Design Star, Sunday, fools

I'm getting pretty excited for this sunday.  Individual challenge, folks. 

I remember getting back to the penthouse after elimination last week and having a total-reality-show-epiphany.   I said to Casey in a whisper, 'Um, since I'm here, i may as well win this thing.'  The same thing occurred to her,  we both laughed and were like, oh sh**.  its on.  We knew that Michael had his eye on the prize the whole time, but Casey and I just became competitive.  Then Michael came back from elimination and while we were and still all friends, there was definitely a different feeling in the air.
  

because we are in the

FINAL THREE!!!  

Its not that Casey and I  hadn't wanted to win the whole time, but we were running around like crazy people, glue gunning drapery, staple gunning tables together, dealing with nutty designer personalities that we had to work and live with, and I think we forgot that it was actually possible to win.  Casey isn't competitive either, so its not that we were trying to not win, but we were just trying to do good work, have fun and if it happened, great.

I started the competition thinking, sure, I could win, but after the first challenge I kinda gave up on that as a possibility because I clearly didn't work well under the constraints.  I was like, nope, its not for me.  I didn't think i was cut out for it, and frankly my style is 90% vintage and that wasn't a production possibility (til this week) so i really didn't know how to get my style into the spaces. 

 I had two rules going into Design Star:  

1. Don't do anything that you wouldn't do for yourself or for a real client.  In other words don't do something just for the sake of the TV competition, something you would totally regret later and be embarrassed by.  

Would i have design the  dining room from the last challenge for me? nope, but for the right client i would use that color palette and paint the ceiling, sure.

Would I do what i'm about to do in the glass house for a client?  We'll see.  I kinda like it,

but that's only my opinion.  

Those three people up in those chairs with all the power,  might feel differently.  

(and I'm very curious what you guys are gonna think, it could be divisive)

Rule #2:  I promised to just be myself. no performing.  and if they don't like me, that's ok.   This was much easier to stick to.  much.  in fact it was the easiest thing in the world to do.  

But back to why we are there.  The judges like all three of us a lot.

  They like Michael because he speaks the design language perfectly, has great taste and he is confident as a leader. 

They like Casey because she's a smart designer and exudes HGTV host, as she is the 'bombshell' (cut to me with a Casey voo-doo doll, chanting 'oh, yes, she will bring in the male viewers, alright' while i rip her naturally perfect hair out,  one by one) 

ahem.

And with me? they keep saying over and over how comfortable i am, just being me, and how refreshing it is.   And they like my style. (and yes, it took hours of scouring Facebook to find 2 pictures that i liked.)

I think they get all of our perspectives at this point:

i'm the unfussy not-traditionally trained kinda bohemian stylist, who likes color and pattern as much as quiet and pretty. (of course i give myself a good description, come now) (pics from my portfolio below)

Casey is the traditionally trained designer that weighs function and quality equally with what is beautiful, and she can draw a space plan quicker than i can reach for my tool belt (which takes a while, because i've undoubtedly put it somewhere random like the dishwasher.)

(Casey worked for HBA - a huge hospitality firm for years, so she can't really 'claim' any of the work for her portfolio, that's why these are just mock-ups.  Check out her company's website for an insight into what she does, and click on the little heart to go to their amazing online services. www.avenuelosangeles.com)

And Michael is urban yet luxurious and is unbelievably creatively quick and resourceful - his mirror last week was awesome.  truly. (pics from Michael's portfolio below)

As we went to bed the night before the glass house challenge, we made a toast: 

May the best woman win.  

clink*

and yes we used this joke a lot the next couple days, and Michael ate it up.  

Watch me on sunday.  10pm, HGTV - I know you know, but just in case.
p.s. that picture was 8 pounds ago, i highly recommend the reality show diet.  its 100% guaranteed. and yes, that is my favorite dress.  clearly.  (good will, 6 years ago, %150 polyester, cost $5 and hemmed to fit)

I blahg and blahg, and well, blahg

So Erica, from the blog Design Blahg, asked me a while ago to do a 'Where i blahg' photo - meaning a photo of where i actually blog in the mornings. 

 obviously.  

sorry.  

It took me a while to do it, not because i wanted to style the picture (which I did, hello), but because I wanted my friend Teri to take the picture. She is good at it, and i'm not.  

So here's what's happening in this pic.  

You see my new wingback (its vintage, from Casa Victoria - Your welcome,  its a cheap, good, kinda secret store in Echo Park - i'm already regretting telling you)

The mood board is just homasote from home depot covered in Navy linen, cause i'm obsessed with Navy.  

Not sure why i capitalize it. weird.  

I was at urban outfitters last night and I bought 1 Navy dress, 1 Navy romper and 1 Navy shirt (I tried to find them online but they were all on sale so not there, and i'm anti-taking-picture-of-myself-in-clothes-and-blogging-about-them....perhaps i should put bearcat in them?  bearcat effing loves rompers, although navy does not pop against her black fur, which she insists is actually just a really really dark brown. yeah right, bear, yeah right.  are you just sick of us pimping you out for halloween shoots?  are you?)

The console is from Ikea and if you can't find anything vintage that is also functional for an office and is not a fortune, i highly recommend this one.  It has shelves and holes for chords.  Its $299, but doesn't look cheap (top pic below,) 

and totally beats out the CB2 version that is $499

Other than that everything else is vintage:

That branch is a fig, and a rare find, strangely - hey growers, we want these.  grow more and sell them please.

The picture leaning up against the mood board is our wedding invite framed by my sister for us. 

 Our invite was just a 5x7 photo of Brian and I with a picture of a drawn heart taped up on the wall next to us, and we typed on it:

Hi. 

We are getting married.

and we think you should come.

Fair Oaks, Ca Sep 26, 2006

Then we put it in an envelope with an old school index card that had all the pertinent info typed on it.  it was crazy cheap and, well i still love it.  

 

Anyway, I don't know how doing a 'where i blahg' turned into bragging about how cute and cheap I think my wedding invites were, but that's my post today.  

so sue me. 

Episode 8, re-cap

Alright.  Dining room repurposing challenge.

So we woke up and got the call from Vern that we were to go to brunch.  hmm.... strange, but ok. i do love brunch almost as much as 'linner' or 'dunch'.   (I also love ligers and tigons a little too much)  I'm into being out and being served food, but wary - i'm no dummy.  The food was delicious, and eating in front of 6 cameras and 20 production members and trying to 'act natural' was strange and surreal to say the least.    (i suppose the housewives get used to it, b/c its weird)

So we finish the four courses and Vern Yip rolls in and steals our buzz.  It's wasn't just an innocent brunch with 6 of our closest producers standing around, It was also part of our challenge.  We kinda figured - four courses, four of us and cameras everywhere - this wasn't Intelligent Star (thank god), but we were smart enough to figure out something was up.  Michael and I are teamed up.  We totally got each other, we had fun and trusted eachother, taste-wise.  

We got into the space and my little brain started a- thinkin'.   

I loved the creativity that this challenged forced.  For a lot of the other challenges we had pretty pieces of furniture that ultimately go back to the store, so obviously we couldn't paint them or deconstruct them.  And for this one, we could go nuts, all Martha Stewart style. 

As far as our plan:

Michael and I felt that our food was similar in a couple senses:

They both have bursts of flavors, brightness, lots of textures and acidity.  Yep. I'm well aware of how weird and frankly idiotic that sounds, but i didn't embrace the 'garlic' challenge at all and I almost went home, so look at me now, getting all 'huevos rancheros' on you.

So this is what we came up with:

Bright acidy colors - greens and yellows, but grounding it with light grey and accenting with charcoal, black and white.  While this isn't what I would do in my home, I channeled my two years working for Jonathan Adler and we kinda envisioned this:  (left JA, right Kelly Wearstler)

Uh, i think they would've won this challenge, but with more time....

We painted the walls a light grey (BM grey owl, i think) and the ceiling  a bright green.  It's not that nuts, i promise. There just wasn't enough art or a rug, so the balance was off  (i'll get to that).  

unlike these:

Then we painted the armoire and the wingback a charcoal grey (yes, we painted upholstery, and while it will probably flake off eventually, it looked great).  We painted the chairs out a high gloss white and reupholstered the seats in gold faux bois fabric.  

(all our fabric was from  Zarins)

I spray mounted the inside of the armoire with the forest fabric, and while I wish i had time to style it (i actually just placed the stuff in and never had the chance to arrange them at all) I think that it is cute. I'm well aware of how trendy it is, but Its good to show the judges that you understand trends too, and it definitely reads bigger than all my subtle styling moments throughout the competition.  

By the way, i know there is a big war out there on the blogosphere of when to paint out furniture and when not too. My opinion? if its crappy wood and less than 30 years old, you can paint it. But if its antique, hand-built and hardwood? Good god just restore it. Add new hardware maybe, and a less glossy varnish.  So many pieces of beautiful antique furniture are stripped of whats so great about them when diy-ers paint them, stencil them, whatever.  Its like trying to make an 85 year old woman look like Christina Aguilera - the more you try to cover up the age, try to make her look young, hip and shiny, the more ridiculous she'll look.  Just help her be her age and pretty - a blow out and some lip stain.  that's all she needs.

Just my opinion, since you asked.  er, since you're here.

MY, MY I DO DIGRESS, DON'T  I.  

If you've read my blog enough you might be aware of my serious obsession with flowers, so I gravitated to those plastic things pretty fast. I built this rectangular shade out of pine furring strips and nails, which was actually super annoying to build and took a couple hours -  a la Faulty Towers.  Then covered it with drop cloth, and adhered the plastic flowers with a glue gun.  I still love the concept, but the prototype needed some work.  If it was porcelain like this:

only on this:

i might buy it.  

Instead it was like this:

eh?  its the thought.

I sewed the drapes, and YES! i wish i had not tied them like that, I don't know what I was thinking.  

the table was styled with some painted black and white plates - but we needed height, and I wish i had made napkins out of the green fabric.  I like the wingback chair and mix of chairs/bench around the table, mucho.

But the room is off balance a bit.  

The ceiling was heavy, and we have very few things for the walls/floor.  We were desperate for a rug so i started to paint the existing terrible one, but it just soaked up the paint and was a total disaster.  I wish granny had a black and white greek key like this:

or maybe that's too hollywood regency themed.  Maybe more like this:

That one is from Mansour Modern, one of the best rug stores in the world, especially if you are a bazillionaire, because she ain't cheap.  Thank god i'm a bazillionaire.

So here is our final space:

Disregarding my bad art on the wall (weird doily mistake) there is nothing in here that I didn't like.  That being said, I wish there was a lot more going on - we needed lot of artwork (and a rug, obviously).  If we had 5 more hours it could've been a really great space - it just needed life. To contrast with the high gloss, we put burlap on the table (which commenters online are hating) and I think it created a nice texture juxtaposition.  and i say things like 'texture juxtaposition' now.  weird

That's my story.  

Courtland is out.  His sconces were awesome and totally inspired. He will be missed.  But he lives in LA, so i think that's not the end of him on TV.  While, sure, we have kinda different hosting and design styles (not sure you could call my hosting a 'style') he has a definite huge audience.  And I would be one of them.  

FINAL THREE!!!!!

Next Week?

INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE -
 2 words I never thought I would be so happy to hear.  

Warning:  don't read this unless you feel like getting real real sad right now.  no sarcasm, i'm totally serious.

I just had one of those incredibly shaming moments.  I was annoyed that brian didn't tivo Real housewives of DC and  in a bad mood 'cause of some stupid work shit, when i checked in with a blog that i had neglected for a while.  I get behind on reading some because i'm busy being some sort of reality non-star and blogging and tweeting like a middle school girl that just became popular.  I hadn't been to the blog Holding Court in a couple weeks and was shocked to read what happened.  I don't mean to bum you out, but if you are needing some humbling - like me, read the last post.  He broke it to her many readers in what is the most devastating post of all time.  I don't know this person at all, but I loved her voice, wit and style.  My god, i'm so sad for them.  is this really how life works?
I know it seems like a super depressing thing to post, but i can't be the only one that needed to be reminded of how good i have it.  
You can read what i'm talking about here

I must go now and hug Brian.
Sorry.  but perspective just slammed into my face.  real hard.

post still coming, sorry.

First of all thank you, thank you, thank you for all your comments.  And thank god for this blog that allows me to see them.  I get so critical of myself when I watch the show (aka, i wasn't psyched about my hosting) and accidentally seeing a few comments on the HGTV facebook page wasn't awesome -  i'm really shocked how nasty some home and garden viewers can be.  It's so weird to be exposed to so many people and left completely open for criticism, but you guys make me feel good and it counteracts all the meanies out there.  Truly.  (and the always-smarter-than-me Brian has forbidden me (again) from reading any comments other than those here - but its just so tempting.)

I had a crazy nutty shoot yesterday.  We had 30 people here for a RUE magazine entertaining story.  It was hectic, but totally fun and the images are awesome. My apartment is approximately 46 square feet so having that many bodies was wacko jacko.  and now it  looks like crazy town.  Poor brian.  

I have to rush out to work, but I should have my post up by this afternoon, so check back by.  Sorry for the delay, i hate it when my real life interferes with my reality life.  

Champagne problems, people.  Champagne problems.

Episode 8, pre-cap

Ah, thrift stores.  Where my style life started and will undoubtedly end. Ahem.  

Let me tell you a little story.   It's called 'Playing in questionable locations as a child.'  Here's how it went.  

When I was little we lived WAY out in the country.

It was idyllic.  Truly.  

But garbage service didn't come to us, (I told you, way out in the country) so every saturday we had to load up the trailer (not that kinda of trailer) with that weeks garbage and take it to the dump.  

Now, there are two dumps right next to each other - the 'icky garbage' dump and the 'unwanted things' dump.  This is before everybody took their unwanted items to thrift stores to be resold (in my town at least), 
so off to the dump they would go. 

While my dad and brother were dumping garbage into the yucky dump, i snuck off and played with the unwanted things.  I got so excited to go every week, to play in my secret world and my secret friends - er, i mean, things.  

While this sounds cookoo for cocoa puffs, I firmly believe that this is not that weird (cut to me chanting in the mirror as an adult,  'playing in the dump as a child is not weird, playing in the dump as a child is not weird').  

Kids love playing with adult things, pretending to be grown up, creating worlds with their imagination, and that's what I did.  In the dump there were old chairs, lamps, boxes of dish ware, bikes, toys, encyclopedias, etc. etc.  

It was always different, exciting and a universe of infinite possibilities.  Everything had a story, a past, a history.  Things had age and personality.  

(for the record while the dump was not dangerous, my parents did not encourage or condone this and eventually stopped letting me go and instead just took me to the two thrift stores that were in town.  

They aren't the weird ones, i am.)  

The point?  I am super comfortable (ecstatic, really) in thrift stores, junk shops, vintage stores, antique malls,
flea markets etc. etc.  

And this challenge rocked my Good Will world.  

I still get that same rush upon entering an antique mall or flea market - its half panic, like 'how can i possibly see every booth at the same time, at once!', and half calming, like 'Hello Emily, welcome back home, we missed you. oh and you look smashing'. (yes, the flea market is british).  And 95% of my apartment and my sets are vintage, because meloves vintage.

I remember walking into the thrift store designed space for this challenge and knowing that with enough time I could do a number on all this stuff,  'cause i've played in this world before. 

  It knows me, and we like each other.  a little too much.

But with these kind of expectations of myself (and now your expectations 'cause i hyped myself all up), can i deliver?  I've been on the bottom twice now and I think the judges are awaiting my real arrival into this competition.  I think they trust my taste and they like me personally,  I haven't won a challenge.  I have very few regrets, but also very few standout moments.  

Whats gonna happen, yo? whats gonna happen?

**update.  no spoiler alert, but i'll post my review of tonight, tomorrow.  stay tuned.

TV interviews

Alright, my first three TV interviews are done.  I was super nervous because two of them were live, meaning when i said 'good to having me,' instead of 'good to be here' or 'thanks for having me' i don't get to re-do it.  Shucks. But i did actually have a lot of fun.  And then i had a note session with myself where I make promises to: speak slower, wear my hair down, sit up straight and get that snaggle tooth fixed, for instance.   (although Brian refuses to let me do the last one).

So in case you wanted to see me ramble in person, here ya go:  

AM Northwest

and 

Studio 6

Don't forget tomorrow night.  Down to four.  

Courtland, Michael, Casey and Me.  

Who's going home?