This home located in Bradenton, Florida has amazing views of the Manatee River and was built in 2007. Granite countertops and custom cabinetry sparkle in the kitchen and in 3 bathrooms. It boasts 4 bedrooms and 4,244 interior square feet. This gem can be yours for the price of $1,025,000 USD and be viewed if you contact Michael Saunders & Company’s contact, Tammy Lynn Garner at 941-951-6660.

At first glance, nothing seems to be wrong with the home but, alas, as I stated before, it looks cold because there is no evidence of someone ever living here. As an interior designer and home stager, I have a few ideas for light staging in the entry hall and the family room/ living room. Stayed tuned to find out what my ideas are!

If you need your home staged or you are in need of an interior designer, please contact Interior Adoration, LLC today!

The two designers were to create a show and film it in 2 days with help from previously kicked off contestants. Meg’s pilot show, “Design Crimes”, was a play on her criminal background and new design career. Her search for a design crime in the home of the client revealed a wall covered in draperies, a huge Buddha hiding in the window and other issues. Let’s see how the living room for the expecting parents turned out.

 Meg meeting Andre and LaToya.

The Before views of the space

The After views of the space

I didn’t care much for the colors on the wall. (Could be because I have been painting shelving units at my 9 to 5 in that same color which has been dubbed “Smurf vomit” but myself and coworkers.) There was just too much of it and I would have broken the color up with a strip or some other pattern all around it or on one accent wall. What I did love was that she still placed draperies on the one wall but “faked” a window by adding mirrors under the curtains. Plus the curtains are the same color as the wall so it makes the space look larger in that area. The clutter that was filling the room has been removed and grown up furniture was introduced in the form of a dining set, a sofa and accent pieces. The Buddha was moved from the window to the center stage for the dining and living area. The furniture styles, although mixed, were out of place and sort of “picked” because of the palette. I felt that more detail and attention should have been paid to the new furniture. And of course, this week Meg got her television challenge groove back and delivered a powerful camera challenge. My grade for Meg’s design was a C+ and for the Camera challenge A+.

Karl’s pilot was “Inspired Design” where he would go to a client’s home and get inspiration for the design from the architecture all around the home. In the New York neighborhood that this client’s home was located in, there were old brownstones and beautiful accents on the buildings. Let see the beginning and the finish to this project.

Karl meeting with the home owners, John and Liz

The Before views of the space

The After views of the space

John and Liz asked for a streetwise Tuscan retreat. Two different styles, right? Wrong! Karl made it happen with the colors and feel of Tuscan architecture. He added sleek lines and a pretty cool custom painted (by Karl) armoire to the space. I feel the space achieved the look he was trying to go for and then some. The couple was extremely happy with the results and at the look of the room, we can all understand why. His camera challenges throughout the season have improved and this episode was no exception. He pulled out all the stops and nailed each take. My grade for Karl’s design was an A+ and the camera challenge was an A!

Both designs were extremely successful in the clients’ eyes and each camera challenge wowed the judges and even David Bromstad but who had what it took to become the new HGTV Design Star? Meet the new HGTV Design Star:

CONGRATS MEG!

The space before was dated and uninspiring.

 The introduction of pendants replaces the sconces on the wall so that more light can be spread about the area. Two chairs are added to create a full seating area. Mirrors on opposite walls bounce light around the room and make the space lighter. A fleur de lis motif is stenciled on the gold walls in purple to reflect the color combination. A rug grounds the space.

Have other ideas of what to include in this space? Send your comments here… we love feedback!

Meg: Everyone started with the same floor plan, or no plan, just one small difference, the exterior door color was different and where the home was place in Battery Park. Meg went in with guns a blazing and planned to have her guest carpenter, Chip Wade from Curb Appeal: The Block, build some floating shelves to act as storage and decoration. The color palette was simple and Meg planned for a “kitschy” style inside the home. Meg was the only design that created a “foyer” by placing the bathroom and closet right off the front door. Genius Meg! Hey drop down leaf on the side of the kitchen cabinetry was also a big hit for the judges. With her knack for decoration and accessorizing, Meg pulled it off. But more importantly, she nailed her first camera challenge which was to explain what she planned for her carpenter to work on and her reveal which was the second camera challenge. The camera loves her and we do too. Check out the little green house.

Mark: Even after leaving things a bit blank in the last challenge, Mark returned for another round. The great part is that he fared much better in the design aspect. His idea was to make a bold graphic and make the little home totally him. His love and knowledge of color was bound to come out and play in this challenge. His styling was well loved with the judges but after watching the first camera episode with his guest carpenter, Carmen De La Paz of Hammer Heads, the judges were left scratching their heads. He had no idea what he was doing and was trying to get Carmen to measure and she brought him back to Earth by telling him to, “Look into the camera and tell me what you have planned for me”. So sad that at this level, he can still be so rattled. The second camera challenge was, okay at best. Thank heavens his design was pretty sweet, although, no one understood the belts on the wall. In fact, the judges felt that the belts and graphic chopped up the wall. It did a little but I think, all in all, the home was a huge success.

Karl: Karl has impressed the judges more and more over the last few weeks with his camera challenges. He is finally coming into his own and this week was no different. He gave great information on his ideas for the little house. When speaking with his guest carpenter, Marc Bartolomeo from Kitchen Impossible, he also gave a great camera challenge and he was precise with what he wanted done. His designs have grown from week to week also. He has an eye for the architectural and a great love for beautiful things which he includes in every design he completes. He and his carpenter worked well together and the loft style bed he designed was also thought of by Mark but the main difference was that his design was more sophisticated and he was the only designer that addressed the outside of his little home. There was no winner for this week’s challenge but Karl was definitely the clear winner in this one… hands down!

So who left us right before the finale? Ladies and Gents, Mark has left the building! Stay tuned for my finale re-cap and a special blog on the highlights from the show.

Nate and the other judges… who are they again? LOL

Karl: Karl had the hardest time wrapping his head around the “budget” concept but he got it together and created a pretty cool room. Nate state he would have liked to have seen more of the fantastic bookcase that Karl made and less of the wrongly scaled clock. Karl’s bookcases where made of wood, l brackets and books! The books served as shelves on the units which he explained to the audience that they could use their child’s book and place their favorite teddy bear on the shelf. Nate said that he was relatable and captured the audience perfectly. He, of course, won the camera challenge.

Kellie: Kellie went in guns blazing. She is used to this type of budget being a mom and all. Problem is that she forgot about window coverings, her wall art was scaled perfectly but Nate described the room as “cheaply done” and not “sophisticated”. He hosting is always pretty good except for this week. Her nerves got the best of her and she just didn’t have any energy while she spoke. Her “look for less” item was awesome: cheap scatter rugs used as fabric for stools. She just didn’t describe it the way she should have and her room left us wanting more ideas like the stool.

Mark: Mark was sick to his stomach with thinking about what his “look for less” item was going to be but then, EUREKA… he figured it out. Although it was not the best idea according to Vern Yip. A light fixture with silver leafing on it to turn it from plain to spectacular, or so he though. He also design and forgot artwork on a whole wall! A “rookie mistake” according to Nate, and I have to agree. And just when we thought we had Mark figured out, he got so nervous before his camera challenge that he called the silver leafing, “tin foil”… big no, no. Vern explained that “we never want to give our audience the wrong information which can cause them to purchase the wrong material and get an undesirable outcome”. Well said Vern! Poor Mark with his mediocre design and horrible camera challenge. Nate also hated the tilted shelf cubes. LOL

Meg: Always a sigh of relief, her space was spectacular. Her ability to take things that are so inexpensive and so un-thought of and turn them into gold is a true gift. Nate and the other judges agreed that her space was the best of the four. (Meg, the star, won the challenge) Meg was the only designer that addressed the super high ceilings on each wall. Her method was genius: take molding and make stripes over each wall from the floor to the ceiling. Great idea that anyone can do. He “look for less” painted table was a hit but I thought the molding idea should have been her goldmine. The camera challenge, standing next to Karl, was equally as good as his but she went after Mark and asked the audience where her “oohs and ahhs were”? The room turned out sophisticated and totally livable. She makes me proud!

So who exited this week? Ladies and gents… Kellie has left the building! So sad… she was so cute! See who gets the ax next week at www.interioradoration.wordpress.com!

In looking for a home to imagine as my own, I came across this lovely Frank Mead home in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. I group up in Cleveland which was a hop and a skip from Cleveland Heights but my childhood home was a bit more modest than this one. This home boasts 6 bedrooms, 3.3 baths on .9 acres of land. The 6,242 square feet can hold a small army but the home maintains a cozy and warm feeling throughout. Unfortunately for the furnishings, it can also scare away the allies. Pastels, floral and all around bad furnishing from the 80′s are seen throughout the pictures. You have a look and tell me you’re not worried! Have no fear, tomorrow; I will have a sketch of the new, more up to date look on a room in this home… stay tuned.

The outside is grand and gorgeous.

A little dated but I will make sure it gets the attention it deserves. J

You can see this $1,150,000 home (Contact Timothy Riffle at Howard Hanna Real Estate Services: 216-721-1210) and many others on www.christiesrealestate.com .

So the most that I could find on here was information about her handbags and her love for the fashion industry. Modeling her handbags and coining the phrase, “Handle Your Business” has launched her accessories line right off into the sky. But what do we know of her interiors? She has worked with celebrities such as Tyra Banks and Gabrielle Union on designing their homes. Her style is sleek lines and bling… loads of bling. She takes risks and designs with metals like silver and gold in the same space. The key is, “selecting which metal with be dominant and sprinkling the other in here and there.” Smart move, one that has provided her the luxury of designing for celebs. I hope to see more from Miss Chu but here are some of her more recent works and link to her website.

http://www.nikkichu.com/

 Nikki Chu and Jennifer Convy give the Fanning family the French Country look they have always dreamed of.

Karl was lucky enough to draw the Master Bedroom. The bedroom that the clients had was just plain boring even though the navy blue wall color was daring. Karl took what he knew from interviewing the client and made an architectural statement in the room. Adding a chandelier that the wife wanted but the husband wasn’t sure about was one of the “smartest moves” he made said the clients. The chandelier was contemporary but classy and not at all 100% feminine. The sparkle from the chrome was feminine while the large drum shade brought a masculine side to it. A headboard made of crushed fabric was “the right scale and the right choice” according to Vern Yip. He was smart to add crown molding to make the room feel much more elegant and he also added a small but certainly grand element under the window: A architectural wainscoting feature that was Gidding’s “Favorite thing in the room.” Karl really brought it this week and won the design challenge and the hosting challenge. He made me proud… I was worried after last week.

Kudos to the homeowners for at least adding color interest to the space. (Master Bedroom before)

Excellent reuse of the color in a more elegant way. (Master Bedroom after)

Mark came in close second with his two room hitter. Mark was to redesign the living room into a fun hangout spot that represented the husband’s love of music and records but the Misses was sure to want the dining space kept elegant for dinner guests. Although two rooms was a scary thought, Mark took it with great stride producing a strangely cohesive design. The living room included a wall installation of old records that popped off of the wall… Vern Yip and I both thought it was genius. The furniture in the space was not stuffy and invited all to come in and stay awhile. Genevieve Gorder even agreed that it looked very comfortable and easy to sit in. The layout was even on point. As you walked from the living room, a really cool wooden post divider separated that space from the dining area. The texture didn’t stop there though, a “magnificent”, quoted from Mr. Gidding himself, raw edged slab table was the centerpiece of the space. Even though it was rough and raw in its texture, it was long and sleep and very elegant. The rooms could coexist and not overpower each other. But best of all: Mark did the whole thing himself and actually finished! Job well done Mark! (BTW… Mark picked out the flooring for all the rooms too!)

 The living room was way too white and what was with that “faux” fireplace? (Living room and dining room before)

Cohesive in an odd way but very nice nonetheless. (Living room and dining room after)

My favorite hopeful, Meg, had to tackle the downstairs and upstairs foyer areas. The clients wanted something that looked very grand but that was functional also. Meg’s idea of a reading area at the upstairs foyer was a great idea but running out of time, it was slapped together and looked the part. None of the judges were impressed with the lack of thought that went into it. The downstairs foyer could have been a great success had she not installed an unevenly hanging lantern installation crooked… literally! You could see that it was going to be crooked as she drilled the board into the wall. The lanterns and sitting area and the main chandelier was her greatest accomplishment but when you don’t have time to care, why should you be a Design Star? A slap on the wrist from the judges and me for coming off of strong previous weeks and giving us this incomplete body of work.

This foyer was screaming for attention! Why not? Where you enter the home prepares guests for the rest of the home’s feel. (Downstairs and upstairs foyer before)

The pop of color on the artwork was disjointed from the rest of the space and Genevieve found the lack of styling “a crime”. Such a missed opportunity. (Downstairs and upstairs foyer after)

Kevin was to tackle the massive family room. The space had almost nothing inside of it except a huge fireplace and a sectional and a few more items. This room was on its knees, begging for Kevin to bring it! He fell short, let’s be honest, he didn’t even touch the surface here. He added another sectional in the same place, which should have been a separate sofa and chairs so that this area could be the television watching area and then there should have been a reading/fireplace area separately. There is no excuse for him to be the designer and placing the furniture in the same place and the same type that the client had before. We are hired, as designers, to give the clients the right and different options that they couldn’t figure out on their own. And as Vern Yip stated, “This sad coffee table sitting in front of the fireplace is out of place completely”. I mean, who does that? I think the best thing going in this space was the raw plank of wood used as a mantle and the great artwork that the client already had. The styling was horrible and the camera challenge was of him steamrolling the clients before they could even comment.

This room looked very much like they had just moved in and never finished the space. (Family room before)

I would never sit on a coffee table in front of the fireplace and I’m guessing the clients’ wouldn’t either. (Family room after)

Kellie pulled one of the little boy’s room and was totally excited because she has a family of her own. That was until the little boy asked for a sports room equipped with lockers and a bunk bed. For Kellie, that meant he wanted something other than a bunk bed and something more elegant than lockers. WRONG! “They want what they want” Genevieve explained to her while Gidding told her, “it’s not up to you to decide if the space will be dated. It’s up to you to make sure it isn’t dated.” Sad wooden crates with hooks under them were not lockers and a raised bed with a small hiding area underneath it that houses a soccer mat does not equal sports and bunk bed. You have to make your design voice heard but when it comes to children, you have to give them what they want. The room was a complete misfire and a backfire all rolled into one.

The color was great but no accessories or sports items made this little boy’s room dull and ready for updating. (Bedroom #1 before)

Although the colors were great, nothing that the client asked for was given which made this room fail. (Bedroom #1 after)

Leslie, also a mother, was lucky enough to get the other little boy’s room. He wanted a rock star theme full of things he could express with like a microphone. Leslie was all in and wanted to give him everything. The problem was that she did. She placed things in the room that didn’t go with other themes in the room which resulted in a mish-mosh of a design. She also tried making a stage by cutting a hula-hoop in half and attaching, what looked to be shower curtains. All and all, I think it was way too much going on and too much for the parent’s to take in at that moment because they seemed pretty okay with it. The judges, on the other hand, were not happy about the birds, dinosaurs, music and sports theme scattered all over the place. I also thought that at one point, Vern Yip was going to rip the hula-hoop contraption right off the wall. Who could blame him if he did? This was what I like to call a “des-epic fail!” (Design Epic Fail)

This room is being used but obviously has no character. With such lively children, it needs that something to make it pop. (Bedroom #2 before)

I don’t think this is what anyone had in mind when they said he was talented and should have a lively room. With aliens, birds, dinosaurs, comic books, music and movie stuff, this poor boy have a heart attack by age 15. (Bedroom #2 after)

So what two designers just didn’t fit the bill? Ladies and Gents: Leslie and, surprisingly, Kevin have left the building! Double eliminations are always emotional so until next time, I will sit back and cry that Kevin is gone which means no more “Kitschy Chic”. Boo hoo….

 Host and judges: Genevieve Gorder, Tanika Ray, Dina Manzo, and Vern Yip.

Val and Cynthia, the groom and bride, tell the contestants what they want their reception to be like.

The space to be designed…. Scary!

Kevin, Mark, and Karl: The gentlemen were in charge of the men’s lounge, furniture, lighting and the bar. Early on, Karl disagreed with the selection of “Rat Pack” style furniture for the men’s lounge even though it is exactly what the client asked for. I understood his reasoning behind it but I have to say, within reason, you give the client what they want and as a designer, you find ways to make it work. Mark’s lighting was called brilliant and elegant by the judges and the “skateboard” screen was a hit with Vern Yip. “He made it personal”, said Yip. Surprisingly, Kevin did a great job with furniture selection and placement because Karl left them high and dry to work on something else because his voice was not being heard. Bad move Karl.

Karl installing the skateboard screen.

A contemporary/Victorian bar. Very elegant and modern.

Seating area to the bar is very white and elegant with a modern take on a Victorian sofa. Genevieve and Dina loved this sectional.

Groom’s Lounge with its retro vibe was mostly styled by Kevin.

Meg and Kellie: These two ladies volunteered for the dance floor, the cakes and floral decorations. They were on the same page right from the beginning. The colors were to be bright and go well with white, per the Bride’s request. Kellie envisioned a fabric draping over the dance floor with a large and very elegant chandelier. She even sketched it while Cathy made it a point to argue with everyone about the fact that her wedding, which she planned and designed, was published in 3 magazines. (Who the hell cares?) Meg, admittedly, never worked with floral arrangements but took risks with the centerpieces, according to Genevieve and Vern. That’s what we love about Meg, she is not afraid.

The cake had a contemporary twist but the fabric and chandelier definitely say “Victorian Romance”.

The cake was so pretty.

Dina stated that the scale was off on the centerpieces but I disagree. The glass made the space easy for conversation because it took up less visual space. The simplicity of the floral was understated and romantic to me.

Leslie and Cathy: Although Cathy surely took over everything, they were both responsible for the linens, place settings, sign-in table, and sweethearts table. Leslie covered the beautiful capital table with cheaply designed linen. The problem was that all the linens they selected looked cheap. When thinking Victorian style, lush fabrics and layers come into play. And they didn’t even include any lace! Cathy, who was published for her “great” wedding, committed a crime with the plain table settings and the boring sweethearts table. The judges were not impressed at all. Even her camera challenge was pretty horrible.

 Vern Yip said that the only thing he liked about this space was the lanterns. (Leslie’s sign in table.)

Drab table linens were everywhere in the space which didn’t promote romance at all… and the tables linens should have been steamed Cathy!

Cathy’s sad sweethearts table. I could have purchased that fabric from a craft store.

So who left the building this week? Thank GOD… Cathy has finally left the building! Stay tuned for episode 7 when some lucky family gets HGTV’d!