The interior design shows we watch on TV offer very striking examples of great makeovers. Once in a rare while, however, they show how something terrific can turn into a horrific viewing experience when least expected! —But first, the “terrific” part of our story:
“How Not To Decorate” is a very instructive show about the pitfalls of interior design, and how professional decorators avoid them at minimal cost and maximum customer delight. Only last month, the show had an exceptionally challenging test for its surviving teams of contestants:
They were each assigned a modular house in a subdivision, and they had to fully decorate it in their own unique way. The winning design would be featured in a spread in Better Homes and Gardens magazine, among other perks.
The challenge was a big learning experience for the show’s viewers, as well, because the spaces to be decorated were completely identical, so each of the four surviving teams’ work could be compared to the others’ finished designs in great detail.
Viewers thus learned that a see-through shoji screen could work wonders in separating spaces and providing a measure of privacy when needed. And that a narrow but lengthy padded seat on a ledge or a wide window’s edge could provide extra sleeping space at night—or an alternative “living room” during the day!
In addition, we learned that additional basic furniture could be self-constructed at minimal cost, and then jazzed up with decor to look much more expensive and chic.
The winning team’s design and execution were praised for their creative use of unexpected fabrics and organic materials, a productively economical use of space, and the use of furniture arrangement to create more harmonious “psychological” relationships.
Poor combination
As for the losing teams’ “sins,” they included poor combination of color, “illogical” arrangement of furniture that made movement and “people flow” difficult, and attaching a chandelier to the roof of a porch (a mortal sin, apparently!).
The “losers” on “How Not To Decorate” may have been unhappy, but they were much better off than the designers in another TV design show we watched a long time ago. This is what “traumatically” represents the “horrific” part of our viewing experience:
Most of the time, when we watch this “home makeover” show, the people whose homes it’s beautified are exceedingly happy and grateful for the improvements. But, on one incredible occasion, the reaction of the couple whose home had just been improved was—completely unexpected!
It turned out that they absolutely hated the shade of green that had been used to transform their humdrum living room, and they very emotionally made known their displeasure and downright disgust—first, by breaking into tears, and then even kicking the offending green-colored wall!
The poor designers didn’t know how to handle the unexpected outburst and expression of disgust, and looked positively traumatized by the experience.
—Frankly, so were we, and we took the viewing experience as a timely reminder that, when it comes to taste, it really does take all kinds! And that one man’s terrific can be another man’s horrific—in the blink of an eye!