s/o Memorable Trading Spaces moments

[simpsongal]

Seeing that hay on the walls made me long for the early 2000s when Trading Spaces ruled the air (come back Paige!).

Remember how huge it was? I was thinking of a couple memorable moments. Does anyone remember the botanical post cards - they basically used striaghtpins to delicately hang them on the wall? The mom was like - "yeah, that won't last."

Or do you remember the one when they got like $50K to re-design? One family got the kitchen - which was awesome and a major bump to the value of their home. Unfortunately, the other family had their relatively small living room chosen. Laurie spent insane money on custom upholstered furniture & silk drapes (this family seemed like they could care less). And they filled the room w/DVDs too. Ya know, b/c owning DVDs will always be relevant....

I also remember when Hilde put wine labels all over the walls - I think they were orange and black too, so it looked like Halloween.

Ugh!

ETA: Just remembered another - the bathroom where they glued tons of tacky fake flowers to the walls.

[wawa]

I wish I could remember the design that led to this - I want to say it was Doug insisting on painting somebody's brick fireplace - but I will never forget one homeowner crying hysterically as soon as she saw her room. She was so upset. Like - totally red faced, bawling like a 2 year old having a tantrum.

[munkii]

Doug covered the her beloved brick fireplace in (removable) wainscotting. She weeped and weeped, and I laughed and laughed.

[wawa]

Oct 31, 2012 11:51:36 GMT -5 munkii said:

Doug covered the her beloved brick fireplace in (removable) wainscotting. She weeped and weeped, and I laughed and laughed.

right! He wanted to paint it, but the neighbors put their feet down. I think I remember a little disclaimer after the show saying that they arranged for the wainscoting to be removed.

[wawa]

Yay pictures!
tlc.discovery.com/fansites/tradingspaces/topten/badreveals/badreveals.html

I don't think I ever saw the white room.

[teeah22]

I remember one where I think Vern put beta fish in bowls hanging from the ceiling. All I could think was how are they going to feed them?

Wasn't there some lady that hated brown and they gave her a brown room? And all she could say was "I hate brown!!!"

[minniebee]

That show was hilarious. I liked most of what Genevieve did, with a few exceptions, like the moss on the walls. Frank and Vern were good.

I remember one episode where Doug painted the hardwood floors in a house where the owners had very specifically requested that the floors not be painted. The owners were pissed. I would be too, that is really difficult to undo.

[simpsongal]

That's a great link, wawa. Teeah - that brown one is the list in Wawa's link.

[lemondrop]

Oh, yeah, I think the homeowners who got wine labels were teetotalers, too. I can't remember exactly how I know that.

I remember one where the designer put a big image of their own damn face on the wall.

[floridakat]

OMG, Kia's camouflage room for the military family. I remember thinking, why on EARTH would a military family want to see camo in their family/dining room???

[wawa]

Oct 31, 2012 12:28:31 GMT -5 lemondrop said:

Oh, yeah, I think the homeowners who got wine labels were teetotalers, too. I can't remember exactly how I know that.

I remember one where the designer put a big image of their own damn face on the wall.

ah! I remember that! it was hildi, of course.

Lemme see if I can find a picture...

ETA: Success! i love the internet.

[kyliek29]

The only one that sticks out in my mind was done in my town. The lady was terrified of feet, so of course doug put a giant picture of a foot above their fireplace.

[minniebee]

Oct 31, 2012 12:28:31 GMT -5 lemondrop said:

Oh, yeah, I think the homeowners who got wine labels were teetotalers, too. I can't remember exactly how I know that.

I remember one where the designer put a big image of their own damn face on the wall.

That was Hildi!

Hildi also spray painted an upholstered chair. With regular spray paint, not the kind meant for fabrics.

And yes, the people that got the wine label walls were non-drinkers. I remember that their neighbors came to the reveal with a steamer to help them get the labels off.

[floridakat]

Hildi's flower bathroom.

[candreco]

The moss wall is one I really remember, and one that was a room done in mostly grays and lavenders, and the homeowner HATED anything remotely purple. She walked in, took one look, and turned around and left.

And didn't someone do a tent in a room, like painted the walls yellow and red stripes, then draped fabric on the ceiling to match?

[kristilynnmy]

Oh the memories! How did I ever like this show?! Judging from the link posted here I don't get how they even got on the show or call themselves designers. I feel like I liked it back then but to look now it looks like college kids did it! Remember Ty was the contractor and now he's doing EHM?!

[simpsongal]

You guys are bringing back some great memories. Can I call out the other problem even in nice rooms? The workmanship by the homeowners was often terrible! You could see runs in the paint, or switch plates not removed for painting.

Knowing how long and arduous it is to properly paint kitchen cabinets, I cannot begin to imagine how poor the paint job was in those episodes.

[aimeedyan]

I remember all these!

I loved Amy Wynn. I wonder what she's doing now?

Trading Spaces got me interested in home decor, actually! It was sorta the first of the design shows... that I remember.

[kristilynnmy]

The first design show for me was Lynette Jennings when I was really young. I always had a love for design.



Edited: nevermind it looks like the show was on from 1996-2000. I would have been 16. I feel like I watched her when I was like 12. hmmm

[mrs.jacinthe]

My favorite episode was the one where Hildi glued feathers to every available surface in the room. It was kind of a cool finished look, but also terrifying (taking them down would be horrific).



ETA: I thought the feathers looked kind of cool when finished. The whole room overall was sort of early 80's motel room.

[EloiseWeenie]

I loved this show and watched it all the time in college. I honestly can't believe that the designers had the nerve to do so many of their hideous ideas.

[thatgirl2478]

Oct 31, 2012 13:20:32 GMT -5 simpsongal said:

You guys are bringing back some great memories. Can I call out the other problem even in nice rooms? The workmanship by the homeowners was often terrible! You could see runs in the paint, or switch plates not removed for painting.

Knowing how long and arduous it is to properly paint kitchen cabinets, I cannot begin to imagine how poor the paint job was in those episodes.

THIS is exactly my main complaint with the show. There were a couple cases where they painted the walls really dark and you could clearly see that whomever was edging had NO idea what they were doing.

[thewop]

Who else loved watching the Christopher Lowell show?!

[simpsongal]

The $1000 budget was sort of nuts. I think they usually spent 20% of the budget on paint and supplies. I'm surprised they didn't repurpose more tag sale furniture.

OMG, how could I forget the feather room?!

[tarheels]

I have never understood the appeal of TS. It's like the Honey Boo Boo of the design world - I guess that's why it was popular? It just always seemed so mean-spirited to me, intentionally destroying (and that's what most of these Afters amounted to) other people's homes.

[minniebee]

Oh, and the bedroom Doug made to look like a prison cell. WTF?

This show was the first "design" show I watched. Now that I look back, it was really terrible design. Well, most of it anyway. It was entertaining, though.

Paige has a new show on the Hallmark channel, it's called Home and Family or something like that. I watched it once, and it was terrible. She is annoyingly chipper. I guess she was on TS too, it just fit that show a little better.

[peach]

I remember I room done in blue and purple....I think they painted half the room one color and the other half the other. And they painted the fireplace purple and glued broken glass all over it.

[peach]

I think the wine label kitchen was like a priest or a reverend or something....eekk!

Laurie did some classy stuff though. I remember her doing a paint treatment on a coffee table to look like tortoise shell....I remember them tapping their fingers in bronze paint all over it or something and it was pretty. She at least bought them nice fabric and gave them pretty drapes and throw pillows, if nothing else.

I remember a rec room where they glued old records all over the walls once.

[thiswillbe]

Oct 31, 2012 14:16:40 GMT -5 tarheels said:

I have never understood the appeal of TS. It's like the Honey Boo Boo of the design world - I guess that's why it was popular? It just always seemed so mean-spirited to me, intentionally destroying (and that's what most of these Afters amounted to) other people's homes.

When the show first came on (which is when I watched it), they actually did really nice makeovers, and the traders clearly really cared about giving each other something they would love. I guess after a while the ratings were going down, or the designers got bored, or something, and then it went to heck in a handbasket. I stopped watching once it went south-- watching mean-spiritedness is no fun! I think the hay room was the last straw for me.

[jolita]

I loved this show! I'm pretty sure that I have every one of the Trading Spaces books as well. LOL. Hildi's flower room always comes to mind, and the one where Doug found the boudoir photos and hung a gigantic one in the couples living room.