HGTV Design Star, Episode 2: Lofty Designs

Reprinted with permission from www.redesignrevolution.com

Another week of HGTV Star, another challenge and another chance for the designers to display their taste, grace, and style. For this challenge, David Bromstad divides the contestants into four teams and gives them two days to turn a huge empty space into a livable loft with distinct areas for living, eating, sleeping, and working. Also, each designer must purchase a vintage item and re-envision it for their first Camera Challenge. The teams are:

Jessie, Boris, and Abby (kitchen/dining/foyer)
Cris and Tylor (living)
Anne and Tiffany (bedroom)
Jeribai and Brooks (office/den)

As a group, the designers decide on a hypothetical glam rock star client to keep the space cohesive, as well as the use of “cooler tones” like blues and purples. Then, it’s time for a trip to a vintage shop where everyone gloms onto various galvanized whosiwhatsits. After choosing her tchotchke, Abby returns to the loft to paint the foyer purple and bright blue. Cris is transforming a camera into a super nifty floor lamp over in the living area, and Tylor is turning the hood of a car into…something even less attractive than the hood of a car.

David arrives to take a peek at the rooms in progress and suggests that the color choice may be a little “juvenile,” which is so true. He then introduces the Camera Challenge which gives each contestant 45 seconds to show the audience how they are repurposing their vintage items. Tylor bombs, failing to get even an ounce of info into his clip. Anne is “authentic and nice.” Cris does great, too, and David calls her camera lamp repurpose “new and fresh.” Brooks blows the challenge by teaching the audience nothing, which is weird because he’s a professor. The rest are a smattering of ordinary with a splash of adequate.

To address David’s concerns about the colors, Abby paints the blue walls black. This leaves her no time to shop for furniture and accessories, so she makes a shopping list for her teammates and hopes for the best. She also volunteers to sew drapes for Jessie’s kitchen area, so she’s either the best teammate ever, or the worst reality contestant in the world. Or, both. To make matters worse, she lays the finished black curtain panels on top of the kitchen counter…that Jessie just painted white.

With thirty minutes left, the contestants go into scramble mode. We get a few product placements, and then David calls time. In walk the panel (Vern Yip, Genevieve Gorder, and Sabrina Soto), who are immediately underwhelmed by Abby’s foyer.

Abby’s Foyer.

Vern says it feels empty and separate, and Genevieve questions the color palette.

Boris’s dining room.

Boris’s dining room is also a dud, but the team is somewhat redeemed by Jessie’s kitchen, but just slightly.

Jessie’s kitchen.

Tiffany and Anne’s bedroom.

Tiffany and Anne’s bedroom makes everyone smile, though Vern does not like the lighting behind Tiffany’s otherwise badass headboard.

Brooks and Jeribai’s den.

The den and music area is a hit, including the corrugated metal wall.

Tylor and Cris’s living room.

When the panel gets to the living space, it’s a mixed bag. While the panel loves Cris’s camera lamp, they call Tylor’s wall décor “a bunch of garbage.”

So how did everyone do? Cris and Tylor are safe, but the rest of the designers are sent in for evaluation. The panel calls the bedroom layered and appropriate, but it doesn’t have any “wow” moments. They are more excited about the den and work area created by Brooks and Jeribai, which has “fabulous ideas.” When the panel gets to Abby, they wonder what she was even doing since she seems to have spent the entire time painting rather than designing. Jessie’s kitchen is also problematic since it was so sparsely accessorized. Also, Boris cheapened his dining area with a bad fabric choice.

The panel gives Anne the win for the camera challenge, and Tiffany, Brooks, Jeribai, and Boris are safe. Then, in a battle for last place between Abby and Jessie, the panel decides to keep Abby and send Jessie packing.

Bye, Jessie!