Design Star 3: Living Room Design

HGTV’s Design Star, episode three, aired Sunday, August 6. The nature of the challenges was changed, with some surprising results.

HGTV's Design Star Cast

The Challenge

The cast was called to an old warehouse, where they discovered a series of mock living rooms - each exactly the same in size and shape. Host Clive Pearse reveled that each contestant would be working individually for this challenge, for the first time in the competition. While everyone rejoiced at the news, Clive dropped the bomb shell. They would only be allowed to shop at one, randomly selected, specialty store. One by one, the contestants looked under the paint can lids to see which shop they would be visiting. The results were:

• Pet Store - Tym and David
• Auto - Temple and Donna
• Camping - Alice and Teman
• Beauty - Vanessa and Teran

The budget for the challenge was $500. The contestants were given the option of buying one gallon of paint for $25. They were allowed 11 hours, over two days, to complete their work.

The final twist for the week - TWO contestants would be going home.

The Work

This challenge was designed to showcase creativity, and some of the designers clearly were not up the challenge. Teman, who had been so strong on other tasks, used colored tape on the walls to disastrous effect. He didn’t have enough tape to finish what he had begun, and what he did finish was uneven, crooked, and down right unappealing. His twin Teran didn’t do much better. He painted the walls a deep blue, used a make-up sponge to apply what actually did appear to be make-up to create a kind of shapeless design, and then only did that to a portion of the wall. Beyond that…well, that was about it. Tym, who had to decorate his room with products from the pet store, made a failed Andy Warhol pop art attempt by framing dog food bags, and disassembled dog crates to create more wall art. The effect was sparse and boring.

Vanessa, who is always so vocally confident about her abilities, took her beauty shop theme slightly too literally. The judges were perplexed at her creation of various displays throughout the room - gluing make-up products to boards and hanging them on the walls. The room was heavy on creativity, but low on interior design functionality.

There were some successes. Untrained designer Temple created a room based on classic cars that was cool and inviting. David used reptile bedding and wood chips to make an ultra-hip looking polka-dot “rug” and turned dog rawhide toys into a piece of art good enough to hold its own in any exhibit.

The Results

After viewing the work, the judges found one clear winner, and more than a few they could happily send packing. David was declared the winner, and Donna, Alice, and Temple were all told their work was adequate to continue. That left Teran, Teman, Tym, and Vanessa on the chopping block.

Vanessa was first to have her “show cancelled” - a surprising turn of events, based on her past efforts. Tym was “saved” this week, leaving the twins, Teran and Teman. In the end, Teman’s crooked tape job just could not be excused, and he was told his show was cancelled.

• Country Style Decorating Ideas
• Bathroom Design Pictures
• Interior Paint Color Combinations

• Country French Style Basics
• Common Themes for Teenage Bedrooms
• Designing for Small Spaces
• Basics of Color Design
• Asian Style Interior Design

• Design Star 7: Bedroom Design
• Design Star 8: The Winner
• Design Star 5: Studio Apartment Design
• Design Star 2: Long Island Home
• Design Star 6: Create a Dream Room