I am forever the optimist but these sure are tough times to be optimistic about our future! I did feel a bit of doom and gloom while watching these designers think about the future.

This saddens me... When the producers first started developing the premise of this challenge, I thought it kind of silly, a bit gimmicky. But as I thought about it my mind started to go BACK in time. Back to the time I was a child. Back to the time we were allowed to let our imaginations run WILD. "What fun" I thought -- this was the one exercise that they could really go crazy, be unrestricted by form and function and just let loose.

In retrospect, I wish we had given them more time for the planning stage of this challenge, more time to wrap their brains around the possibilities, the fantastical. And I wish I could have seen Wisit in this challenge. I can only imagine how entertaining his room would be!

Overall it was clear the judges were a bit under-whelmed by the outcome of this challenge. I wasn't so much under-whelmed as I was depressed by the doom and gloom feeling I got from most of the spaces... After all, we are designers and it is our job to create a space that is beautiful and makes us feel GOOD while we are in it regardless of what is going on outside!