte and the projects he’s currently working on. I call it “Battle of the Southern Accents.” Check it out!

Click this thumbnail to view Room Fu's interview with Will Smith.

Fans can find out more about Will and his his business, Interior Motives, at interiormotives.ws. I’ll update this post to include a peek into his portfolio once I receive his photos!

Come back and watch these upcoming video interviews:

LATER TODAY: Season 4 Finalist Jason Champion
NEXT WEEK: Season 6 Finalist Kevin Grace
FINALE WEEK: Season 3 Runner-Up Matt Locke

On deck: Design Star Finalists (from left) Jason Champion, Kevin Grace, and Matt Locke join Room Fu's Design Guru for future Skype interviews about the All-Stars season.

Now that we finally worked out all of the bugs this afternoon, these chats should be easier to watch, I promise!

As promised, Matt Locke and I had a very rousing conversation via Skype last week, wherein we discussed the premiere episode of Design Star All Stars. However, the video and audio of my side of the convo is not in sync with Matt’s and it’s very annoying to watch/hear. I’m trying to resolve the issue before tomorrow night’s episode, because on Wednesday I’m slated to speak with not one but TWO former Design Star finalists–Will Smith from Season 2 and Jason Champion from Season 4!

Former Design Star finalists Jason Champion (left) and Will Smith (right).

Wish me luck, and stay tuned.