"If he doesn't talk to me, I have four other brothers." - A New Orleans resident who is helping to redesign a room in her brother's home
Trading Spaces: Creative Home Décor with Designer Doug Wilson and Trading Spaces: Great Kitchen Designs and More! DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
Ah, home decorating. America seems to be obsessed with it. Hardware and home décor stores are thriving, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is a top ten rated network series, and entire cable channels have sprouted up to show how we too can completely change the look of our living room with only $35 and a handful of thumbtacks. Who can we blame for all this? TLC's high rated, highly entertaining Trading Spaces, which has been making homeowners laugh and cry since its debut in 2000. The show's concept, based on the hit British series Changing Rooms, is deceptively simple. Two pairs of friends agree to redecorate a single room in each other's homes with the help of the show's designers. There are a few rules, though: they have a budget of only $1,000.00, the makeover must be completed in less than 48 hours, and the homeowners are not given any say in the design of their own home. As a result, some of the participants may not be happy with how their homes turn out. It doesn't really matter, though - either way, viewers are pleased.
Two new DVD releases allow fans to revisit the series whenever they want to. Creative Home Décor with Designer Doug Wilson collects five episodes featuring Doug Wilson, whose designs lean toward bright, bold colors. Included on the disc are "Scott Air Force Base: Ash Creek" with Kia Steave-Dickerson and Ty Pennington; "New York: Whitlock Road" with Genevieve Gorder and Amy Wynn Pastor; "Columbus: Camden Road" with Vern Yip and Ty; "New Orleans: Melrose Drive" with Edward Walker and Amy; and "Tampa: Amelia Avenue" with Hilda Santo-Tomas. The five episodes in Great Kitchen Designs and More! take us into the heart of every home - the kitchen. These shows include "Chicago: Fairview Avenue" with Genevieve Gordner, Vern Yip, and Ty Pennington; "Massachusetts: Indian Ridge Road" with Christi Proctor, Frank Bielec, and Amy Wynn Pastor; "Austin: Wyoming Valley Drive" with Hilda Santo-Tomas, Laurie Hickson-Smith, and Ty; "Miramar: Avenue 164" with Frank, Doug Wilson, and Ty; "New York: Taft Avenue" with Barry Woods, Edward Walker, and Carter Oosterhouse.
What becomes clear from watching multiple episodes of Trading Spaces is that there is a depressing sameness to American homes. No matter what the exteriors look like, the interiors seem as if all creativity stopped once the contractor finished hanging the drywall: neutral paint, posters hung in plastic Wal-Mart frames, old sofas stranded against walls, screw-together bedroom sets. And don't forget to throw a pile of toys in the corner of whichever room we're discussing. With their miles of ivy wallpaper and generic "country" decorations, kitchens fare just as badly.
Many viewers will come to appreciate generic drabness, however, after viewing some of Trading Spaces' "improvements." In "New York: Taft Avenue," Barry Woods transforms a tackily designed Southwestern-meets-New Age bedroom into a tackily designed beach-themed bedroom complete with an "ocean" painted on the wall. Still, at the show's reveal - during which homeowners see exactly what's been done to their chosen room - the New York couple seem to love every inch of the room, even if they could now operate a Mediterranean take-out joint in their bedroom.
Of course, that's one of the joys of watching the series - deciding that something looks terrible and waiting gleefully to see how the hapless owners will react. If they like the design, you can feel aesthetically superior. If they hate it, you can laugh at their pain. It's a win-win situation.
"Scott Air Force Base: Ash Creek" just might be the exception to this rule. Kia Steave-Dickerson's horribly misguided military-themed room (with gray and black camouflage wallpaper borders and dyed parachute curtains) is so chintzy and gross that you can't help feeling sorry for the crying homeowner when the finished product is revealed. It is fascinating, however, to watch their neighbors actively hating the design yet passively agreeing to every aspect of it during the construction phase.
The outstanding designs are equally satisfying. Genevieve's Southwestern basement in "Chicago: Fairview Avenue" is a keeper, as is Doug's vibrant-hued kitchen in "Miramar: Avenue 164." Most of the other designs fall somewhere in between - some good elements, some bad - but that is to be expected with such low budgets and time constraints.
It's impossible to learn anything practical about design or construction from watching Trading Spaces. In a way, it's faux instructional. We are privy to some of the basic techniques ("You're going to be gluing this."), but nothing that could actually be put to good use in crapping up our own homes. Emphasis is instead placed the interaction between Paige, the designers, and the homeowners, as well the anticipation of how the homeowners will like the design elements employed in their home. Most of the designers are extremely personable, even if a few are a bit too "wacky" for their own good. Paige is always entertaining - perky and fun, but never sickeningly so. (She's also much more agreeable than drab Alex McLeod, the series' host during its inaugural season.) The mood is always sunny and carefree, even when roadblocks are thrown up (as in "Tampa: Amelia Avenue," when the designers are forced to work without a carpenter).
Sure, the show is mindless, but at least it doesn't have the pretension of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which insists on mixing maudlin sob stories with its design work. ABC's hit - hosted by former Trading Spaces carpenter Ty Pennington - is like porn for people who like to watch the suffering of others, and its design teams loves nothing more than to pat itself on the back for being so helpful to the poor, wretched homeowners deemed worthy of the show's attention. You won't find any of that garbage on Trading Spaces, just Paige haranguing the designers because they've gone over budget by thirty cents.
While the show is fun and these DVDs are well-produced, while watching them, one cannot help but wonder why anyone beyond the couples featured in the episodes would want to add them to their library. The DVDs truly priced to sell - savvy consumers can probably find them for under ten bucks - but TLC fills many holes in its schedule with reruns of the series. Anyone with cable can turn to TLC and discover that Trading Spaces is either on right now or will be in a few minutes.
Each single-disc compilation contains five Trading Spaces episodes and is housed in standard keepcases. The menus begin with a brief, fully animated sequence before settling on a static screen from which viewers may choose to play all of the disc's episodes, visit the individual episode menu, or visit the special features menu. The episodes are divided into chapters at each commercial break, but there are no scene selection menus.
