Trading spaces with reality
Being someone who has always been interested in the creative aspects of design, HGTV has been both a godsend and a curse of massive proportions.
After watching any show, you’re inspired to go out and redecorate/renovate a room in your home. A little paint here, some throw pillows there, and you feel like your place should be photographed for House & Home.
If only it was that easy.
So many of these shows don’t show their viewers the nitty gritty; what lies beneath the surface. Old wires cause fires, asbestos isn’t your friend, and the removal of a load-bearing wall effectively collapses the backside of your home in slow-motion.
Most important, they never mention…
You can’t do 95% of the stuff yourself.
Even if you own every B&D power tool, you’re still not Bob Vila.
Nothing is ever completed in a ½ hour show.
It will take months longer than you planned.
For $1,000, your place will look like crap.
Renovations cost money – HUGE amounts of moolah.
You will spend at least 20 % more than you bargained for.
Designers will make you feel stupid because you don’t know the difference between Art Deco and Art Moderne (the main difference is an angularity in the finishing details).
Designers will make you think you have no taste.
Designers will coax you into buying a $20,000 sectional sofa from Knoll even though you’re aesthetic isn’t monastic modernism.
And, that’s only the tip of the iceberg blue paint, courtesy of Sherwin Williams.
I could go on, but Design Inc. is on and I want to watch Sarah Richardson do her thing, then I’m off to Home Depot to get me some wood and build something using my power tools.
After watching any show, you’re inspired to go out and redecorate/renovate a room in your home. A little paint here, some throw pillows there, and you feel like your place should be photographed for House & Home.
If only it was that easy.
So many of these shows don’t show their viewers the nitty gritty; what lies beneath the surface. Old wires cause fires, asbestos isn’t your friend, and the removal of a load-bearing wall effectively collapses the backside of your home in slow-motion.
Most important, they never mention…
You can’t do 95% of the stuff yourself.
Even if you own every B&D power tool, you’re still not Bob Vila.
Nothing is ever completed in a ½ hour show.
It will take months longer than you planned.
For $1,000, your place will look like crap.
Renovations cost money – HUGE amounts of moolah.
You will spend at least 20 % more than you bargained for.
Designers will make you feel stupid because you don’t know the difference between Art Deco and Art Moderne (the main difference is an angularity in the finishing details).
Designers will make you think you have no taste.
Designers will coax you into buying a $20,000 sectional sofa from Knoll even though you’re aesthetic isn’t monastic modernism.
And, that’s only the tip of the iceberg blue paint, courtesy of Sherwin Williams.
I could go on, but Design Inc. is on and I want to watch Sarah Richardson do her thing, then I’m off to Home Depot to get me some wood and build something using my power tools.
Authored by S at 12:00 am
9 Comments:
Oh, you are SO singing my song today!
I know first had that renovations are way harder and more costly than the shows make it seem. I wish my house was done. Thanks for making me feel lazy and inadequate.
Heh. I got wood at Home Depot once.
The only use those shows serve is to provide a fantasy OR to laugh at other people's problems.
so which is it for you?
Will you build me something?
I can build things!!! I haven't in a long time but I used to build bookcases, benches, chairs, cabinets, ect. with my dad and grandfather. Sometimes we even did some metal work. It's not that hard when you have the tools and the space. I have neither now.
Lemuel: Am I off-key?
Timmy: It's my pleasure.
HB: Thanks.
Six: Splinters?
Salem: For me, fantasy. But, I gotta admit it's funny to watch some clueless person tackling some DIY shit.
Pablo: I'm good at stripping stuff.
Liquid: Monastic Modernism is my term! It's a place that's concrete, glass, etc. with one religious figure in the middle of it all.
YJA: Wouldn't mind building stuff, but where would I put it all?
Wow Power tools are you sure you no a lesbian in gay mans clothing ??
I was in The Shoe Company (Yonge & Bloor) on Thursday... saw a "Mike Holmes" line of footwear.
SO depressing.
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