Originally aired on Wednesday, 04/04/2007
Episode Rating: ** (2 stars out of 5)
Episode Overview: Matt, Carisa and Andrea all compete for a spot in the final two in a relatively straightforward challenge to create luxury on a budget.
Episode Highlights:
- The designers are charged with creating a luxury living room inspired by an Elle Décor cover, but have limited funds.
- Carisa and her carpenter Carl argue and eye-roll their way through another challenge.
- The rooms are judged and the final two are selected.
Recap:
The final three designers have been selected and are all focused on getting through this challenge and down to the Top Design final two. Andrea Keller is surprised that Carisa Perez-Fuentes is still in the competition, thinking that her design style has been pretty consistently one-note. Carisa, on the other hand, is surprised that Andrea is still there, thinking with her architecture background, she has been struggling to show a truly finished room.
Meanwhile, both women are worried about the last man standing,
Matt Lorenz. Andrea thinks he’s excelled at luxury living rooms, so she hopes they don’t have a challenge that requires they make luxury living rooms.
So this week’s challenge is: luxury living rooms! After the designers each select an Elle Décor magazine cover that they feel speaks to their aesthetic, Todd Oldham informs them that they will be designing a room inspired by that cover. However, although the rooms in Elle are very high-end, the designers will only have $7500 to complete their rooms.
This means they will not be making their selections at the pricey Pacific Design Center, rather they be out and about in Los Angeles to do their shopping. This gives Andrea an advantage since she is from the area, but Top Design decides to level the playing field by giving them access to the internet to do some pre-searching. Um…yeah. That makes it all equal.
Carisa feels very challenged by being in a new city as she looks for appropriate stores. Matt, on the other hand, is feeling frustrated by the budget restrictions. He does luxury-luxury, not budget-luxury, and he doesn’t really know how or want to bargain shop. Andrea is the only designer humming along contentedly, happily shopping in a door store for some frames to mimic the large windows in her selected inspiration photo.
After the shopping, construction begins. Matt’s carpenter, who had an accident with a saw last week, is sitting out this Top Design challenge, so he is working with Sarah. They start off okay, but he quickly becomes concerned about her quality level and time management.
Carisa, once again, has nothing but trouble with her carpenter Carl. I can’t decide which of the two is more abrasive. Possibly they are equally difficult to work with. Carisa has some valid points about wanting to be the driver of the process, but she has next to no diplomacy and clearly a truckload of diplomacy would be needed to work with Crotchety Carl. They bicker and argue their way through the construction, but due to the volume of work that needs to get done, they have no choice but to work together. Carisa is having Carl make a firebox and sectional couch, as well as a complicated faux rock finish with quickset on one wall.
Matt also encounters another challenge with the upholstery for his chaise. He thought is would be much easier than it actually turns out to be to put a new fabric on the piece. Luckily Todd offers him a good suggestion on how to finish it quickly.
Andrea’s main challenge is with her paint color. She first paints the room a light gray, which, Carisa points out, is hardly distinguishable from the original white. After the job is finished, Andrea realizes Carisa is correct, so she has to quickly repaint the whole room. This means she also has to undo the embroidery on her base board, and paint and re-do those entirely.
The designers are able to wrap things up, but Matt is considerably far away from the finished product he was hoping to provide. He has installed a rod across on wall that originally was going to be used to hang pictures from, but since he ran out of time, it is simply an odd and out of place unused rod.
However, in the White Room, the judges let him know that his aesthetic was strong enough to carry the room, and although it was unfinished, they like his furniture placement and taste level, and he has the Top Design for the week and will be going to the final two.
So it is down to Andrea and Carisa for that final spot. Carisa’s room was definitely a strong presentation, but Margaret Russell feels it was too pop and not luxurious enough. The judges also strongly feel she needs to learn how to edit herself and not clutter up a room with too many doodads. Andrea’s room felt “flat,” the judges thought, and the fact that the furniture was all at one eye level made for a dull room without much visual interest.
And so it is Andrea who is later’d, and Carisa who will make it to the final two. Tune in next week to see the finale and who will win. Odds on Matt Lorenz, in my opinion, but we shall see!
- Leslie Seaton, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
(Images Courtesy of Bravo)