S08.E05: DSI: Design Scene Investigation

[Tara Ariano]

The design team puts finishing touches on actor George Eads' Hollywood Hills residence. Meanwhile, Jeff seeks his own place to live and work, but an epic rainstorm could dash away his plans.

[Irritable]

I felt bad for George Eads when he was talking about how listening to everyone trash the way his house looked when it was full of things he had picked out was like a dagger through the heart.  I eventually stopped watching House Hunters in part because it bugged me when someone would bash something that I had in my home, like, "OMG THOSE HIDEOUS CURTAINS!  Ripping them down is the first thing I'm going to do in that house!"  Um, those curtains are silk, motherfucker, and you can kiss my ass.  The final straw was when someone went on and on about a ceiling fan that they just couldn't handle in any way, and it was one I had recently put in our living room.  Sure, not everyone's taste is the same, but you don't have to be shitty about someone else's choices.  Listening to people snark so hard on his stuff right in front of his face must have suuuuuuucked.  And to be honest, the minimalist thing doesn't work for me, it gives me unhappy feelings.  The Eads' new kitchen and living area looked cold and not at all welcoming to me.  I am less likely to feel depressed in a room with shag carpet, a rock fireplace and big fluffy pillows than I am in a stark room full of hard lines and dead space.

 

I'm kind of excited that Jeff's temporary home won't be ready in time and he had to buy back another old property.  It's fun watching him work his magic, even though it sounds like he's going to do the modern, hard, cold, minimalist thing again.

 

Where did Jeff even find a grown person who thinks what human beings breathe in all day and night is carbon dioxide?  No matter how dim his bulb may be, I will always like him better than Andrew, but damn.  That was sad.  Someone slipped through the cracks of the educational system.

[rehoboth]

I usually loooooove Jeff's work but the Eads' kitchen left me feeling a shade of grey.  The things they added made it feel more like a home.  I remember Jeff's old partner Ryan saying that he added a layer of warmth to Jeff's designs.

 

It looked like Jeff got the George Eads treatment with Gage walking around the Hollywood house thinking how bad it looked.  I was thinking that it needed the Jeff Lewis treatment too but then I am not a fan of Spanish houses.

 

Anyone is better than Andrew who was psycho-killerish.  I would not be watching if Andrew was back.

[walnutqueen]

I felt so bad for George Eads, and so mad at his wife and the Jeff Lewis blah design train.  They bled every drop of character and charm right out of the house and George's heart.    Needless to say, I am not a fan of the Jeff Lewis look.  Love him, not his aesthetic.

 

Is Gage a secret plucker?  I noticed him pulling at his eyebrow/eyelashes a couple of times this episode ...

[gunderda]

I actually thought George's house before the design looked pretty good.  Very masculine but for someone who apparently did it himself (he said he wasn't used to working with a designer) it was really nice. 

[Writing Wrongs]

I felt bad for George, too. I'm glad he said something. He's the one paying for shit, he should feel comfortable in his own home. Personally, I don't like the minimalist, white and gray stuff. I like dark woods and cozy furniture and lots of stuff around.

[psychoticstate]

So glad I am not the only one less than impressed with George Eads' new design.  It was just so damn cold with all the white and gray.  Nothing inviting whatsoever.  I'm with George on not feeling those pillows either.  My heart broke for him when he spoke about how much he loved throwing wood in the old fireplace and now it's just gone. 

 

Clearly he and his wife have very different design styles.  Didn't Jeff and his team meet with BOTH of them prior to the renovation and design a style and space that would work for both?  Does Jeff ever do color or maybe even more of a Spanish/Mediterranean theme?  Ugh, I just hated the end result.

 

A bit OT but my office building is undergoing reno and is moving to the white and gray color palette.  Nobody likes it.  It's very sterile and unwelcoming.  Most of us think it looks like a hospital. 

 

For the record, I like white and gray as accent colors but not the ONLY colors.

[Irritable]

I think in the beginning George had no idea how the renovation would make him feel.  He probably said okay because it was what his wife wanted, and he might have even thought he didn't care what Jeff did as long as his wife loved it.  But then during the process he realized that he did care, but it was too late, everything he had liked about the home had been demolished and removed.  So glad at least he ended up with some furniture pieces that made him feel more comfortable. 

 

There was some crazy wallpaper in their master bath that I was like, what even IS that????  I would be itchy spending time in a small room with that weird pattern all around me.

[biakbiak]

I didn't feel bad for George I thought his house was hideous before. He also clearly checked out of the process and felt the whole thing was fake.

That said I hated that kitchen and its going to look dated in a year. I am.so over the two.island trend.

[rehoboth]

I didn't feel bad for George I thought his house was hideous before. He also clearly checked out of the process and felt the whole thing was fake.

That said I hated that kitchen and its going to look dated in a year. I am.so over the two.island trend.

 

I don't think George's original house was hideous but it had to go.  It was George from ten years ago; it was his party pad.  His wife and family weren't represented at all.  They did go pretty far away from what George likes so I am glad that he spoke up and compromises were reached.  It was satisfying to watch.  Usually when Jeff Lewis is involved with a dispute there is a lot of passive-aggressive behavior so this was positively refreshing.

[Crankybroad]

That furniture didn't look very baby/toddler/young-child friendly.

[breezy424]

I'm glad George finally spoke up.  That house was 'cold' especially the kitchen.  George wanted a 'home' where he could be comfortable.  What he got was a sterile house. 

 

I find that Jeff has a one dimensional palate.  It gets kind of boring.

[LilaFowler]

I predict George will get tired of that sterile house and eventually put it on the market rather than remodel again.  I'm not going to blame him when he does.  I don't really care for Jeff's aesthetic. 

[Irritable]

I expect that the majority of interior designers out there are in business to design spaces based on styles their clients request, but Jeff seems to be more on the side of "they know what my style is when they hire me, so my style must be what they want and is what they're going to get".   Maybe that's one of the benefits of hitting the big time like Jeff has - his reputation precedes him in such away that he no longer has to "suffer" through designing homes using colors and styles that he doesn't personally like.  No one is going to hire him to do the best French country kitchen money can buy, and if they tried he would turn the job down.  Most designers don't have that luxury. But doesn't it seem like that would get dull after a while?  Part of choosing a career in a field like this is usually because one enjoys being creatively challenged, and I'm not sure that's really part of Jeff's world anymore - he churns out one particular design style that is currently popular with enough wealthy people in California to cash their big checks and make a very comfortable living.  I mean, I wouldn't mind cashing a bunch of fat checks either, I'm not hating on that, it just seems to go against one's creative nature to boil their own work down this way.

[raiderred1]

George Eads and I went to college together. He was" Phi Delt" and those were definitely the hot Greek guys. I was a GDI, but I had a good friend that was a Phi Delt and he always invited me to their parties. I must say George is still a looker!

BTW, how did I know that there would be a lot of grey in George's remodel? (insert sarcasm) Gah, Jeff needs to rein it in on his drab pallette.

[Locutus]

Joe needs to realize that pretty fades, but stupid is forever.

[Misslindsey]

Small voice....I like Jeff's design aesthetic. I think George would have had more input in the design, but from what it sounded like with his wife and Jeff that he was busy when they were going over details and shopping for furniture. George was probably working, but it could explain why he did not have much input in the design and such.

[Irritable]

Jeff just posted this on Facebook:

 

Fired from @LivingSpaces.  Can I take Advil for depression?  #HR #channagate  #scapegoat  #kickedtothecurb  #devasated

 

Excuse me while I go eat my words, because apparently you CAN do your job poorly and make it bite someone else in the ass.  I'm pretty surprised by this, honestly.

[clod]

he and his employees were "acting up" on tv,  and made the company look bad.       

 

IMO, his assistants should have made sure all the parts and pieces were available for the shoot.

[hatchetgirl]

 

Jeff, not being corporate, didn't understand you don't air company business in public, especially personnel issues.

 

No kidding. I'm sure there is some contract that allowed him some filming in the shop and probably setting up a photoshoot, but I doubt there was anything about allowing discussion of personnel issues.  I think it could potentially be a lawsuit for Channa about harassment at the workplace.  Nightmare!

[Irritable]

LivingSpaces and their employees all knew the catalog shoot was being filmed, and everyone whose face was shown signed a waiver, so it seems that they would have understood that whatever happened might make it on the show.  I still don't get why this big company would truck in tons of pieces for the shoot without any kind of checklists.  Isn't that standard?  Jeff's assistants probably helped during the time when Jeff chose everything he wanted to have brought to the house, but it was on LivingSpaces to make sure those pieces made it on the trucks.  The warehouse being 2 hours away ensured that Jeff's people couldn't just run and pick up everything that was missing.  At best they could have run to a local store to grab a few things to make do, and considering the shoot was Jeff's to design and direct, it would have made more sense for one of the LivingSpaces employees to run that errand, but no one seemed to offer. 

 

I agree that Jeff and Co. ended up acting like passive aggressive children, but this was after Jeff had repeatedly asked where things were he had ordered, only to be blankly informed "No, I didn't bring that. No, I didn't bring those."  Jeff has a physical need for people to acknowledge when they make a mistake, and the way Channa appeared not to care that the things left behind were important is exactly the kind of thing that pushes his buttons.  I mean, she brought no candles????  That is Staging 101, you always have candles, period.  And if you legitimately forgot to make sure they were sent to the shoot, then how hard is it to say, "No, I didn't bring any candles, I'm sorry about that."  An ounce of contrition would have gone a long way with Jeff. The whole thing was sloppy on both sides, but I'm still Team Jeff on this one.

Edited August 1, 2015 by Irritable

[goodbyeglittergirl]

Yeah, I'm Team Jeff as well. After discovering how many things Channa did NOT bring to the shoot, someone from LivingSpaces should have made a quick run to the nearest shop and picked up at least some candles and glassware, etc. But they didn't, and Channa seemed very nonchalant about it when I think we all know Jeff would have responded better to a BIG apology and effort to make it right.

 

I spent time the other night on the LIvingSpaces website looking at furniture, and I would never have heard of them without Flipping Out.

[pasdetrois]

I'm glad he got fired. Maybe he and his smug toadies will learn a little humility. They acted like immature brats, regardless of the cause. People make big mistakes in the workplace all the time - that's no excuse for trying to humiliate a person on television. They were relentless instead of shutting up and just figuring it out.

Edited August 1, 2015 by pasdetrois

[zenme]

I think Jeff and his crew should have been excoriated--publicly, and maybe even on camera or via phone on camera, but I think Channa actually dropped the ball.  She's the one, IMHO, who looked disorganized and as though she sabotaged the shoot.  I hope she got fired too.

[hatchetgirl]

I'm sure they ask signed a contract, but who knows on the editing. She was not professional at all but we don't know the back story. We were spoon fed what Jeff wanted us to know.

In the end, if this is your dream job, you don't make it or someone, look bad on TV. That was all on him. If he wanted this so bad, he would have played corporate nicey nice. He didn't. He made them look bad, their employee look bad and he got fired. Anyone doing that would be fired.

Living spaces is a little low brow for him anyway. I'm shocked he partnered with them in the first place

[LIGirl]

I'm pretty sure Jeff saying this Living Spaces gig was his "dream job" was totally sarcastic.  I'm sure everything he's doing with his own company and all of the successes he's achieved (and continues to achieve) without Living Spaces is a big enough dream come true for him.

[Misslindsey]

If Channa forgot something occasionally it would be one thing, but it sounded like she forgot a lot of stuff repeatedly, and it seemed to be Jeff's stuff. I would have sympathy for her if I thought it was actually a mistake, but with that amount of stuff that was not at the shoot sounded a bit hinky. I do think Channa signing a waiver to appear on the show while intentionally sabotaging Jeff gives me some doubt, but people do stupid stuff all the time. Who really knows, maybe it was a member of her staff that was screwing with things. I would assume that Channa would be cheaper to keep on than Jeff, but I do not work in that industry so I do not know. I also wonder if they will keep with Jeff's idea of shooting at locations or go back to the studio.

[TaxNerd]

My guess is the firing had less to do with Channa, and more to do with Jeff's price tag. On location shoots versus studios, high dollar furniture and lots and lots of decorations, plus Jeff's fee (and his staff?)and I bet he cost more than the magazine expected. They just wanted some publicity from the show, and I bet their website didn't see the traffic they expected after the show aired.

The previous poster was right that he didn't know how to play corporate. He complained to his boss and his boss immediately had the very valid suggestion of using checklists. He kind of acted like Jeff was an idiot for waiting until the third time he had the same issue.

Oh yeah, and George's remodel was the first of Jeff's I didn't care for. Although the bar area did look better after, the kitchen looked like an Ikea showroom to me.

Edited August 3, 2015 by TaxNerd

[gunderda]

I'm sure Jeff could care less about Living Spaces.  He more than likely did it because they gave him complete creative direction. 

He told them he hated their stuff and they still hired him lol