Episode 8 Recap: Yurt Last Chance
Get it…yurt last chance? Har, har. I couldn’t help but carry on all the yurt-related puns used in tonight’s show. Tonight, the final three designers took on a brand new challenge for Design Star: turn a yurt into a dream bedroom suite. (Find out more about yurts here.)
Entertainment Tonight host Mark Steines joined the panel to see which one of the designers shares his hosting skills. Like always, some of the hosting moments (and yurt suites) were dreamier than others — here’s what went down on this week’s episode.
Britany’s yurt was my favorite of the week. She worked with Design on a Dime carpenter Joel West to create a modern beach bungalow look in her yurt. She set out to do something different from her usual glam style, and she delivered — it was still bold and graphic, but in a new way. Her camera challenges had a few awkward moments, but she’s getting better there, too.
Her room’s main feature was a rotating bed with hidden storage along the back. I loved where her head was at, but think it might be kind of hard to get to said storage if you were really (okay, theoretically) living in this yurt. My favorite part of the room: The draped teal fabric, all gathered around an ethereal, white pendant.
Britany’s a designer-slash-photographer, and, though she’s referenced her skills a lot this season, this was the first week we’ve seen her prints in a room. Vern wasn’t impressed, though — he said he “wanted them to be a little more abstract.” Ouch! As Emily Henderson would say, Britany, you’ve been Yipped.
Moving to the neighbor yurt, Danielle was paired up with Elbow Room host Chip Wade, and they created a “global contemporary” bedroom suite.
Danielle’s room seemed the most finished, with lots of artistic touches and cozy accessories, like these layered rugs:
Chip and Danielle collaborated on this contemporary bed with a reclaimed wood headboard. It sounded like a great concept, but the combination of the gray hue and super-wide bed posts just didn’t work with the rest of the room.
Oh, Hilari. You personality makes me smile…and so did your crazy times (all related to the antique bed) with carpenter Jeff Devlin of DIY’s I Hate My Bath. The problem? Your camera challenges have so much personality, but they don’t have much substance.
Once the crazy interlocking panels were in place, this bed was the perfect centerpiece to Hilari’s Bali-themed yurt: The judges called it “a fantasy bed.”
What they didn’t like: The blank spaces on either side of the bed.
The gold-leaf bookcase (which is amazing!) looked great, but didn’t create real storage space. In the end, no one had a bad challenge, but Hilari’s tips were more style than substance, and the panel decided to send her home.
Now it’s down to two! Only one more week until we crown the newest HGTV Design Star…can’t wait!
Check back tomorrow for Meg and David’s reactions to tonight’s episode.
What did you think of tonight’s episode? Did the right designer go home? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below.
I am disappointed in the panel. I have watched since the first Design Star show. Hillary is a natural and full of personality. She would connect so well with the audiences of hgtv. Maybe it is time for us to vote off the Panel. Big mistake Vern an Gen!
Do you really think the judges get the final say? I am beginnig to wonder because some of the things Gen said tonight made no sense at all. Maybe Hilari should be a judge next year, at least she would be fun to watch, unlike the ones they have now.
Now that's an Idea! Vote off the judges! I have always admired Vern and Gen; but I'm just not getting this. I don't want to believe this is about race or the skintone; but it's getting hard.
I am so so very upset that they did not keep Hilari! I totally feel like the only reason she was let go was because she did not have "the look" for a television show. It seems like it came down to keeping the "pretty girls." Well, in my view, Hilari is not only pretty, but also she is a fabulous designer who has shown more personality with her camera challenges than the remaining contestants – hands down. While I still like Britney and Danielle, I will not watch their show because the judges clearly allowed something more to factor into their decision today. So sad.
I really don't think it was her looks, they did pick Meg last season. You would think they would want someone who could bring in the viewers, I think a lot more people would tune in to see Hilari then another pretty blond with average talent.
Actually, I think HGTV's demographic is the "Pinterest Generation" which is largely 20/30 somethings all of who LOVE Britany's on trend style and wish to make our rooms look like hers and learn from her. While the mid day stuff might be great for older viewers, the prime time wants and needs a "pretty blond" to relate to and learn from.
"wants and needs" a pretty blonde? Really? Because they can relate to and learn from that better? 20/30 somethings are the Pinterest Generation? Who knew? I'm an older viewer – I better start checking out that mid day stuff because I must be off trend so I can't watch at night.
Believe it or not your post made me laugh for about 5 minutes – god, that was rich. And you must be 20 something – you are very earnest.
Hmmm average talent corvette lady? britney was the ONLY designer that wasn't ever on the bottom… the other two have both been there at least twice. If your talking about talent, your talking about britney.
I love your name! I must really be getting under your skin! As for your logic, Mikel was never on the bottom either, until he got voted off. It's just my opinion, don't really understand why it bothers you so much.
SPOILER ! DANIELLE WINS!!!! DANIELLE WINS!!!!! DANIELLE WINS!!!!!! DANIELLE WINS!!! They screwed up in the editing room and showed too much from the final episode. If you see the previews that HGTV shows for next week at the end of tonight's episode, They show confetti falling and then show a quick shot of Britney and Danielle. If you watch it in slow motion, you see that Britney is clapping as Danielle( not clapping at all) is turning toward Britney to give her a hug. No one applauds for themselves while the person they beat goes to give them a hug.
I sure hope you are right Frank. I could watch Danielle, not so sure about Britany.
I knew something was up with that sho!. I like Danielle but she's no Hilari. Neither Danielle nor Britany has the personality of Hilari. Britany turned me sour on the episode where they had to decorate a room according to era. There she sat, arms cross, and whining that she should have won the challenge. Someone stated that she comes off as an elitist. In that episode, you got a glimpse of that.
I agree. I noticed that too.
that better not be the case! I am going crazy on fan voting then!!!!! BRITANY BETTER WIN!
Wow, you might be right. I had posted elsewhere on this blog that I thought Britani won because it looked to me as if Danielle had turned toward Britani to hug her as if Britani had won. However, I didn't notice that Danielle was not clapping but Britani was. Now I'm confused!
Agree with pretty much everyone – I thought Hilari did the best! Her design was great AND she is great on camera – very shocked! I've always liked Britney, so I'm glad she made it though! Hoping she can step it up for the on-camera stuff in the finale!
Danielle seems nice, but I don't think I really want her to win – she hasn't done as well throughout the season!
Wow Molly, I was thinking pretty much the same thing! I totally agree
What a disappointment. I thought for sure that it would be down to Brittany and Hillari. I cant believe that they sent Hillari home. Have they so quickly forgotten how many times Danielle screwed up. Ruining a wall by trying to wallpaper it the last minute and then tearing it down and making a mess of the wall and then trying to cover it up with curtains. What about all of the rooms she didn't even complete. For some reason they seem to like her. There was no comraderie between her and her carpenter Chip tonight. She kept referring to the bed she and Chip built. What a joke. She doesnt seem to work well with anyone. Her yurt tonight look like an eccentric world traveler just threw a bunch of junk they collected into a room. Meanwhile Vern is just fawning all over her. The bed looked ridiculous. I also loved the comment by the judges that it was great that Danielle brought some of the outside in by Danielle putting a tropical plant in her room, but when they reviewed Brittanys room they critized her photos of plants that were actually growing outside of her yurt it wasn't abstract enough. Sadly enough I think it is obvious that Danielle will be the winner.
They are trying to market I guess… I watch HGTV more than any other network.. I promise I will not be watching the Brittany or Danielle show. Danielle has problems with her designs almost every show.
We are watching a 45 minute show full of editing!! It is impossible to tell how Danielle's chemistry was with her carpenter!!! I have always been a fan of Danielle's, Rachel's, and Britany's. Danielle almost won the first 2 challenges. She also won 2 challenges. That is more than half of the challenges up until this point. One challenge she almost lost because of helping Miera. The other two were caused by poor timing. From my perspective, she has had more wins than Hilari and deserves to be where she is standing!!!
You are right. I remember the first episode where Danielle did an incredible job on that huge great room, and all Luca did was supervise the carpenter with the moulding that Danielle chose and he picked out a sofa or two. Danielle did the rest, and she was incredible. Also, her room at the Hollywood birthday bash was slightly better than Brittani's also, with Hillari's a close third. I have liked Brittani's work the past couple of weeks, but it wouldn't surprise me if Danielle wins. She also has a sweet personality. Both Brittani and Danielle have enough personal polish to host the show and can simply work on becoming comfortable in front of the camera, as David had to do. But Hilari simply lacks that polish and more dignified demeanor of the other two, despite being very personable. I think she needs to work on her speech pattern, physical demeanor and grooming. If she does that, she could go further in television. I like that she enjoys the camera and is flexible in front of it, but she can't just babble on without saying much of substance, and especially needs to quit bragging about herself.
Moonbeam…Thanks for the awesome response!!! These message boards can get so brutal, especially with everyone so passionate about their favorite designer!!! I completely agree with you in regards Britany and Danielle being polished. I'm not sure of Britany's educational background, but Danielle studied dance at Stanford, which would have helped to develop her "polish". With regards to Hilari, I completely agree that she could definitely use some help in the polish department. I agree in that I felt that her body language was rather erratic as if she were moving in 5 directions at once!!! She also used very little filter for her words and I found her annunciation to be rather sloppy!!! As the competition continued, she grew increasingly arrogant as if she had already won as the Next DS!!! It was if she was trying to be a big TV personality…Like really milking the camera!!! I found it to be unattractive!!! A final note is that many credit her as being kind, but she was very overjoyed in the color challenge to have acquired the glass table before Danielle!!! That was so immature! The only positive remark I can say is that she was stylish at times!!!
Would you at this point look back and say she was 'mature' to gave the table to Danielle? Or conversely, say that Danielle was the immature one to whine (again) about someone else beating her to the desired item? A true designer doesn't depend on purchased items; only a stager does. But that seems fitting…..this show is staged and will promote a stager, not a design star.
Well, In regards to Hilari, I thought it was Hilari's right to keep the table as she located the item first. However, I do not believe that laughing, after discovering that Danielle wanted the table, was an appropriate response.
In looking at Danielle, my response is simply that the designers have a very finite period of time to complete their designs. So, finding key pieces very quickly for their designs is extremely important!!! I believe that any person in her shoes would have been really frustrated!!
Designers are only as good as the items that they create or purchase for a space!!! Imagine David Bromstad without his great paintings or amazing light fixtures. imagine Candice without the use of modern lighting and beautiful pieces!!! They would not be as well known!! I'm sure!!Thanks for the response!!!
So excited to see Britany get to the finals. So well deserved and her yurt was inventive and a new side to her that we haven't seen. She also did great on her camera challenges. She HAS to take home this win, she is superb!!!!! GO TEAM BRITANY!
Definitely the wrong decision!!! I loved Hilari's design, and she did the best job on camera. What a bad decision:(
So sad to see Hilari go too, I thought she and Britney deserved to make it to the finals. Danielle's space was once again very boring with little imagination and color, and there is just something about her that bothers me. Britney should go all the way, GO BRIT GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought Hillari was going to win-she is so different from past winners that have not been successful.But instead they chose the two that are like all the others-more of the same.It's like the viewers are in a different universe than the judges-how are we supposed to react when we all have obviously responded so well to Hillari's charisma,and she's the one that get's sent home? Maybe it is time for new judges-I am so disappointed with this show.
You know, I think you are right. The same judges will always pick the same type of designer, personality that they want. So to mix things up change judges each year. Maybe then we won't get a condensending Genevieve, making up errors that anyone can make in a 24-48 hour turn-around-time. Wonder if she was perfect? Hmmmmmm
Vern and Genevieve, you made the absolutely wrong decision in sending Hilari home this week. She is the only designer I am interested in watching in the future – she is genuine, funny, engaging, and charmingly rolls with the punches. She always holds my interest with her designs and commentary. She plans well, has a great eye, is mature, and works so well with others. I've loved watching her and hope she gets her own show. Her designs are as vibrant as is her personality. The remaining two designers are boring to watch and hear. They are both painfully awkward on camera. Danielle cries frequently (can't handle pressure), is a terrible planner, and her designs are often unfinished or tacky. Britney is just boring. Her designs are not inspiring – they're just ho-hum and I have zero interest in watching the finale or any shows with them. I hope someone at HGTV with authority recognizes how special Hilari is and gives her her own show.
I agree with you.. I was DVR the show just to watch Hilari win. ( I thought) I can cancel DVR because I have no interest in watching the finale.
You said it better than anyone. HGTV needs to right a wrong and give Hilari her own show.