HGTV's Design Star

Reality TV - love it or hate it, it’s not going anywhere any time soon. And while it may seem like the number of talent shows on TV is outpacing the number of talented people, this is a talent show with a difference. HGTV Design Star is American Idol for the interior design set!

HGTV's Design Star Cast

Design Star pits 10 interior designers against each other to compete for a pretty incredible prize - their own HGTV show. The contestants will live together in a townhouse thoughout the competition - considering the stakes, and all those artist temperaments under one roof, we expect fireworks!

Every week the gang will face a new challenge, and their work will be evaluated by a panel judges. The judges will determine who goes home each week until week seven - when you start voting for your favorite designer! Designers will get the boot with the Design Star’s catchphrase - “Your show has been cancelled.”

Included in the challenges will be makeovers for four viewers homes (HGTV viewers have been voting for these homes since March).

The show is hosted by Clive Pearse of the show Designed To Sell. The judges are designers Cynthia Rowley and Vernon Yip and InStyle magazine Executive Editor Martha McCully.

Design Star will air Sunday nights at 9pm from July 23 - September 10. Catch an encore performance on Thursdays at 8pm or Saturdays at 6pm.

The finalists were picked from over 1500 applicants. They have varying levels of experience and formal education...and they include twin brothers and three Harvard educated designers. They are:

• David Bromstad, 32
• Vanessa De Leon, 26
• Tym De Santo, 46
• Teman Evans, 26
• Teran Evans, 26
• Alice Fakier, 31
• Ramona Jan, 50
• Joseph Kennard, 41
• Temple McDowell, 31
• Donna Moss, 49

Ramona's Mural

In episode one, the designers got to check out their new townhouse, and we immediately hit with their first challenge - redesign the whole house in 24 hours. For this monumental task - beyond the scope of what most professional designers would dream of undertaking - the group received $7,500 for materials and all the tools they needed. They split into teams, each tackling a part of the house:

• Family Room - Alice, Temple, and Ramona
• Front Room - Donna and Teman
• Back Patio - Tym and Joe
• Bedroom 1 - David, Vanessa, and Teran

David, Vanessa, and Teran’s orange and brown bedroom was a hit with the judges and Tym and Joe turned the dingy back patio into a sleek, urban outdoor retreat. Donna and Teman didn’t give anyone much to be excited about with their plain and bare front room, but it was Alice, Temple, and Ramona’s family room that really caused a stink, with Ramona’s slightly bizarre mural. When the mural didn’t find many fans, Ramona claimed (falsely) that the others had given it approval. Aging hippy Ramona, whose design philosophy revolves around salvageables, didn’t find many more fans that her mural did. Her style was definitely not for everyone, and so Ramona became the first Design Star hopeful to hear those words - “your show has been cancelled.”

Visit HGTV’s Design Star page to read profiles of the contestants, view before and after photos of design challenges, or just to gossip. There you can vote on your favorite of the contestants’ design job of the week - and as the season ends, you’ll be able to vote for your next HGTV star. Also read host Clvie Pearse’s blog to get all the inside gossip, or steal some design tips from Vern Yip!

And of course, come back to LTK interior design weekly to read our Design Star blog!

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