The other team: Alex, Casey and Michael

My gosh, they are ugly.  i mean.  geez.

It was hard enough to be around them, but now, ick.  stick a fresh direct paper bag over those fools, cause they be hurting my eyes. 

kidding, stupidly handsome they are.

Here is their kitchen:

Maybe im totally biased from being their friends and knowing the constraints, but i kinda like it.  Having the contrast between the white cupboards and the flooring helped so much, whereas ours failed.

What I wish we had seen more of is Michael's table.  The picture would have been more successful without the table full of stuff in the foreground, but as an design element i think that he made the prettiest thing in the room, for sure.  I wish we had seen more of him making it because it looks really aged and old  - without looking intentionally aged (an enormous pet peeve of mine).  It was just pine planks on a table base, but it did look rustic french country and really pretty. 

I think if they had got rid of the table situation and went in tighter, but opened up the island then they would have probably blown us away.  Their kitchen was prettier than ours, but their photo was much worse, just an opinion.

Casey chose the 'bread', Alex chose the 'corkscrew' and Michael chose the 'escargot'.  

Watching it, I thought that Michael sold his story best - the whole rough encasing with jewel inside thing cracked me up - he must have been dying inside.  But I did see the communal aspect of Casey's with all the propping.  Michael could have won this week in my opinion.

Or maybe i'm just jealous because Casey got to call her husband.

  At this point it has been, ahem, a long time without phones.  You'd think we would obsess about it, but there isn't any time to, and besides if I did get to call It would be weird because you can't really give any information out.  Hearing that she got to talk to her husband made me want to soooooooo bad.  I missed Brian.... uck, i kinda can't think about it without tearing up,  but man it was really really hard to go through something so foreign, exciting and  challenging for so long and not to have a phone call or a hug from your best friend/family.....  ok.  and the tears...

So there was a bit of tension between Alex and Michael.  As Alex put it, they have worked together 5 out of the 6 challenges, and if i read right from their dynamic Michael doesn't trust Alex design-wise and Alex is too quiet to really give a lot of assertive input, which creates a bad cycle.  Watching Alex now on the show I wanted him to stay longer, but at the time, I remember thinking that it was his time - i sound like he is 85 and been on his death bed for 10 years.   He's got great potential, just quiet and probably does best on his own, or leading the team and not  having to fight for leadership - something i totally understand.  

 Ah. Hello, elimination.  i haven't seen you in a while.  Here is how elimination goes down.  The judges make some big statements about the overall designs and then they critique each one of us individually.  What you don't see is that after the judges are done with us, then we have to critique each other.  At first, this was super super super hard, but then we all just made the pact to just be honest.  And you can't get mad at people for just being honest.  Nobody was cruel or rude, but it wasn't pleasant either and you always ended up feeling bad.  

Alex and Michael had had it with each other and they got into it a bit.  I totally understand both sides.  I've worked with Alex and while he works super hard, he is too quiet to assert his design ideas and gets relegated to being an assistant.  I've worked with Michael on the Trump/FDNY challenges, and yes, he can a bit bossy and dismissive, but he's also really talented and smart and you see that in every challenge.

And while Michael looks and sounds like he takes himself way too seriously, he doesn't.  He laughs at himself a lot and he kinda knows how bitchy he is and it cracks us all up.  I hope we see more of that in the next episode,  because when he's just being himself he's amazing and totally hilarious.  

Back to elimination:

 I talked about how i'm not the biggest faux finish fan, but Court and I worked as a team and we used each others strengths.   Court said that I was hard to shop with because i was slow, which frustrated me because  I am a very fast shopper and relatively decisive considering it takes time to make good decisions.   But,  I will say this: I can get scattered when rushed and its not pretty, and that is what frustrated him.  Shopping with a whole crew of cameras and producers following you is really weird.  I like to look at things closely and make smart decisions and you just can't when so many people are starring at you with cameras and you have 1/2 hour in a huge store.  

At elimination, the whole thing was super respectful and we both went on and on about how much we loved working with each other - which we did, which I think ultimately does matter to the judges.  Think about it, if you are hard to work with then why would the judges or HGTV want to bring you on as a host that they have to be around?

Down to Alex and myself.  Not surprised, but at this point very little surprised me - we all are a bit immune.  It's like. yep. totally. i'm in the bottom.  that sucks.

Alex's hosting video was great.  Warm, inviting, smiley.  He was so quiet and serious around us - he didn't really engage with with other designers much, but he came alive in his hosting videos and interviews.  He's pretty awesome, overall and he's clearly gonna go far.  

Down to four.  duh duh DUH.

off to portland

quick trip.  tv interviews.  in case you can't get enough of my awkwardness and blabberings, you can catch me on am northwest at 9am tomorrow, or Koin channel 6 at 4:30.  My first T.V. interviews ever.

thank god i was unsuccessfully in 'The Cinderella Pageant' when i was 9 (the most not-so 'beauty pageant  in small town oregon ever).  I knew those poise lessons would come in handy.

Martha and Mormons.

So I got all your comments about me doing personal blog posts and
I seriously, seriously, seriously appreciate them. 

I agree with the commenters that suggested to keep the personal stuff still design related.  I definitely don't want this to be some sort of journal where i tell you things like, oh say, how happy I was last night when Ali chose Roberto (and how hilarious it was that Brian showed up to the finale party dressed as Chris Harrison, carrying red roses and did mock interviews with everyone in attendance).  

I'm sprinkling in some photos from a Martha Stewart Wedding shoot i did like 4 years ago.  It was one of my first jobs on my own.  Shot by Lucas Allen, i think.  Wondering why i chose these photos from this shoot? i'll give you a two word clue - Martha Stewart and Mormons. (er. 4 words)

Where to start, where to start...

I'll start with a frequent and lovely commenter 'Lashley''s astute observation/question that still fascinates me, too.

Why are there so many Mormon or Ex-Mormon Design bloggers?

I knew there were some, but it wasn't until I got a drink (i got a real drink, she got a non-drink, first clue) with one of them. We talked about blogs and design and after a couple of real drinks and non-drinks it came out that I was raised mormon.  She said, 'I knew it!' and i was like, huh?  from my blog?  Then she came out as an ex-mormon, too.  Then she went down the list of all the mormon or ex-mormon blogs that blew my mind and made me want to purchase a new mormon-dar because clearly i've spent too much time out of the game and can't detect anyone anymore.  

(i've been a heather armstrong fan for years and an often checker of the Neinie dialogues, but they are out and obvious, it was all the in the closet design blogs that surprised me)

So i did me a lot of thinkings.  hmmm...(tap finger to temple) Why Mormons?  and why blogs?

and here is what I came up with (i'm sure i'm not the first person to have these theories, but we all like to fancy ourselves astute, no?)

I'm about to speak in stereotypes for sake of well, making my point.  Sorry if I offend anyone.  

God invented stereotypes for a reason, right? 

Its no secret that Mormon's are productive (and reproductive) people.  I mean they built a HUGE religion (and is still the fastest growing) in less than 200 years.  Growing up Mormon I only saw my parents relax and rest on sundays - they were always working, playing, cooking, journaling, teaching piano lessons, doing yard work, yes, refinishing furniture, just a constant flow of 'getting things done'.  Likewise, I can't just watch a movie, i'll be sewing or mating socks or cleaning at the same time.  It's like if you have free hands you should be doing something with them. Being productive can be a bit of an addiction and it definitely creeps into the rest of our lives, so blogging makes total sense to me. 

  In my early twenties at one point I had 4 jobs - walking dogs on the upper east side 3 days a week, bar-tending on the LES 3 nights a week, working at Jonathan

Adler on the weekends and teaching piano lessons.  

Don't worry, i also prioritized plenty of time to get into trouble.  

PLENTY.

And i'm not the only one who was raised like this.

So there are a lot of women out there who probably had kids early-ish (or me, who hasn't yet) and well, blogging is something they/we can do that feels productive, can potentially make money for our families and can be done from the home at any time.  And there is nobody controlling it, no limitations, no bosses - its productive but totally independent and 'ours'.

Oh, and heres' the other reason - we are raised as big journal-ers.  I have 10 journals filled from my childhood, so the idea of documenting your life is not weird, it actually comes super natural.  My parents felt it was really important to have us do it, and i'm sooooo glad I did.  I mean, re-reading my junior high stuff is priceless. 

 (Dear diary, Casey (by accident or maybe not!) touched my hand at the basketball game today. i love him.  Dear diary, i'm so white that  somebody told me today that i look like powder.  do i?)  

It's awesome to be able to go back  and read what i wrote at certain ages, and potentially understand and feel empathy for my future kids about stuff that we kinda forget as adults. and yes, past Emily, you did kinda look like powder.  and still do. thank god pale is back in (or so i keep telling myself). my teen years were R.O.U.G.H.

But why design blogs?

Hold on to your special underwear people, i'm about to rock your world. 

Mormons, in general have a lot of kids, and kids are expensive.  Continuing with the 'over-productive' story, there is a 'why buy when you can make' philosophy going on as well.  So while mormons in more urban settings may not have been like this, I knew a lot who grew up yes, canning fruits and vegetables (and tuna in our case, we lived in a coastal town), sewing clothes or deconstructing hand-me downs, quilting, crafting, gardening and thrifting.  My parents had 6 kids and were both teachers so we weren't billionaires.  We went to thrift stores LONG before it was cool.  

And I swear on the Book of Mormon, that is where I got a lot of my creativity and style.  We could buy whatever we wanted because back in the day thrift stores in Coos Bay did the whole, 'everything that fits in a brown paper bag for $5' thing.  and thus my addiction for vintage clothing, furniture, jewelry, ANYTHING began.  

Sure it was a secret, I didn't tell my friends when they begged to find out where I got my clothes.

(ok, begged might be an exaggeration, they probably just casually asked because  they were curious why as a 12 year old I dressed like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's or the kids from Sound of Music, oops still do)

So I was able to get creative with the clothes/tchochkes and furniture that I bought  

and I started repurposing at a very early age.  badly, might I add.

I knew I wasn't alone, but check this out:

Martha Stewart?  full of 'em.

When I started styling in New York I worked a lot for Martha (Marty, i called her) and the first time the elevators opened onto her notorious 9th floor, i could smell it/them and   I knew I wasn't alone.  It's everything from the way they dressed to the way they spoke (you know, the funny mormon language where they say 'feck' or 'fetch' instead of, well, you know)  to the diet cokes littered on all the desks, to the complete lack of hangovers - and everyone was just so unbelievably effing nice. 

Yes, folks, there are a lot of mormon and ex-mormons working for Martha Stewart.

Its like Home Ec Grad School.  It's the best of the best of DIY-ers, crafters, sewers, etc. 

Oh, me? I got my doctorate in decopauge.

And they/we all have blogs.   

Hey Geraldo, check out that expose`.

BOOM.

So on the Design Star last week i talked about being raised Mormon while they showed me doing bad crafts.  

Its almost as if how we are raised effects our lives forever, eh?

Next week on the show you'll see A LOT of my craftiness.  It is my favorite challenge BY FAR.  

Why? because it involves thrift store stuff that we can repurpose.  

hello, comfort zone i haven't seen you in a while.  

Episode 7, Kitchen Challenge

Bon giorno.

Oh hi.  Sorry about that one last night.  That sure was uncomfortable.

I've been pretty terrified of the kitchen challenge since first year of design star - its a tricky one.  So when it was announced that it was kitchen challenge and a 'photo shoot', i was nervous.  

Here is what I wish I had done:

Or this:

or this:

Or This:

or this:

It's just not how the kitchen challenge works - if you watch seasons past they have the same challenges.
I'm an open shelving girl, lots of white marble, rustic woods, and...

Wait.  Backup.

Change of Teams.  I'm with Courtland.  I hadn't worked with Court yet, and we aren't roommates (Casey is my roommate, all dorm room style)  So I really hadn't gotten to know him.  I knew that he was super handsome and liked American Apparel but there are times when he would say somethings that bordered on parmesan cheesy. I was like, who is this kid?  is he for real?

Well, yes, people he is for real.  He was super frustrated with his previous teammates and you saw that on camera, but he is truly just a really really earnest  and very sweet guy.  He became one of my favorite people on the show, and working with him was awesome.  I LOVE YOU, COURT.

I mean, look how happy we are? ridiculous.

OK.  So we chose the Italian basket, not sure why.  I actually struggle with a lot of italian design and style - it can often be garish and overworked and trying really hard to look expensive (which in turn makes it look cheap).  BUT, there are some new more modern designs coming out of Italy that I love.  I  wanted to do the kitchen that Dolce and Gabanna would have had they just designed a house in Capri.  Modern, fresh, with rustic woods and bright mediterranean blues and whites, propping with alessi and modern espresso makers, etc etc.
Maybe with tiles like these: (i'm well aware they are turkish, but its a similar idea)

or this:

in a setting like this, sorry so blurry.

When people think of Italian design they immediately go to garish crown mouldings, faux finishes, burnt colors, gold carved furniture - all these inspired form Old World Italy.  like this:

(gagging, barfing noises)
But here's the deal, we are in Modern America and the more you try to make something feel old world, the more (in my opinion) it looks cheap and tacky.  Courtland thought i was crazy for wanting to go modern, he has done a lot of Italian families kitchens and he was picturing much more traditional warm family oriented kitchen.  We have pretty opposing styles.  BUT you can do Italian in a modern way.  and make it still feel rustic and warm, like this one:

I showed Court this picture and he totally agreed - modern meets traditional.  The furniture and colors are more traditional, but there are still a lot of clean lines in the kitchen and warm, rustic, not garish at all.
A compromise, yes, but we went for it.

  

I almost cry with laughter at my former self, did you really think that was going to work out, Emily?  Did you think you could create a beautiful kitchen like the one above in 2 days and 2 stores?
HA!. silly little Emily.
Here is what we did instead:

I mean, its virtually the same kitchen, no?  

First we chose our three finishes from our three vendors - flooring, countertops and cabinetry - we had three different options for each one.  We realized that we chose the exact same as the other team, so we had to switch to the light wood cabinetry so they weren't identical. - HUGE MISTAKE.

But we had already chosen our paint colors - the BenMoore 'Parmesan cheese' and BenMoore 'kinda-looks-like-the-grapes-in-the-basket-purple.   So now, we can't go back and change our paint colors, we were stuck with them and we BOTH knew that we were in trouble on day one - all our colors were beige, basically. ugh.

We went to Sears and bought all our appliances.  The other store to shop at was Gracious Home which has very little furniture so we bought these two, well, japanese stools at Sears and I struggled to un-japanese them by upholstering them with Bubble Wrap.  I can't wait to do a video tutorial on how to upholster furniture with bubble wrap.

I really have my finger on the pulse of style and trends, people. Bubble wrap is the new batting.  

trust.

Court and I are getting along super well.  Having fun despite us knowing that we have already set ourselves to fail with our finishing choices and paint choices.  We are off to Gracious Home to get all of our pretty things  - which is where I found the $300 table cloth that I ruined by upholstering those god-awful stools in.  Styling sacrelige.  At least they showed me knowing that i was doing something terrible.

Then to tile.  Court and I have different opinions on tile - i wanted something hand-painted with a pattern, (like the blue above)  but he wanted something more traditional.  We bought two options - white carerra tile and the larger scale 'garlic' tile.  I think we would have chosen, the obviously MUCH MUCH better choice (carerra marble) had it not been for my garlic.  I had realized at this point that I hadn't thought about my inspriation for garlic at all yet, because frankly I was not inspired by garlic.  So I blew it with the tile.  I was trying to bring in my inspiration.  i've obstained from garlic since this challenge, angry at what it made me do on national television.  Screw you, garlic.  stink up somebody else's breath, you tiny little  white stupid piece of food. you.

At Gracious Home about an hour before the end of shopping one of our producers called us over and said 'you guys know you only have an hour before the store in queens closes.'  We literally had no idea what she was talking about.  We refered to our dosier and it doesn't say anything about a third store.  I guess that they had announced it, but Court and I were too busy trying to change our finishings and we didn't hear. We both vaguely remembered the announcement, but it definitely didn't sink it.  We didn't make it to the store, unfortunately.  

Who knows what else we could've found there.  Oh well.  

DAMN YOU KITCHEN CHALLENGE

(fists in air, charlton heston voice)

We get back to the Studio and Court starts fauxing the wall.  You probably know how I feel about faux finishes - i'm not the biggest fan, but he is really good at it, it is a team challenge, and at this point we had already decided on the compromise of 'modern traditional' (???) so I was like, go for it, whatever, see you back in LA.  - i figured i was gonna be outta there tomorrow.

I paint the chalkboard paint on the wall and then, get this, I paint the brass chandelier black.  I know. it was super hard to do because it was beautiful as is, but we were desperate for contrast so it had to go black.

Now for styling.  Yes I over-styled.  And I would do it again in a heartbeat.  Why?  because with little propping in this kitchen it looked like the most depressing, tacky, dead, studio kitchen ever with very little contrast (thank god for the black paint). The 'photographer' had no lighting, no bounce boards, nothing to make it look pretty and dreamy.  

Heres' the thing:

A good photographer can make a beautiful photograph out of a white things on a white wall. 

Like so:

 It's all about the light and angle - and if you don't have natural light to make it look like this:

Then you have to create the look of natural light.  And it is very very hard.

It's why photographers get paid a TON.  We were trying to do rogue lighting with lamps and using sheets on the ground to bounce light into the room. I mean, it was pathetic.  I was upset to say the least, so i added stuff to try to bring the kitchen back from the dead.  Its like I'm the guy who puts makeup on corpses.  But it helped a bit and i would do it again.  

Court totally stepped up to the plate and dealt with some of the lighting/lens problems - he has experience taking pictures.  Its funny, you would think that I would know exactly what lens to use, etc, but as a stylist working with amazing photographers, you would never be like, 'hey, what lens ya using'.  That is there job, their domain it would be like a nurse asking the surgeon during brain surgery 'hey, doc, whatcha gonna do next'.  But for this challenge they weren't aloud to help us at all.  We had to be the photographer, too!!???

Also here's the deal, you can see all the appliances perfectly.  and that's what we are selling.  so while i liked the other kitchen more, ours was a more successful photograph in my opinion.

Calmate. Calmate.  

So yes, i overstyled, but that kitchen needed life.  and color.  

Oh the purple?  I think we bought a quart of it because Courtland wanted to do an art piece on the far wall, but we realized we wouldn't see it and desperate for color, we put it on the front of the island.  Neither of us really liked it.    But once you make your paint order you can't go back and add more or change it.  You have to work with what you have.

Looking at it now, here is what I wish we had done with the same resources:  Stuck with the white cabinetry, had the much darker flooring (which we thought we ordered, but we realized we never changed it on the form) painted the walls a bluish grey, used the same marble countertops that we got (it was the best choice) used dark/light blue alternating subway tile.
eff.

I liked the other teams kitchen much more.  I liked their white cabinets and their tile much more than ours.  we blew it.

OK, hosting videos.  I hope you are all aware that we go straight from judging into hosting - there is no time to prepare, no starting and stopping, no writing things down.  It's nerve-racking.  And if you fumble, you just have to keep going.  I ran out of time which is why i rushed the end so much.  But

waddya do?  forget 'bout it.

Tomorrow i'll discuss the outing of me being raised mormon -which i thought was a strange time for it.  it made it seem like mormons all reupholster furniture, when really i was talking more about my family and what we did growing up.  I'll explain more tomorrow.

Oh and i'll talk about the other team too, this post is long enough.

Sorry, its' coming.  I'm having technical difficulties - clearly it's not my week already.

but for now I sure wish I had done this:

Not so Italian, i know.  But i'm not so Italian.

Episode 7, pre-post

Still he-re.  i know.  a styling competition and I didn't win.

I'll tell you why tomorrow

If only RHONJ coulda been the guest judges, Theresa would have LERVED our kitchen. 

Working on 'my official' post right now. stay tuned.  

Should I get personal? big question for you guys.

Tonight.  Design Star HGTV, 10pm (or 7pm).  

anxiety, anxiety.  ick.  

There is a lot of the criticism of the show that you don't know who we are as people or as designers.  And that sucks.   Being a big 'take other peoples small perception of you in your own hands' kinda person,  I'm wondering if this week I should help you get to know me.

Most of you who read this probably get my style as a stylist or designer and if not, check out the blog archives, starting January 1st, 2010 (otherwise known as the-day-I-woke-up-and-decided-to-stop-caring-about-what-other-people-think-and-start-to-take-control-of-my-career, you know, that national holiday.)  From January to June it was all about style and design - and since June i've done frequent behind the scenes, design star posts as well.  

But, as far as who I am as a person??

If you want:

It's gonna get personal.  

i'm talking details about:   

growing up way out in the country in a coastal town with 5 siblings in Oregon,  

growing up Mormon, (and how me becoming um, un-mormon went down),

What i did, (and didn't do), while living in New York in my 20's.  

and why the he** I live in Los Angeles.  

Does this interest you?  Or is it too self-indulgent?  

Should I keep this blog only style/design-based?