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February 14, 2007: Life's a Beach
Though team challenges don't offer us much insight into each designer's unique tastes and talents, they sure supply lots of verbal sparring, stubborn individuality and bruised egos. In tonight's venture, teams of three set out to create a beach cabana that incorporated the mood and sensibility of a specific sunny destination. The various grievances seemed to result from each team member overseeing furnishings, fabric or hardware/construction.
Elizabeth on the Miami team said the city had a specific color palette, but they were "in agreeance to" infuse different colors and create "a respite" from the typical Miami milieu. Matt didn't seem to agree with the purple and yellow/green colors but chose to keep his mouth shut. Erik wasn't too worried; he had immunity from winning last week's challenge.
No team seemed to have to struggle to stay within budget, but all suffered under time constraints. After making designs and purchases, Todd Oldham revealed a new twist: teams had to completely finish in less than five hours (by midnight), disassemble the cabana for transport to the beach the next day, and assemble it there in four hours, with no electricity (using only hand- and battery-powered tools).
Most of the controversy revolved around Team St. Tropez, as Carisa and Ryan fought over the furniture and fabric assignments. Ryan, a 35-year-old artist, insisted he buy the furnishings; 26-year-old Carisa, a set designer, resented being stuck with fabrics (because she was the team's only woman, she surmised) and had no confidence in Ryan's ability to decorate a space. Goil did his best to neutralize the situation, but the team was still arguing over construction and design with only 15 minutes left of Day 1.
At the beach the next day, I was really impressed by what everyone was able to accomplish after a mere 16 hours of work. Still, as judge Jonathan Adler later said, everyone made "some very bad design choices" amid the fun and sun. Team Tahiti (Andrea, Felicia and a hyper Michael) worked well together to create a cabana fashioned after a Tahitian hut, with a sturdy deck on stilts, some ethereal, sheer, flowing curtains and... no roof as shelter from the sun.
Team Miami stayed true to its original acid-green and eggplant-purple colors, which were used as accents for a base wash that Elizabeth said was a "sophisticated silver tone" but looked like bland oatmeal to me.
The St. Tropez structure was inventive, breezy and modern, plus I could totally see the design had influences from yacht and mast shapes. (So far, Goil appears to be a strong contender as top designer.) But I understand the judges' point that it may have been too modern and minimalist for such a rich resort town. Regardless, Ryan's boring furnishings, myriad tchotchkes and "city of candles" reminded Adler of Buffalo, New York — ha!
Carisa's bad attitude, incessant complaining and near-tears in the White Room would have been far more annoying had she been wrong. But the judges sided with her: Ryan shouldn't have done the furniture shopping — not that Carisa's work won them over. Her heavy fabrics and primary colors didn't exude ritzy beach bumming in St. Tropez.
Still, once Miami's Elizabeth admitted that their hideous color scheme was her idea, the judges had no interest in keeping her around the PDC any longer.
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Feb 15, 2007 2:29 AM
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This show is okay, and I will continue to watch it. Wonder what the ratings are for it.
The line "See you later, Decorator" is so juvenile.
I think the artist, Ryan, will have to go home next time. I haven't seen much sign of his talent. I was positive that being an artist he would want to buy the fabric, but no, he went and made the lousy furniture purchases. Not that Carissa did any better with the fabric purchases. She should have demanded that she get to purchase the furniture. Being a set designer that would have been right up her alley, presumably.
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Feb 15, 2007 4:27 AM
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I don't think Elizabeth should have been eliminated based on the color alone. The whole design should have been taken into account. The judges could have imagined it in any color and taken it from there. I thought the design itself was better than the St. Tropez design and was furnished much better as well. They need to have only individual competitions as the team competitions are always dominated by one person and the other designers tend to fade into the background.
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Feb 15, 2007 12:07 PM
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I wasn't go to watch another episode ... but Bravo runs them over and over and I couldn't sleep ... it is not a very interesting show.
However ... I don't think a team that builds a beach cabana without a roof should win ... period. The main purpose of the cabana is to get a respite from the sun.
I did love Goil's structure. He said yachts, but it reminded me of those wonderful folding chairs of wood and striped canvas that you see at the beach (and some public parks) in France. To me it was modern and interesting and beautiful with clean lines. I think it would have fit right in in St. Tropez. It was the only thing that group did that would. I don't care that Carisa didn't want to get the fabrics ... she had to get them. As a set designer she has to play with color, but she was so pissed off about not getting to buy the furniture that she didn't herself any favors with the fabrics. Doesn't she reallize that all of this builds up over time as the judges and other get an idea of her work?
As for the horrible furniture, YEECH. But he as limited to shopping at Pier One and that is what they sell. It could have been fixed, reworked, brought to life with the right pastel fabrics... beach fabrics are almost always cool pastels ...
Oh well. not watching any more.
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Feb 15, 2007 4:49 PM
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So far I'm not wowed by this show. I have fallen asleep on it twice. HGTV's Design Star was a much better show of the same concept. I haven't thought much of the challenges so far, and the judges are boring. I'll keep watching to see if it gets any better, though.
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Feb 18, 2007 9:45 AM
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