Curbly’s Top Design Fan Club, Week 2: Child’s Play

Last night’s episode of Bravo’ TV’s Top Design was less about drama and more about design.

The Task

The ten remaining designers were each given brief bios of clients for whom they were to design a 12' by 12' bedroom. An added challenge was that the designers had to make the beds in their rooms. Also, their furniture budget was ‘only’ $8K, which produced much vexation among the contestants as last week’s bankroll was $50K. What is a poor designer to do?

So they were off to the PDC to memo-out (aka borrow) the furniture for their rooms. After these major pieces were decided upon, they met their clients. Ten ten year olds. Kudos to the producers of the show for throwing another great monkey into the wrench. They were then given 300 bucks (400 to Goil and Elizabeth, as they were the winners of last week's task) to buy kid stuff at Target.

The Drama

Okay, there was a little drama. Significantly, John revealed he is HIV positive and that he was given a mega-dose of testosterone before leaving home, which could have accounted for his aggressive behavior in last week's episode.

The trash talking was kept to a minimum as well, except Michael (who ‘pooped a brick’ in Target) did dis Erik’s pirate ship room. Also, Ryan (our new favorite to hate?) made a snarky generalization about fifty-year-old women.

The Winners and Losers

The judges deferred to the tastes of the clients to pick the winner, which–to Michael’s dismay, I’m sure–was Ryan and his pirate room. (Interesting how a theme room for an adult will get you the boot, but a pirate room for a kid will get you the win.)

And the loser, I’m afraid, was John and his pale pink and black, no-flooring, half-completed room. It’s not surprising he was asked to leave, but Jonathan did say they were judging on design, not if the room was finished.

The Summation

Low-lights of the night were Ryan’s room, designed around his client’s cat, and Michael’s ‘granny’ room, complete with an embroidered ‘Home Sweet Home’ pillow. High-lights were Goil’s rolling bed and furniture, Carissa’s end tables and desk that were built into the bed, and Matt’s black and white Hollywood room. My only concern with Matt’s room was the lights that he recessed into the wall. They looked great but screamed fire hazard.

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February 08, 2007

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balubalu

February 13, 2007

I'm a little late with my comments, but nonetheless:

Goil: rolling stuff is a great idea for a kid; I liked the desk, wall-painting and the bed, but when talking about "space" - he should've put some shelves or similar in the unused space on the wall where the bad was pushed into
Carisa: colorful; Liked the table at end of bed
Andrea: very clean, great murphy bed idea to make space actually play
John: unfinished; I'd have loved to see the final result he had in his mind
Felicia: nice chess concept, but as a childs romm? And I felt like the painted bike was too much contrast to the rest of the room
Elizabeth: great for kid, nice bucket idea: to clean the desk, just push it into the bucket. I need something like that here :-)
Ryan: I liked the wave, and the catwalk-idea, but that was too high and the room did not felt like it was for a child
Matt: great lamp idea, but won't they get too hot?
Erik: incredible kids space, storage space / hiding place under the bed, great wall in the back
Michael: I felt as the judges - that was too granny

In total I have to say that most rooms were lacking space where the kids could actually store their stuff.

I loved their faces when the clients came though :-)

jasimar

February 09, 2007

I had no idea one could strive for granny design. I thought it was something that happened over decades of collecting and neglect.

Ya know... Michael should really learn to enjoy manual labor, because if he keeps up the way he's going, painting rooms is the closest he's going to get to design. Me, I love to paint.

But I love Eriks room and Goil is my fave. He looks like so much fun. And he can come design my rooms anytime.

Nimue

February 09, 2007

I'm a mother of 3 children young enough to appreciate a theme room - my boys would love the Pirate room. BUT I would not- next month they would love something else and only the very wealthy would consider wasting money on re-doing a child's bedroom every year. Frankly I'm not impressed at all with the designers on this show. Nothing they've done has been original and most of it wouldn't work in real life. Big deal, a rolling bed and built-in desk?! What's impressive about those?

bruno

February 08, 2007

Um, Michael's room made me want to cry. It looked more or less like what my house looked like when I first bought it (the previous owner had lived here for 50 years). Wow. And he even tried to defend it!

Agreed on the PDC prison; it's like watching kids who got locked inside a toy store over night. Interesting at first, but kind of sterile. I think the show in general lacks interaction with the real world.

erinn

February 08, 2007

"Interesting how a theme room for an adult will get you the boot, but a pirate room for a kid will get you the win."

Uh. Hellooo. I was wondering about that as well. What happens when next week the kid's 'thing' is outer space. Are you going to shell out another $8k for a new theme room? The judges have established a design-double-standard in my opinion.

Michael again complained about having to do manual labor. ::Rolls eyes::

I wish they would let the designers escape from the PDC more often. I guess it is hard to fit everything in 45-46 minutes.