Crazy about Luca’s Pittsburgh style? A fan of Bex’s quirky Texas designs? There’s still time to vote for your favorite designer! Vote up to 10 times per day through Friday, July 27 at noon for your most-loved contestant. The winner will win their on show right here on HGTV.com.
Did you ever wish some of your favorite Design Star contestants from seasons past got a chance to come back and redeem themselves? Wish no more, and mark your calendars: Design Star All Stars is here. Starting July 31 at 9/8c, six of the most memorable designers from the show’s history books will dust off their reality TV skills and compete for a guest spot on an HGTV show and a cash prize.
David Bromstad hosts, and Vern Yip and Genevieve Gorder will return to the Design Panel along with a rotating guest judge. Read on to find out the rest of the familiar faces you’ll see on the show.
Hey, Design Star fans! It’s time for another how-to project inspired by the design elements featured on Design Star. This time, we’re taking on Britany’s signature graphic wall. Remember this geometric pattern from the season premiere?
She also recreated the look in her (winning!) yellow-inspired condo in this week’s episode.
We asked HGTV.com contributor and Design Star producer Brian Patrick Flynn to recreate Britany’s graphic wall treatment and show you how to recreate it at home. Here’s his finished product:
See how he recreated Britany’s look, step-by-step:
Get the full how-to instructions for the graphic wall here, and learn how to create more projects seen on Design Star in our Design Star How-To Gallery.
Each week, I chat with Design Star producer Loren Ruch for being-the-scenes dish and set secrets from Design Star. This week: How the crew found the episode four homeowners and why Miera and Danielle’s carpenter didn’t stop them from doing the infamous built-in.
Did you scout the location and find homeowners for this challenge, or did they apply to be on the show? How does that process usually work?
That’s an interesting question because we find our homeowners in a variety of ways. In this particular challenge, we had our locations team (which is the same team that clears stores throughout LA for our designers to shop at) look into homes and homeowners that were within a ten mile radius of where the designers were living. They also needed to find people who happened to live across the street from each other! It was no easy task – they literally had to spend weeks trying to find the perfect families, because we wanted to make sure that the homes were of comparable size and layout and that they both had an indoor and outdoor area in need of a makeover. In the end the Nitzkins and the Masts turned out to be perfect!
It looked so fun to have Sabrina Soto on set! What was the best moment from this week’s challenge?
Anyone who has ever met Sabrina knows that she’s a good time girl! We were laughing from the minute we started working until long after the cameras went off. The most fun moment of the week happened after our evaluation was over, actually. Genevieve had friends visiting from out of town and decided to have a soiree with her friends plus Sabrina, David, and myself (Vern was babysitting that night or he would have been there too), and it was so nice to just hang out, have a drink and enjoy each other’s company. We had been working non-stop for about three straight weeks at this point without a day off, so it was a well-needed night out with a lot of laughs!
Were there any elements or spaces that looked better in person than on TV?
A few. Personally I thought that Stanley and Britany’s chevron fence was pretty darn cool in person. It looked good on TV, but it looked GREAT up close and personal. Also, Kris’s succulent planters were really, really cool in person. Sabrina literally wanted to steal one from set. Just kidding, but she did fall in love with them.
It seemed like Miera and Danielle’s carpenter almost knew it would be difficult to finish the built-in. Do the carpenters ever have the chance to say “no, this can’t be done” or do they just do the best they can with the time they have?
Fantastic question. We make it very clear to our designers that the carpenters are there to “assist” them but they cannot have “creative” input into the design itself. Cija, the carpenter, was in the right to say “I don’t think we’ll have enough time to do what you’re asking,” because that’s just an honest response, but she couldn’t tell them what she wanted them to look like or how to make them prettier. Those sorts of details needed to come directly from Miera or Danielle.
Have a question for Loren? Ask away in the comments below.
Meg talks about her favorite (and least favorite) spaces, the great details no one talked about and why she’s jealous of this season’s cast.
Want to gawk at all the details inside the season seven designers’ 10,000-square-foot Hollywood home? You can see all the beautiful (and not so beautiful) spaces created by the contestants, for the contestants in our Design Star 7 Cast House Tour Gallery.
Tour the designers’ living space now, then tell me: What’s your favorite (or least favorite) accessory or detail in this year’s house?
We’re pretty smitten with Pinterest here at HGTV — and so are the Design Star contestants. In addition to our everyday boards dedicated to inspiring design, entertaining tips and cool how-to projects, there’s a board specifically tailored to Design Star fanatics like us. Get the latest from the show delivered directly to your Pinterest feed…
…along with commentary from some familiar faces. Recognize anybody?
Follow HGTV’s Design Star board for inside scoop on the competition — you never know who’ll join the conversation!
While you’re at it, you can follow me at HGTVLiz to see my favorite picks from Design Star, HGTV.com and the rest of the online design world.
We’ve got a debate on our hands. On Tuesday night’s Design Star episode, the judges gushed over Rachel’s white moose head atop a black background. Here on the blog, y’all aren’t so sure.
Reader transient1 says: We have seen those heads turn up on one design show or another every season for the past half dozen years or so. In 2040 those will be the go-to props whenever a movie (or whatever video-type entertainment is available) is looking to create an early 21st century styled room.
And llxt added: The moosehead was a total do-over of A) David Bromstad himself and B) Antonio’s pink birds, which were much more unexpected. Definitely not something to win over.
But reader Gail sided with Vern and Genevive: I loved Rachel’s moose head…It was a sculpture…a real head would have been much larger!!! So glad that Rachel won.
Is it a decorating do or a don't?
When I polled the Design Star cast on their design loves and pet peeves, feelings on taxidermy (real or faux) were mixed. And it’s definitely a ongoing motif in the design world as part of an overall nature-inspired trend — check out more examples of faux taxidermy over at our Design Happens blog.
What do you think? Take the poll and voice your opinion in the comments below.
Remember Blanche Garcia, the first designer sent home on season six? She’s back to lend Yuki some tips one year later. Check out this comment she left on Tuesday night’s recap post:
“Yuki, Best of luck to you. Remember that first off doesn’t mean dead last. This coming from the first designer voted off last year, to becoming the designer for Travel Channel’s Hotel Impossible every Monday night. xoxo!”
Yuki, we hardly knew ya! Watch her exit interview now.
See what Blanche more of the past contestants you loved/loathed are up to in our Where Are They Now? Gallery.
Meg spills who she thought the winner should have been last night. Plus, which rooms needed help and what she would have done differently.
