Geez, Louise. I’ve had this on my DVR for over 48 hours without realizing it? Talk about being self-absorbed in moving details. I was all ready to go to bed tonight and my last act before cashing in my one-way ticket to SlumberLand was to show my mom how to watch the episode of Monk she’d asked me to record.

But right above Monk on the DVR list was Top Design’s premiere episode! How do you go to bed after that? I’ve been so curious to check it out…

First impressions:
I adore India Hicks’ lovely Brit accent and wish she would record an answer phone message for Room Fu, straightaway. Have read too much Brit Chick Lit.

Jonathan Adler and Margaret Russell have softened somewhat as judges. They seemed more human in this episode than during last season. Kelly Wearstler still makes me cringe. Those hairdos she’s sporting this season’s promos say, “Look at me—I’m so much more avant garde than you.” I really find that habit incredibly pretentious and a bit overdressed…somewhat like wearing your prom dress to Sunday school.

The guy from Houston (Robert)—I’m wondering if I saw him at the casting call in Dallas. Wish I liked him better but he seems to have some bad juju.

The guy (Eddie) who works for Martha Stewart Living? That just seems like an incredible advantage. Thought Margaret Russell was going to have a stylegasm when she found out this guy’d brought all those silver pieces from home that he used in his Pop Design quiz challenge.

TMI regarding your shadowbox, Preston. I don’t need to know that you come from a long line of addicts…and neither do the judges.

Thought it was funny how Rick(y) Schroeder’s wife talked about how she wanted to establish her own public identity apart from being Rick(y) Schroeder’s wife…but the first sentence she uttered in her self-styled intro was, “my husband is Rick Schroeder.” Don’t tell me she didn’t use his name to garner attention during the audition process. Nothing against it, I would’ve talked all day about how I used to art direct Lassie photoshoots if that dog had had a fraction of the modern-day star status of this chick’s hubby. Anyway, kudos to you, Andrea. You came off looking like a design goddess next to Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum from your team. We’ll see how you rate when you have to do something like install a wood floor like ol’ Serge.

Shazia mentioned that the only thing that separated her from the other designers was that she was “brown.” I suck at interviews, but I hope I could come up with something better than that, if asked the same question.

Wow, shuttling to and fro in Range Rovers? How very L.A.

Overall impression of the work:
It really sucked, didn’t it? I keep telling myself to cut them some slack because of the time and the budget. I really hated Jonathan Adler’s team’s loft. That aqua/white room felt very hospital waiting room meets cheap Cancun timeshare rental.

I loved how Kelly Wearstler’s team turned all those books around so you only saw the monochromatic paper leaves rather than the spines and titles. Even though it looked kind of neutral and cool, it also came across as a bit vacant, which was very appropriate for her space.