It was a super emotional episode of Design Star last night.
The challenge was simple. Two random designers were chosen to act as team captains for two suburban kitchen redesigns (the homes had adjoining back yards). The budget was $10,000/each team. At the end of the challenge, two designers would be eliminated. Captains turned out to be Neeraja and Granola Josh. From there, the captains chose, elementary school kickball style, one by one, their team members. They broke down like this:
Neeraja’s Team:
Sparkle Josh(!)
Scott Corridan
Kim Myles
Adrianna
Granola Josh’s team:
Todd Davis
Will Smith
Christina Ray
RobB Mariana
The designer enduring the embarrassing position of last choice was no surprise. RobB Mariani was described as “difficult” by Captain Neeraja. Clearly embarrassed by his last pick status, Mariani remarked on how tough it is to “eat humble pie” on national television in an individual interview.
In typical pithy style, Sparkle Josh described the teams facing off as Paul Bunyon (Granola Josh’s team) vs. Paula Abdul (Neeraja’s team). My man Josh has a serious gift for the sound byte and continues to be irresistibly charming any time the camera is pointed his way. I find myself wanting to pinch his sweet little cheeks, and he continues to be my favorite designer.
Complicating this challenge was the fact that designer Scott Corridan threw out his back. This necessitated a doctor visit to the penthouse. Scott was injected with some major pain killing meds. An emotional Scott later said in an individual interview how grateful he was for the medical treatment (he wasn’t able to get out of bed) and then was moved to tears again when Neeraja chose him early for her team despite his uncertain physical condition. (He made it thru the challenge with no further major incidents back-wise).
I’m increasingly worried, however, about the serious threat posed by Todd Davis. Todd didn’t break a sweat last challenge building both a table and quarter pipe skate boarding ramp in the penthouse challenge. Not only that, I can’t stop visiting his website. For reasons unknown, I love the soothing underwater quality of the thing and his original paintings are very appealing as well. In this week’s episode, despite Granola Josh’s designation as team captain, there was no question that Todd began leading the team from the first second they were on site.
The kitchens at the center of the challenge were unremarkable and drab. Both teams dug in with gusto. G-Josh’s team decided to go for a Tuscan style kitchen and dining area while Neeraja’s team opted for a wine themed design.
G-Josh’s team made serious progress early on, while Neeraja’s team was stymied by their decision (driven by Neeraja) to tile the entire kitchen counter top. It was ultimately this decision that proved to be fatal. The time to procure and complete the job was seriously under estimated and the team made the inexcusable faux pas of leaving the job essentially incomplete with the tile being poorly installed and totally un-grouted.
Winner of this challenge was: SPARKLE JOSH JOHNSON whose stellar shopping skills were the saving grace of the debacle that was Team Neeraja’s kitchen. On a limited budget, Josh put together a smashing dining room table and chairs, sexy floor to ceiling mirror, and yummy window treatments. My man Josh barely broke a sweat himself shopping for these important pieces, even managing to have time to primp in a showroom mirror and drawling on the way out of the store, “I do this all the time back home. Seriously.” Check out Josh's winning choices:
The challenge was simple. Two random designers were chosen to act as team captains for two suburban kitchen redesigns (the homes had adjoining back yards). The budget was $10,000/each team. At the end of the challenge, two designers would be eliminated. Captains turned out to be Neeraja and Granola Josh. From there, the captains chose, elementary school kickball style, one by one, their team members. They broke down like this:
Neeraja’s Team:
Sparkle Josh(!)
Scott Corridan
Kim Myles
Adrianna
Granola Josh’s team:
Todd Davis
Will Smith
Christina Ray
RobB Mariana
The designer enduring the embarrassing position of last choice was no surprise. RobB Mariani was described as “difficult” by Captain Neeraja. Clearly embarrassed by his last pick status, Mariani remarked on how tough it is to “eat humble pie” on national television in an individual interview.
In typical pithy style, Sparkle Josh described the teams facing off as Paul Bunyon (Granola Josh’s team) vs. Paula Abdul (Neeraja’s team). My man Josh has a serious gift for the sound byte and continues to be irresistibly charming any time the camera is pointed his way. I find myself wanting to pinch his sweet little cheeks, and he continues to be my favorite designer.
Complicating this challenge was the fact that designer Scott Corridan threw out his back. This necessitated a doctor visit to the penthouse. Scott was injected with some major pain killing meds. An emotional Scott later said in an individual interview how grateful he was for the medical treatment (he wasn’t able to get out of bed) and then was moved to tears again when Neeraja chose him early for her team despite his uncertain physical condition. (He made it thru the challenge with no further major incidents back-wise).
I’m increasingly worried, however, about the serious threat posed by Todd Davis. Todd didn’t break a sweat last challenge building both a table and quarter pipe skate boarding ramp in the penthouse challenge. Not only that, I can’t stop visiting his website. For reasons unknown, I love the soothing underwater quality of the thing and his original paintings are very appealing as well. In this week’s episode, despite Granola Josh’s designation as team captain, there was no question that Todd began leading the team from the first second they were on site.
The kitchens at the center of the challenge were unremarkable and drab. Both teams dug in with gusto. G-Josh’s team decided to go for a Tuscan style kitchen and dining area while Neeraja’s team opted for a wine themed design.
G-Josh’s team made serious progress early on, while Neeraja’s team was stymied by their decision (driven by Neeraja) to tile the entire kitchen counter top. It was ultimately this decision that proved to be fatal. The time to procure and complete the job was seriously under estimated and the team made the inexcusable faux pas of leaving the job essentially incomplete with the tile being poorly installed and totally un-grouted.
Winner of this challenge was: SPARKLE JOSH JOHNSON whose stellar shopping skills were the saving grace of the debacle that was Team Neeraja’s kitchen. On a limited budget, Josh put together a smashing dining room table and chairs, sexy floor to ceiling mirror, and yummy window treatments. My man Josh barely broke a sweat himself shopping for these important pieces, even managing to have time to primp in a showroom mirror and drawling on the way out of the store, “I do this all the time back home. Seriously.” Check out Josh's winning choices:
Coming in second on this challenge was iron man Todd Davis.
Not the least bit surprisingly, Neeraja was eliminated right off the bat for leaving a job incomplete. Vern Yip was nearly speechless w/indignation at this outcome. Design Star was forced to hire independent contractors to complete the tile job.
Three other heads ended up on the block: Obnoxious RobB for a drastically tragic crackle paint finish job on the so-called Tuscan redesign, Granola Josh for his non-existent leadership skills and failure to contribute almost anything to the team he was tapped to manage, and Kim Myles for her participation in the tile debacle.
Ultimately, Granola Josh’s show was cancelled. Another fair decision, I think. While billing himself as the “green” designer, Granola Josh was ultimately just plain old beige.
You can see all the before and after photos here.(SFW)
Coming up next week: the designers will be on their own creating a room each with supplies that look to be coming from the dollar store. Two will be eliminated.
2 comments:
Bizzy, do you know about televisionwithoutpity.com? I bet they'd pay you to review Design Star!
Hi Mary!
Yes, I've heard of TWoP! Maybe we do need to have a little chat. (Good lookin' out!)
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