designstar

Designstar is a show on HGTV. The selected 11 people this season with all different levels of experience.

Adriana- She was very sweet and had good ideas. She couldn't pull it together during the first individual challenge (show 3) and was eliminated.

Christine- Cute Southern gal. She was great with color and did well at the individual challenge.

Josh (sparkle)- They played him up to be an outrageous character (all faux fur and sequins). He was really more down to earth. He excelled in all 3 of the first challenges.

Josh- Talked a lot about "green" design, but didn't seem to practice what he preached. He said he had carpentry skills but failed at this in the first challenge (there is a great scene of him using the table saw and having a piece of wood shoot across the room). He was eliminated at the 2nd challenge.

Kim- She is a hair stylist, not an interior designer. She stepped up at the individual challenge, where she was definitely on the chopping block. She seems nice, but hasn't shown a whole lot of personality.

Lisa- She was spunky and the sacrificial lamb of the season. She was the punk artist, but couldn't follow through on the first design challenge.

Nerraja- An older candidate with a career as a photo stylist. They played her up to be the bitch, but she didn't turn out to be such a big one after all. She was the team lead on the 2nd challenge and was eliminated.

Robb- The "jerk" of the season. He failed miserably in the first challenge by teaming himself up with Josh. He did an excellent job at the individual challenge. He seems to have potential, but all the other contestants hate him.

Scott- A sweet guy, but he didn't seem to have much design in him. He was eliminated at the individual challenge.

Todd- A surfer dude with a brain. They made him out to be very egotistical before the show started, but seems to have been a team player so far. He has outstanding graphic design skills, but we have yet to see him design a "real" room. He has carpentry skills as well, and reminds me the most of last season's winner.

Will- He hasn't shown too much personality so far, other than complaining about Robb. He excelled in the first challenge and the individual challenge.


The Challenges

The first challenge was to design the penthouse space they are living in. Some people did individual spaces and some paired up. Christine and Ariana fought the whole time about the space they did, and it turned out rather mediocre. Sparkle Josh and Will got along really well and did an awesome job on their space. Scott, Kim, and Todd worked together and did well (Todd built a quarter-pipe skate ramp). Robb and Josh paired up and ended up with something horrible. Lisa did her own space and fell flat. The panel said that she took a functional space (the entrance from the work space to the living space) and made it non-functional.

The second challenge was to renovate 2 kitchen spaces. Neeraja was the lead and decided to tile the counter tops. This would have been fine if they had started tiling on the first day. In the end they couldn't afford the tile they wanted and chose cheap black ceramic tile. They also hadn't measured (!) and didn't buy enough tile. Sparkle Josh did the dining room and it turned out really well. Josh was the leader of the other team. They did a Tuscany style kitchen which the homeowners had asked for and loved. They were criticized by the panel as being very faux Tuscany. Josh and Neeraja were eliminated. Josh was eliminated for not stepping up to lead his team (he was already on the chopping block) and Neeraja was eliminated for the tile fiasco.

The third challenge was to individually design a space that had a couch, end table, and bookcase. The only place they could shop was the 99 cent store! (last year's challenge had them shopping at a pet store) Quite a few people excelled at this challenge. Ariana and Scott were eliminated. Their rooms weren't too bad, but not on par with what the other challengers had done. Ariania's looked rather cheap (while the premise had been to take cheap stuff and make it look awesome) and Scott had overdone his room. He had so many things in there you could hardly see the furniture.

I haven't watched last night's episode yet.

Who do I want to win? I like Todd and Robb. They have a couple of manly men shows now (one with the carpenter from Clean Sweep and one with the host from Monster House), but something that incorporates design AND building could be cool.