S10.E04: Motorcycle Mama and Tropical Travelers

[FormerMod-a1]

Quote

Paige Davis, Ty Pennington, John Gidding, Brett Tutor and Joanie Sprague create rooms for a motorcycle-riding mama who likes to rev it up and a couple looking for a tropical retreat of relaxation.

Original airdate: April 6, 2019

[DVDFreaker]

John’s beard makes him look 50 when he is actually 42, he did a okay job on his room, I did not really like the wood but on the other hand and I though Tygert’s room sucked! At least both homeowners loved the rooms 

[ams1001]

• How many people does it take to paint one wall?
• The blue couple is gonna disappear when they're done painting that room
• Somehow I'm having difficulty reconciling "biker chick" with "church hats"
• Gee, I'm shocked they picked the bench that Paige pointed out immediately after saying they could pick whatever they wanted from the tent (though it's the only thing I saw that would even work in a "tropical" themed room, anyway).
• I was thinking, "I like that desk" and of course they picked it. No wonder the camera kept focusing on it.
• That blue room seems so dark..
• Ty's room is just a little (okay, more than a little) much...(I don't hate the fabric on the ceiling concept but the seam down the middle kinda ruins it)
• Not lovin' either room; just not my taste. But the homeowners all seemed happy. I like when they have good reactions.
• I wonder how tall the blue team husband is. Paige looks tiny next to him and the internet tells me she's 5'7".

[Bastet]

I don't know how the designers refrain from asking, "Why the hell are you on the show?"  People always freak out at the paint color, and then really lose it at every design element, acting like it's the most bizarre thing they've ever heard of.  Just do the work, enjoy the experience, and see how it comes together.  I wouldn't last, because I'd say, "If you or your friends knew how to design a room, your houses wouldn't be so damn boring.  And if boring is what you like, don't apply for the show."  Grrr.

Ty's room was too on the nose with the tropical theme for my taste, but they liked it.  The fabric on the ceiling looks nice, except that horrible seam in the middle.  I think the headboard and the wall treatment compete with each other, so I'd have made that wall plain like the wall opposite it, and just done the treatment on the side walls.

The motorcycle cave John designed might be cool if they upgrade it a bit - I like the general idea, and the art, but no to that nasty wood.  (I liked Joanie's "ew" at hearing there would be OSB on the walls.)  They can't do anything to it because of his artwork, but they could make a hat display case out of good wood and paint it an accent color, or even better wood and stain it to coordinate with the desk.  And get a new couch to replace the slipcovered one -- if they fill the room with better furnishings, and weave in some rough finishes in decorative items, the wall treatment might work a little better.  What did they put over the opening of that one tire of the "coffee table"?  Not much of a table if you can't put anything on it.

I wouldn't want either room, but I don't think they're awful, and the homeowners seemed excited.

I love that Ty's first example of great partnerships was Cagney & Lacey.  I also laughed at Brian begging them to edit out Keshia being all schmoopy.

[HunterHunted]

I hated the OSB wood walls in John's room. It looked terrible. John also told Joanie not to sand it, so it's going to be a rough splinter filled mess because they didn't seal it either.

Ty's room was oooooooooook, but that ceiling seam would drive me bonkers and the room mysteriously had no usable storage afterwards.

[ams1001]

2 minutes ago, Bastet said:

What did they put over the opening of that one tire of the "coffee table"?  Not much of a table if you can't put anything on it.

They sort of draped a couple blankets over/into it. Not useful as a table but I guess it makes for an easy place to toss a throw blanket when you're not using it.

[Bastet]

6 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

They sort of draped a couple blankets over/into it.

That was the tire stack on the left, but there was something over the opening of the one on the right.  I couldn't tell if it was an affixed surface, or if they just perched a tray large enough to cover the hole (or if there was rope covering the opening and a tray or something sitting on top of that).

[ams1001]

2 minutes ago, Bastet said:

That was the tire stack on the left, but there was something over the opening of the one on the right.  I couldn't tell if it was an affixed surface, or if they just perched a tray large enough to cover the hole (or if there was rope covering the opening and a tray or something sitting on top of that).

Ah...it looked like they covered something with the rope to sit in the top? Maybe a tray (or even a scrap piece of wood from the walls)? I don't think they showed that (or if they did I missed it).

[SHD]

I guess the people in the tropical bedroom don’t need dressers anymore? I know what they were going for, but the unfinished wood for the bed just looked cheap. Even a coat of clear varnish would’ve helped.

I hated the motorcycle room. The color seemed too dark for that small of a space and I despised that wood on the walls. I thought the way the room was before was much nicer.

But it’s not about me, and the homeowners liked the rooms, so well done, I guess.

[txhorns79]

44 minutes ago, SHD said:

I guess the people in the tropical bedroom don’t need dressers anymore? I know what they were going for, but the unfinished wood for the bed just looked cheap. Even a coat of clear varnish would’ve helped.

Yeah, it was another design that kind of falls apart when you look past the initial reveal to ask how it will work for everyday use.  The night stands were replaced with cheap looking boxes, the dresser is gone and also replaced with cheap looking boxes.  Even the bedframe, while well built, looked cheap.  Also, I kind of wanted someone to sit down with Ty and suggest he go for a more mature-looking hairstyle. 

[ams1001]

I guess the tropical couple can store all their stuff in their new Wayfair bench..

[meowmommy]

20 hours ago, HunterHunted said:

Ty's room was oooooooooook, but that ceiling seam would drive me bonkers and the room mysteriously had no usable storage afterwards.

That seam is hideous.  

I liked the blue, but not from ceiling to floor.  Why not a lighter blue for the ceiling?

20 hours ago, Bastet said:

I don't know how the designers refrain from asking, "Why the hell are you on the show?"  People always freak out at the paint color, and then really lose it at every design element, acting like it's the most bizarre thing they've ever heard of.  Just do the work, enjoy the experience, and see how it comes together.

ITA, but then, Hildi.

The red female HO complained from the first moment, because she said she and her friend had the same taste.  Didn't see any evidence that her friend goes for motorcycles and crazy hats.  

Her son said he'd never seen the broom-as-paintbrush technique before, and he was right.  Because it looks like shit.  He wanted to give Ty a chance, but once he saw what the design would be, he backed right off.  And rightly so.  Such a freaking literal interpretation of the tropics.  Kia could have pulled that off.

I'm glad the couple likes it, though.  That's what matters in the end.

20 hours ago, SHD said:

I despised that wood on the walls. I thought the way the room was before was much nicer.

That wood is nasty.  There was nothing wrong in the old room except it was bland.  The HO could have put some color on the walls, thrown in a few accessories to reflect her interests, and she would have had a very nice room.  

Again, glad she liked it.  Somebody needs to.

[camom]

I really liked both families and am glad they were happy with their rooms.  I didn't like either room at all.  I don't think I could stand even one night looking up at that fabric seam on the ceiling of the bedroom.  And that rough wood in the motorcycle room was hideous.

[gorgy]

This is one of those rare episodes where both rooms are so bad, I question ever watching again

[HunterHunted]

23 hours ago, Bastet said:

I don't know how the designers refrain from asking, "Why the hell are you on the show?"  People always freak out at the paint color, and then really lose it at every design element, acting like it's the most bizarre thing they've ever heard of.  Just do the work, enjoy the experience, and see how it comes together.  I wouldn't last, because I'd say, "If you or your friends knew how to design a room, your houses wouldn't be so damn boring.  And if boring is what you like, don't apply for the show."  Grrr.

I think the show has drummed it into the designers' heads to be as opaque as possible when talking with the home owners. Even when the camera catches a brief glimpse of a designer's much more detailed design board with swatches, floor plans, detailed designs for the carpenters, and on occasion a CAD rendering, the designer almost never shows the home owner any of that. With good reason  because when the finished product fails to resemble the rendering, the home owners are going to lose it.

But at the same time, this is season 10. The show has existed for almost 20 years. If you're on this show now, you know the score. And as @Bastet said if you're so confident about your design skills, you probably wouldn't be on this show.

2 hours ago, meowmommy said:

The red female HO complained from the first moment, because she said she and her friend had the same taste.  Didn't see any evidence that her friend goes for motorcycles and crazy hats.  

Hey, I'm going to take exception to calling the hats crazy. There's really no longer a tradition of wearing hats anywhere in America except at Black churches. People wear some hats at Black churches. It's not really regional. You'll see it in Atlanta, New Jersey, D.C., Detroit, Cleveland, and LA.

[friendperidot]

I liked the overall looks of both rooms. I think the wood in the blue room is bad and needs to be replaced. Because of the bad wood, the motorcycle art wasn't as good as it should have been, maybe if the wood is taken down carefully and the art cut away carefully, it can be put back up and framed if the homeowner wants to keep it. I loved her hats, but use the display idea, re do it in better wood. I liked the blue on the wall. 

The tropic room was better than I thought it would be, now it needs some upgrades, finish the headboard with sanding, staining and a couple of coats of varnish to help it. Bring the dressers and nightstands back in or gets some new ones that go with the tropics look. I liked the idea of the ceiling better than the actual finished product, but it can be fixed.

Some things I learned about this show: when it first aired, I had just bought a house, the show taught me not to be afraid of using colors, of doing things out of the usual. I grew up in the 50s and 60s, the walls were always white or pastels. Moving into rental places as an adult, everything was Navajo white and boring, I had learned to hang a lot of pictures to cover all the whiteness, to put bright colored curtains on windows. I love color, this show gave me the courage to do ragged on colors on my living room. I used 5 different colors, mostly shades off the same paint strip, and it took me 2 weeks of evenings and weekends not 2 days, it looked more like wallpaper than paint when I was finished. I could have done a better job in places. I also painted the ceilings in the living room and both bedrooms, I had always had white ceilings. After living with my living room as a rather conventional living room for several years and not having the space I wanted in the spare bedroom for my doll house rooms, I switched them around. It was my house to live in as I wanted to and I wanted to see my dolls and their rooms, that was what made me happy. Unfortunately, my circumstances have changed and my rooms were dis-assembled and all my things were packed away. I have been horribly unhappy with it. I've talked with my sister about bringing in metal shelving units to the living room - that we do not use and setting up my dolls again. She has made plans to have one wall covered with a built in wood unit. She knows nothing about the sizes and scales of my dolls. I told her that 24x24x24 inches is not big enough, that the rooms have to be at least 36x30x24 inches. At first I was pissed because she was making plans that were not right for what I needed, my furniture is huge, some pieces are longer than 24 inches. But I've decided to let her build that if she thinks she can, then I'll ad the metal shelving units at a later date. I have furniture for at least 10-12 rooms. It'll be a lot like a museum, but why would anyone give a damn, they don't have to live with it. But those are among things this show has taught me. Sure it's on the cheap and it's fast, but when you're decorating for yourself, take longer than 2 days to paint, buy nicer things, I'm a big fan of flea markets and thrift stores, I can find really nice pieces for very cheap. I'm not crazy about used upholstered pieces, but I've bought dressers, chests, end tables, for very cheap. Most had to be stripped and redone, but that was part of the fun for me.

[zillabreeze]

Oh The Seam!   Jeebus!  Who even does that?  There was a dozen ways to play up that little ceiling inset that would not look like hammered dog shit.  Rip it down before night-night time in my house.

In my really poor days, I bought crown molding from the salvage shop.  For the most part it worked.  But there was one spot that didn't miter and fit perfectly...For the next eight years my eye went to that spot every single time I watched TV!  A giant crooked seam on the ceiling?  The stuff of nightmares!

[mlp]

I thought both rooms looked nice ...................... until the camera panned in and I could see all the problems.  I echo everyone's comments about the ceiling seam.  Something like that would drive me crazy.  The rough wood in the motorcycle room looked terrible, especially as a counterpoint to the hats.  Those cubicles were really bad.  The bed frame in the other house looked unfinished.  

I thought the mother and son would pick that hanging wicker thing in the Wayfair tent for the vacation-minded couple.  It seemed like a natural choice.  I'm more convinced than ever that they are told what to choose.

[kirklandia]

Those fabulous hats deserved better.

[zillabreeze]

25 minutes ago, kirklandia said:

Those fabulous hats deserved better.

Amen!   They needed dustproof cabinetry!   All of the embellishments should be better protected.

[vibeology]

I feel like Ty's room was salvageable with just a bit of work but the other room with that awful wood was a disaster.

With Ty's room, I would have painted the wall with the bed on it the darker green as a solid color, stained the bed frame a nice brown and taken down the ceiling and it would have been a cool room. Not the most practical since so much of the storage was pulled out but certainly something lovely to show off to friends and that pushed them outside of their design comfort zone.

I can't save the blue room. I don't mind the color but the only things in that room are that blue and the cheaper than MDF wood. I could not believe it when he said that wood was staying as is. That's Hildi trash on that nice woman's walls.

[meep.meep]

I think this is the first episode I've seen where the designers had the majority of the homework.  John did his "artwork" and Ty did the ceiling fabric.

I agree that Ty's room wasn't so bad.  The headboard + the wall treatment was extreme.  Either paint that wall solid, or bring back their original, nice dark wood headboard.  

[RedbirdNelly]

I enjoyed the episode. I would not want either room but both designs were interesting and the homeowners were happy.

[Kitty Redstone]

On 4/7/2019 at 5:09 PM, meowmommy said:

That wood is nasty. 

Not only is it ugly, but OSB off-gasses an awful glue smell, too.  Hopefully that nice HO doesn't get a splitting headache from the chemicals!

[sheetmoss]

Did Ty ever use the turquoise paint or did I miss it?

[nightowl]

The motorcycle room reminded me of something you would see in one of those crap ass houses with oh too cutesy names people lived in during college (I lived in "Men on Top" one summer in the 80's).  

[alexa]

I am chiming in a little late, but have read all of the comments, and in agreement with much of what has been said.  I feel like with Ty's room, as someone else stated it was too close to the resort look that it was overdone.  I think some of the elements without going overboard with the theme would have been much better.  And of course they need furniture--just paint their furniture, Ty, ugh!  I loved his room last year with the various colors sprinkled throughout the room, so he has it in him--this just seemed more like a Doug room to me than Ty.  I will say, though, that the homeowner lady helping was really on my nerves--he wasn't doing anything super controversial, so be quiet and just help the neighbors change it up later.  Enjoy the experience since nothing was actually being harmed or ruined in the room.

The motorcycle room, I actually really liked the look of it.  But I hate when they put major things on the wall, and to put the cheap wood on just kind of ruined the room.  He could have done that art on the wall itself and it would have been so much better.  I would want to remove the wood immediately if it were me.  Otherwise I like the colors and the vibe of the room.  

[andipandi]

7 hours ago, sheetmoss said:

Did Ty ever use the turquoise paint or did I miss it?

I wondered that also. They didn't finish the walls until day 2 so I wonder if other things were meant to be painted and ran out of time. The plain bed? The boxes? Although plain wood does have a rustic feel so maybe that was intentional. Perhaps balky homeowner slowed the work down. The headboard clashed with the wall pattern. I actually did like the walls, but the room needed more of that orange to break up green.

44 minutes ago, alexa said:

The motorcycle room, I actually really liked the look of it.  But I hate when they put major things on the wall, and to put the cheap wood on just kind of ruined the room.  He could have done that art on the wall itself and it would have been so much better.  I would want to remove the wood immediately if it were me.  Otherwise I like the colors and the vibe of the room.  

Agreed. I loved the dark blue, and in such a small room painting the ceiling can make the room seem bigger, I think, so there's more flow. However, putting plywood halfway up said ceiling just negated that. The cool murals should have been on the wall in white black and silver, the hat boxes should have been on black laquered wood.

[HunterHunted]

On 4/6/2019 at 8:10 PM, Bastet said:

I like the general idea, and the art, but no to that nasty wood.  (I liked Joanie's "ew" at hearing there would be OSB on the walls.)  They can't do anything to it because of his artwork, but they could make a hat display case out of good wood and paint it an accent color, or even better wood and stain it to coordinate with the desk.

I think they could remove the OSB, cut the art out, frame those, and replace the OSB with better wood.

[HurricaneVal]

I did notice when they put the OSB on the walls, they didn't just use liquid nails to permanently affix it to the sheetrock like Hildi would, they used wood strips between the sheetrock and the OSB, and then screwed the OSB into those.  That will make it much, much easier to uninstall and fix up.  I liked that bit of forethought.

I thought the design was an interesting mashup between industrial motorcycle mama and whimsical church hat lady.  The design showed the possibilities the room could have with more expensive materials.  I loved the visible hat storage idea, just not the execution, but now that they have the idea they can make a much better display case that will do them better justice.  Same with the OSB, they can take it down, and either sand and varnish it, or take it down, carefully preserve the art (which I thought was pretty cool) and put up either better paneling, or paint the bottom of the wall a different color.  All that blue was a little much.... 

I did like the return of the projector to trace art on the wall idea.  Remember when Doug did that bedroom with the repeated chinoiserie china pattern in white on the wedgewood blue walls?  That was with an old school classroom overhead projector, and though the homeowners worked their butts off all night (a replacement bulb for the projector had to be located), the room was lovely.  http://fandoms.org/dougwilson/tradingspaces.asp?epid=244  This was just a modern technology version, and I thought the highlighted motorcycle "pen and ink" drawings were kind of cool.  And certainly what the homeowner wanted!

Ty's room was also an easy fix once the ideas were in place.  Paint the headboard (and maybe the wall behind it a solid color so the competing patterns weren't so jarring), paint their (off camera) dark dressers all white, and add different hardware, et voila!  I would either get rid of the fabric in the ceiling tray, or fix the lumpy seam though.  That was awful.  Hildi would have done that better.

[Bucket]

Everything has been said and I agree with the critiques.  One lingering thought, wearing those huge hats block the view for those behind her in church; that is not cool.  

Edited April 11, 2019 by Bucket

[vibeology]

18 hours ago, Bucket said:

Everything has been said and I agree with the critiques.  One lingering thought, wearing those huge hats block the view for those behind her in church; that is not cool.   

I can almost guarantee you that the church is full of women wearing similar hats. Everyone there expects them and has figured out how to stagger their seating if they want to see around them.

[Pepper Mostly]

On 4/7/2019 at 8:41 PM, friendperidot said:

I also painted the ceilings in the living room and both bedrooms, I had always had white ceilings. After living with my living room as a rather conventional living room for several years and not having the space I wanted in the spare bedroom for my doll house rooms, I switched them around. It was my house to live in as I wanted to and I wanted to see my dolls and their rooms,

This! My house is painted celery green (living room) marigold yellow (hall) robin's egg blue (kitchen) and a color called "Opal" that's like the inside of a seashell (bedroom) My son painted his room a crazy lime green. Now I rent it out to one of his friends and its purple. I love color! I would hate to live in a place that was all off white because I might sell it one day. Its my house, I want to live in it! My little house has a dining room which I have never used as a dining room--I had a friend of my son's, who lived with us for a few years, in there as an almost private room. Once he moved out and got his own place, I reclaimed it and its a sunny, plant and book filled room with one big chair and ottoman facing the bow windows where I can read, listen to music, and relax. I love it. (its painted a nice warm white called "Bavarian Cream", but the woodwork is teal.)