Review: "Design on a Dime"
Jan. 6th, 2008 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebMom brought my favorite kind of present from her which is recordings of HGTV shows. She has a TV, cable, and recording equipment, so it's fairly easy for her, and cheap, to record some shows, and then since I have none of these things, it's totally awesome for me.
Mostly I like not having a TV (especially since you can get TV shows on DVD, without commercials, and by then we've heard enough to know which shows are the good ones). If I had HGTV, I might have that station on all the time, and that would be bad.
This time I got several episodes of "Design on a Dime" and "Decorating Cents." For the former, there is a budget of $1000 to redecorate a room and for the latter, $500. In the past, I have gotten episodes of "Trading Spaces" where two neighbors help redecorate one room of each other's houses with the help of experts and a similarly small budget.
Robin and I just watched six episodes of "Design on a Dime," and I really like how, unlike in "Trading Spaces," the decorators try hard to do something the owner(s) would like. We often had this sort of conversion:
"That's hideous."
"Yeah, but she's going to love it."
We almost never had that conversation during "Trading Spaces," especially if the room had a ceiling fan that the owner wanted to keep.
And even better than trying to work with the tastes of the owner(s), the decorators also asked a lot of questions about how the room was to be used. Even for the same room, you could get quite different answers. It makes sense that you would do different things for the couple who like to have a dozen folks over for book club meetings or cocktails than for the guy who has almost weekly poker parties. The former got lots of seating that could all face each other. The latter got a new dining room table with a compartment to hold his poker table top which could be pulled out, unfolded, and set on top. That's awesome!
It's also distracting. Whereas with "Trading Spaces," I could try to look for things I like, with "Design on a Dime," I find myself focused on whether the owner(s) would like each idea.
I may have to watch the shows again, this time paying attention to what I would like for myself.
Mostly I like not having a TV (especially since you can get TV shows on DVD, without commercials, and by then we've heard enough to know which shows are the good ones). If I had HGTV, I might have that station on all the time, and that would be bad.
This time I got several episodes of "Design on a Dime" and "Decorating Cents." For the former, there is a budget of $1000 to redecorate a room and for the latter, $500. In the past, I have gotten episodes of "Trading Spaces" where two neighbors help redecorate one room of each other's houses with the help of experts and a similarly small budget.
Robin and I just watched six episodes of "Design on a Dime," and I really like how, unlike in "Trading Spaces," the decorators try hard to do something the owner(s) would like. We often had this sort of conversion:
"That's hideous."
"Yeah, but she's going to love it."
We almost never had that conversation during "Trading Spaces," especially if the room had a ceiling fan that the owner wanted to keep.
And even better than trying to work with the tastes of the owner(s), the decorators also asked a lot of questions about how the room was to be used. Even for the same room, you could get quite different answers. It makes sense that you would do different things for the couple who like to have a dozen folks over for book club meetings or cocktails than for the guy who has almost weekly poker parties. The former got lots of seating that could all face each other. The latter got a new dining room table with a compartment to hold his poker table top which could be pulled out, unfolded, and set on top. That's awesome!
It's also distracting. Whereas with "Trading Spaces," I could try to look for things I like, with "Design on a Dime," I find myself focused on whether the owner(s) would like each idea.
I may have to watch the shows again, this time paying attention to what I would like for myself.