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1. Spending time with Kelly, Margaret, and Todd. They’re all old pals of mine and I j’adore them and they made the whole experience sublime. For reals.
2. Kelly telling Michael that his room looked like it was “designed by a state-appointed designer” for an assisted living facility.
3. Michael and John’s catfight in the first episode.
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4. Ryan’s ridonculousness. His pseudo-badass artist/Marxist/sociopolitical thing amused moi beaucoup. I always looked forward to his White Room shenanigans.
5. Eric’s pirate room! Ahoy mateys!
6. Goil cutting the back legs off of them Gothic chairs for the studio apartment.
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7. Margaret’s 50s glamour and K-Dubs mesmerizing ensembles. H.O.T.
8. Getting to see myself on TV. I know it’s terribly uncool to admit it and it...]]>
I would combine Carisa's colorful optimism, Andrea's sophistication, Goil's idiosyncracy, Matt's calming symmetry, Eric's old school zsoosh, Michael's oddly compelling cockiness, and even a soupcon of Ryan's ridonculous ideas. I’d plunk Sanjaya’s Ponyhawk on top, and then, having created the most insane decorator on Earth, I would rest.
But, until technology catches up with my vision, I’ll have to settle for the contestants we have, and that ain’t too bad. Actually, they’re pretty great and I thought they really proved themselves in this week’s episode.
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Matt had a distinct advantage: We judges were still intoxicated by his hotel room from last week and we went into this challenge thinking he could do no wrong. But Carisa really gave him a run for his money. Her room rocked. It was bright,...]]>
It's OK for "The Olive Garden" to look like "The Olive Garden," but it's not OK for a groovy hotel to look like "The Olive Garden."
When you pony up the dollars and check into a posh hotel, you have high expectations. You want style. You want glamour. You are leaving your real life behind. Hotels are a parallel universe, an opportunity to live out your fantasies of opulence and squishiness and tranquility and WOW. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then go check out the majesty of Kelly Wearstler's Viceroy or my Parker Hotel in Palm Springs.
(Apologies for the self-promotion.)
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I would be ecstatic if I checked into a hotel room like the one Matt designed this week. His room was the perfect combo of hipness and glamour, and by far the best design this season. I would be quite...]]>
When you design a restaurant you need to CRANK. IT. UP! Public space design is different from residential. A good residential interior should look like the client might have done it herself. Personal objets, a bit of choreographed disarray, and a soupcon of patina, some photos, et voila -- a nuanced, personal home. Residential design is about the homeowner. Commercial design is about the designer's vision and nothing is more fun.
Kelly Wearstler (or K-Dubs as I like to call her) ain’t just a pretty face and an all around funster. She is a brilliant designer and her restaurants and hotels are testament to her majesty. She takes a theme, a motif, a spirit and pushes it to the limit.
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I love to design public spaces. When I worked on The Parker Palm Springs hotel, designing the restaurants was my favorite bit.
We approached the whole project by creating a...]]>
I'm not really a sour-puss. Please believe me!!!
On this week's show I was surprised at how pissed off I seemed. “The schmatte was margarine colored --blech!” “The party was forgettable -- Yuck!” “The flowers were wrong -- How could you????” I reminded myself of Mommie Dearest having a cruelty orgasm when she takes away Christina's dolls. What was up my butt?
Nothing much actually. My joie de vivre was in full effect, swear to God, but those naughty editors decided to crank up the mean factor this week. They were just doing their job and I thought it was a great episode.
Contrary to the impression I gave, I wasn't disappointed with the party spaces at all. I was actually impressed with what those crazy kids concocted.
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The winning design, perpetrated by the lovely and talented Michael, Carisa, and Matt, was pretty FABOO. The overall...]]>
Hello again, mes petits.
Garages terrify me. All I can think of is Hantavirus, that dreadful airborne disease that you can get from sweeping out garages and the like. I think it has something to do with rat poo and it’s lethal and horrid. Oy veh!
Maybe those cunning producers wanted to ratchet up the drama factor by exposing the unsuspecting contestants to Hantavirus. Or, maybe the producers didn’t even think of it. I certainly did. I’m a bit of an archetype—the hypochrondiacal Jew (don’t get smart and speculate about what other archetypes might apply)—and I practically had to pop a Xanax just to deal with the anxiety of being around that garage.
Anyway, the contestants and some of the producers are gentiles so maybe they weren’t too concerned. Silly them.
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Other than Hanta, this challenge was about design (of course) but it was mostly about being...]]>
Patti wrote:
The birds in Michael's room reminded me of the the animated partridges from "The Partridge Family" opening. Did he think they were kitschy?
Them birds are one of the great mysteries of our time, up there with crop circles and the popularity of Dane Cook. I found the birds so mystifying that I've spent an inappropriate amount of time pondering what Michael might have been thinking.
If I'm feeling charitable, I imagine that Michael wanted some decorative motif for his room and, under time pressure and suffering...]]>
I don't know about you, but when I walk into a room I want to feel a rush of pleasure. I want Interior Design (or decoration, I couldn't care less what you want to call it) to have a positive effect on my mood. Now, every room doesn't need to look like a shrill DeeLite video -- that's not what I mean by happy design.
Whether it's traditional or avant-garde, your pad should be optimistic and uplifting. That's what my book, "My Prescription for Anti-Depressive Living" was all about and that's what this episode of Top Design hinged on. The winning design -- happy, colorful, hedonistic. The loser -- depressing.
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Mad talent was in effect on this episode. There were gorgeous moments and lots of interesting concepts.
Matt, as always, designed a confident room with some nifty touches. He's a wise fellow -- he always starts...]]>
When most people hear the word connoisseur, they think of boring old Thurston Howell types braying on about the “finer things in life” (my least favorite expression) and boring everyone to death.
But, connoisseurship is what this episode of "Top Design" -- and design in general -- is all about. The assignment was to design cabanas based on some of the world’s zshooshiest resort destinations. Things got off to a shaky start when it emerged that a certain contestant did not even know the meaning of the word "cabana." Naughty Goil!
Watch Jonathan and his partner Simon Doonan chat and take your questions LIVE on our weekly online-only show "Watch What Happens"!
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Even back when I was a clay-spattered manual laborer who had neither the time nor the cash to travel to exotic locales, I could have described in minute detail what a cabana in St....]]>
Let me start with moi's tres controversial “See you later, decorator” catchphrase. One night, as my bloke and I were playing ping pong (a nightly ritual which always devolves into us just smacking the ball at each other), we concocted some options for my signature kissoff:
"Swatch off." "You’re banned from the D&D building forever." "You’re an Elsie de Wolfe in sheep’s clothing." "You suck. Good luck."
Then, I blurted out “See ya later, decorator.” Memorable, silly, fun -- done!
It seems that some people aren’t feeling my catchphrase and the blogosphere is on fire with suggested alternatives. Oh well. At the end of the day, it’s got to be something, so to everyone who thinks it’s the worst thing since Foam destroyed the restaurant world -- y'all can kiss my swatch. For reals.
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The word "Decorator"...]]>
