Design Star Episode Three: Do You Hear What I Hear?

My Sunday ritual involves summoning up some editorial inspiration for you kind folks whilst mindfully mapping out picnic style snack-ens to devour watching DS at the 11th hour before bed. It's always some fanciful mix of chocolate and cheese, a delightful and decadent combo...much like musical instruments and interior design? Yeah, that's what I thought.

The remaining 10 contestants get acquainted with their musical instruments as inspiration for an outdoor space

It seems as though the producers at the round table took an outburst board game approach to deciding the challenges this season. Sources of inspiration for interior design in NYC? Fashion! Music! Flowers! Taxis! Skyscrapers! The dude selling hot dogs on the corner of 5th and Madison! Hey, aren't those streets parallel? Who cares?!- Let's do it- Good answer! Huh?!! How do you expect any amount of cohesion when the concepts are so vague and way too general? This season has become extremely subjective, and the ones judging don't even exercise any consistency to base their final decisions. Are y'all judging on hosting or design? Team win or individual losses? Each week seems to be a different outcome based on the same formula.  Nina wins, Nina loses, Nina wins...what's next- Nina loses? Yeah, real creative guys. (And pretty telling I might add).  What do you expect from Nina when she's been executing the same artistic approach since the first challenge and being singularly critiqued day in, day out? Do you care to convey any other message than "Let's play up the villainess so we can stir up some controversy..." Hello- there are 9 other contestants in the running ya know. I, for one, would LOVE to see everyone's contributions to the designs, and not just on the losing team. Who am I kidding, everyone loves the good vs. evil arc don't they? No wonder Trent left...err I mean got eliminated. He simply was over the drama.

Another men's vs. women's (plus Dan) challenge means another week of watching how the alliances are strengthened and the soloists weakened. It seems that after the men won the fashion challenge, they (as in Court and Michael) got all Nina-fied as the win went to their heads to the point of driving the next subsequent musical challenge right into splitsville. {For the record, I love non-TV Nina, but for the sake of argument, I will refer to 'Nina' as the one you and I both see edited on this show}

The womens' + Dan's outdoor patio

 The men won that last challenge because of how unified the space appeared, indicative of the teamwork that was involved in the execution of the space. The women, on the other hand were disjointed from the get-go and their apartment appeared scattered as a result. Fast forward one challenge and now we've got the ol' switcheroo. The women are working well together (yay Dan!) and the men are at each other's throats (boo boys!). My how things change in the course of 24 hours and a whole lotta down time. Seems as though one day on top can instantly equal another day on the bottom if you don't stay Noble...as in Ms. Noble kiddos. Best if you just work the Casey approach and stay outta the crossfire. No wins, no losses, no ego, no problem! Casey is the one sly fox if you ask me.

Calm, cool, and collected Casey still smiling even with a power drill aimed right at her

Do I think the women + Dan had the better room? Not really. Do I think they merited the win based on a unified look? Absolutely. Although creatively lackluster, the purple patio did indeed look like one complete space. I felt that the men's team definitely had original ideas and inspired moments; however, the entire room felt discombobulated as a result of the inner turmoil that was brewing in the pot. Independently, I actually really liked Court's crazy yellow faux + Alex's conga corner.

I liked Michael's whimsical art piece and Tom's daybed + lounge area. I loved Trent's vetoed "Christmas" tree pick and could totally see a feature wall of sculpted topiaries had they purchased a bunch and lined them all up. This patio was definitely missing major foliage, especially when some genius decided to paint that focal wall grey. But I really felt for Trent as he was dragging his entire psycho-somatic self through this challenge only to be eliminated for seemingly wasted and wanton efforts. You could tell he wanted out 5 minutes into this episode (or maybe even sooner who knows).

The men's outdoor patio
photo credits:  HGTV

If you haven't a clue, competitive reality TV is a total mind*uck. You have no idea how mentally draining it is to compete on every level for individual ingenuity, collective consistency, vocal representation, and visual mastery. Personally, I thought we signed up for fun and games, expecting to win a show along the way. Who knew there'd be so much back-stabbing and smack-talking on HGTV?! The experience was isolated for all 12 of us, but it seems that for Trent, the risk far outweighed the reward so I don't blame him for calling quits to save the only dignity he had left going in to the show. I have yet to formulate any (dis)crediting conclusions about the other contestants so we'll just see how it all unfolds.

I'm still rooting for Tomcat. He's slick. He's cool. He's talented. And most importantly, he understands that winning doesn't mean at any cost.

Peace. Love. LOL Pin It