Indiana Gazette from Indiana, Pennsylvania • 21

Decorating eye on Saturday, October 4, 2003 Page 21 'Trading Spaces' fuels interest in design Designer goes to extremes to make homeowners happy By DAVID BAUDER AP Television Writer NEW YORK Whenever Ball State University instructor Janet Fick asks new or prospective interior design students whether they watch "Hading Spaces," she says, "every hand shoots up." Shcfe not surprised. With Ball State's interior design program growing from 90 to 2SD students in two years, Fick believes she owes her job to TLC's popular program. Since starting in 2000, "Trading Spaces" and similar shows that have followed in its wake have fueled interest in interior design as a profession although educators aren't always sure that's a good thing. "We spend a lot of time trying to debunk some of the myths created by the show," -said Michelle Snyder, a spokeswoman for the American Society of Interior Designers in Washington. The series, one of cable television's most popular, follow neighbors that agree to redesign a room in each other's homes.

Each couple has 48 hours and a $1,000 budget to do the work, and the episodes climax when they first see to their horror or delight what's been done to their houses. By MADELEINE McDERMOTT HAMM Houston Chronicle HOUSTON Dont you hate it when a shocked homeowner bursts into tears because the "Trad- -ing Spaces" decorating team has turned a duller-dian-dirt den into a retro disco party room? You're not alone. Vem Yip, voted most popular designer by fans of TLC's super-hit show, doesn't like it either. While he wouldn't say some of the show's designers purposefully go for die dramatics, he emphasized his concern for blending good design with the homeowners' lifestyle and wishes. And he means it.

Yip was in Houston to do "shows" his term at the enormous Houston House Beautiful Show at Reliant Center. While die hundreds of booths were taking shape in the vast hall. Yip shared some insights on "Trading Spaces" and himself. Although he was bom in Hong Kong, his family moved to the United States two months later. He studied medicine but finally gave in to his heart and switched to design.

"1 believe you have to do something that benefits others around you as well as yourself," he said. Design, he said, gives him the opportunity to make people's environments, and thus their lives, better. lust as Yip takes his highly successful, Atlanta-based architecture and interior design business seriously, he takes helping the people on "Trading Spaces" very seriously. Unfamiliar with the Trading Spaces format? Given a designer, a carpenter and a $1,000 budget, two pairs of friends swap homes for two days to transform a room. "Trading Spaces" airs at 7 and 8 p.m.

Saturdays and "Trading Spaces: Family" airs at 6 and 7 p.m. Sundays on TLC Taped interviews with the homeowners are -made available to the designers but are not re- Designer Genevieve Gorder. center, showed homeowner participants Amy M'masian and husband Phil the Fick tikes what it has meant for her students; and not just because it has point color she planned to use in the room they were decorating for HC's "Trading Spaces." guaranteed her steady work. (Ar prions quirea viewing, irp cannot imagine not waicning the tapes. "That helps ine know what they're com- fortable with and what makes them happy.

My philosophy has more to do with being the facilitator and helping express their space the best way possible. They may know what they like but not exactly how to do it "To me, this is not a movie or TV set it's their home. When (the show) is over, they have to move back in and live there," he said. Yip admits he goes for an "extreme reaction" from the homeowners. "I want to blow their socks off, to give them a great space they never thought possible.

You don't have to spend a lot of money. The principles of good design don't shift whether the budget is $500 "It has given them a direction that they feel they want to focus on," she said. "They have such fun on that show. Who wouldn't want to do the same thing?" At Scottsdale Community College, where the interior design program has tripled in size since 1995, "Trading Spaces" is frequently on students' lips, said Gera King, the program's director. "I think it's a plus," she said.

"If they are hooked by a TV show, they must already have some natural interest in the environment. Even if they don't stay with us, they've been exposed to additional information, so it will make them a better consumer." The design program at the University of Minnesota has been full for a decade, but Professor Denise Guerin said applications have jumped over the past few years. About 80 students usually are enrolled, and there are 104 now, she said. Kathy Davidov, TLC executive producer, was happy to learn of the student interest To us, ifs very gratifying that people are making life choices based on the show," she said. "It speaks to the phenomenon that the show has become.

Ifs an inspirational show." eFoundaUonformterutgnEducationRe-search doesn't have any up-to-date national statis-. tics on program enrollments. Kayam Dunn, FLDKR's executive director, said these programs are popular for second careers and generally fill up when the economy is sour. She believes from anecdotal evidence thats the case now. She can't account for the influence of "Trading Spaces." As a senior at Ball State, Courtney Johnston's interest in interior design predates "Trading Spaces." But it still inspires her.

"Last year I got the feeling that I didn't want to do this anymore because 1 was so stressed out by the work said Johnston, 22, from Kokomo, Ind. "Then I watched 'Trading Spaces' and it got me interested in it even more." She wishes her teachers offered more of a chance to use her creativity tike she sees on the show. That's the downside some educators see about the show's popularity. Spaces' may have done the interior design profession a service in terms of the recognition that the interior design profession exists," Minnesota's Guerin said. "However, the disservice is that it emphasizes the decoration component of interior design." Interior design is more than picking out an odd wall color to match the couch, die experts say.

There's a lot of grunt work involved in design, and in making rooms work well instead of just look good. Most of the people who work on "Trading Spaces" and similar shows aren't certified interior designers, Snyder said. "We have fought this decorating image for decades," Guerin said. "Now at least there's something out there that says 'this is what we are not and is what we She'seen studentsnroll with expectations that their jobs will be like those of the "Trading Spaces" stars, and lliey quickly become disillusioned. "We might glamorize it a little bit," Davidov conceded.

"But it is a lot of hard work." Even with these worries, the educators say "Trading Spaces" has made the general public more aware of well-designed living spaces. That can't help but create work for future interior designers. "I don't consider myself a fan, but I watch these shows because they're entertainment," Snyder said. "And that's how they should be taken, as entertainment." (On the Nee tlc.discovery.cxmi) you nave to think about things nTadinerent way. The designer estimates that the homeowners react favorably to the makeovers on about 95 per- Al cent ottneiraoing spaces episoaes.

DC1WCCU U1C Bltuw U1U 1U9 JJHm uc9iii practice, the 35-year-old designer operates full throttle. Yip's firm has 32 active projects, both commercial and residential, all over the country; he's relaunching his Web site and working on a The Web site www.vemyip.com launches Nov. 1, providing design tips and offering a line of home accessory products Yip developed in Asia. "Trading Spaces" carpenter Ty Pennington is one of the handymen who moke the transfor-motions happen. What happens after the designers leave? uhiin thou "I said, 'It's the master bedroom, how bad can it and she (the show's producer) said, WeIl, we've had people hang beds from the ceilingThat's when I started to panic." Kristyn Ulrich tend to run toward country themes and whimsical paint jobs.

"I wanted to cry," Karen Kaley says. Forty miles north of suburban Parker in Thornton, Brett and Rachel Brakel, who also had been chosen to appear in one of the four Colorado segments, were equally disappointed at least in the beginning. They had hoped their family room would fall into the hands of Vem Yip, a young designer with an architectural background and a tendency toward understatement. Instead they got Gorder, who encircled the room with painted yellow and gray horizontal stripes. Unlike the Kaleys, though, the Brakels liked their design and were genuinely thrilled during the unveiling.

In fact, now 18 months later, the stripes arc still in place. So are the gray silk curtains and the canvas Mondrian-like artwork on the mantle. The homemade glass coffee table, however, did not survive 24 hours. It broke the first day when their 1 -year-old son put his sippy cup on it and the top shattered. "1 would do it again in a heartbeat," says Rachel Brakel, adding, though, she would like to be able to pick her own designer.

It is unclear how much of the tension during the construction phase of the makeover is engineered for entertainment value. Davidov says absolutely none. The homeowners are not so sure. In the final, edited version of the Kaley Ulrich segment, designer Wilson and Kristyn Ulrich appear to be constantly sniping at each other. "Can you get me some iced tea?" he asks on camera as he lounges in the Kaley? backyard while the Ulriches paint the coffee table stand.

"No," Ulrich snaps, "I'm not your maid." nearly konked their daughter on the head, to the painted burlap rug that cut their feet when they walked on it "Most of the stuff we gave away," said Karen Kaley, "The garbage man got the rest" By the time "Trading Spaces" episode No. 20 aired nationally six weeks later, it was all gone, save few touches here and there. The most striking element that still remains is a pewter-colored wall treatment above the fireplace signed by the designer. But so it goes when "Fear Factor" meets "This Old House." For the uninitiated, "Trading Spaces," in its fourth season, has emerged as an icon in the crowded field of home improvement shows with some 18 million viewers each week. It has more than 150 makeovers under its tool belt Hie format simple: Two sets of neighbors swap houses for two days to redo a room under the watchful eye of a designer with cameras rolling.

And they must do it all under a budget of $1,000 which helps explain the preponderance of particle board in design schemes. But an important part of the deal is there are no guarantees of satisfaction. In fact, guests on the show sign a contract to that effect They also have no say on which designer they get. The high drama comes when homeowners are led into their new room and their reaction is captured on camera, he it amusement, joy or unmitigated horror. It is unknown how many fall in.

the latter category. Cathy Davidov, executive producer for The Learning Channel network, which airs the show, estimates about one in 10 truly loathe their new decor. Homeowners, though, say it is probably more because many people hide their true feelings By JENNY DEAM The Denver Post PARKER, Cola On Nov. 14, 2001, Craig Kaley, a normally sincere, forthright kind of guy, looked straight into the television camera and lied through his teeth. "1 really like it," he said, smile frozen, eyes darting around his family room, from the tadpole-green paint job to the hard-as-rock plywood couches to the wire mesh window screen that had been folded into pleats and hung in the pass-through to the kitchen.

Yes, of course you do. In the nervous weeks, days, minutes before the Big Reveal, when Kaley and his wife, Karen, would finally see what a New York designer from the wildly popular television show, "Trading Spaces," had done to their suburban family room, the couple vowed to stay positive. No tears. No tantrums. No matter what And they further promised themselves that even if it turned out dreadful they would live with the results for six months lo see if it grew them.

They didn't make it six days. On Day 5 Kaley snapped. "I can't take it anymore," he told his wife over breakfast, "I think this room sucks!" Over the course of the next five weekends, Kaley went out and bought a collection of power tools and began methodically dismantling virtually everything televised red eco ration had wrought Designer Doug Wilson known to the show's faithful as the bad boy of the series IukI concocted a vision he called -Smokescreen," a kind of metallic merger of light industrial with Rocky Mountain hunting lodge. The Kittys called it an unliv-abie mess, right down to the cabinetry that fdl the first day and are discussing the screen that separates the family room from kitchen, Ulrich is skeptical. (Later she says she knew from the get-go her friends would hate it) "1 wouldn't have it any other way," Wilson says.

"I wouldn't have it all," Ulrich retorts. But when the cameras were off Ulrich says she and Wilson got along fine. She thought he was very nice and only copped an attitude on camera. Meanwhile, over in her master bedroom, a giant castie was being constructed out of plywood and painted in folk art colors to act as a headboard. A matching design was made in miniature for the Ulrich's dog.

"The headboard was ridiculous," Ulrich remembers thinking during the reveal. But mostly she was just glad It wasn't worse. They hadn't painted their wood furniture, and iiothing was suspended from the ceiling. As she' and her husband waited to be. shown their room, one of the show's producers was trying to feed their nervousness.

"I said, Tt's the master bedroom, how bad can it be? and she said, 'Well, we've had people hang beds from the That's when I started to panic" Now that the experience is long over, with only a scrapbook of photos to remember Smokescreen, the Kaleys have become philosophical While they probably would never do it again, they say it was good because it sparked an interest in decorating. In the months since, they have redone virtually every room in their house. "It gave us confidence," says Karen Kaley, The biggest thing I teamed from the show is anybody can do it If a professional designer could do that to our family room, we could do a better job This despite the almost mandatory shot of designer or homeowner stitching away. Davidov says the show is not trying to trick viewers but rather adding off-camera support for the homeowners when necessary. "First and foremost this is a television show," says Kaley, "It all about making things look good on camera." "It's not Bob Vila" agrees his wife, There's nothing how-to about it You need zero skills.

It's really all about the designers and very little about the homeowners and what they want" The. Kaleys and their neighbors, Kristyn and Jason Ulrich, applied to be on the show back in the summer of 2001 when it was in its first season. Today, applications come in online at a rate of 100 to 200 a day. Both couples thought it would be fun to be on TV and wanted some decorating advice for their standard-issue, white-walled suburban homes. They began watching regularly and felt both excited and apprehensive, like when they caught the episode in which designer Genevieve Gorder attached moss onto a bedroom wall to "bring the outside in." "You Just hope you dont gel certain designers," Kaley said, his face grim.

The Kaleys learned the night before the crew arrived their family room would be redone by Wilson, and the Ulrich master bedroom would be redecorated by Frank Bielic, an affable Southern gentleman whose designs while on camera or are in shock. There is even now a DVD collection from the series available for $19.95 called simply "They Hated Ft" "We want a dramatic transformation," acknowledges Davidov. "Wc tell the designers to take it to the limit" Still, she dismisses the idea that certain designs are calculated for shock value or there is any ratio of good reactions to bad. "This is reality TV," Davidov says, "There is no way you can plan for it." But there are plenty of other behind-the-scenes surprises for those who sign on. Among the biggest myths of the show is the ticking clock, When host Paige Davis declares time is up, it mostly means nothing.

Participants and crew members work on the rooms for varying times within their two days. The show is not shot in sequence and is later edited to make it appear everyone finished on a deadline. The other secret is the homeowners do not do all the work themselves. They are actually helped by a crew of about a dozen production assistants, who paint and help with installations. The idea of the exhausted homeowners staying up all night to finish their tasks is, again, mostly an exaggeration.

It is also television illusion that there is only one carpenter. There are, in fact, two carpenters; as well as a person who does much if not all of the sewing for throw pillows and slipcovers..