ShareA few weeks ago, we announced that Heather Armstrong would be joining the HGTV family. Since then, we’ve gotten lots of feedback asking what she’ll be doing around here. While we still have a lot of tricks up our sleeves, starting this week, Heather will post every week on Design Happens. (Yay!)
If you could have her post on any design-related topic, what would it be? What do you want to see HGTV and Heather tackle together?
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I’d like tips on how to decorate my large and somewhat plain midwest home in a modern, but comfortable way, for my young family. I like modern design, but don’t want something cold and impersonal. I’d love to have a clean and upscale look, but one that is toddler-friendly.
I find that while I have money to spend, I just don’t know where to spend it or where to start. So I just don’t! We’ve been living in our home for 2 years now and still have a builder-beige bedroom with NO decoration. Frustrating.
I'm a long-term fan of both HGTV and Heather (I love her wit, honesty and writing skills but I'll admit the amazing design bits she show throws in steps it up a notch.) I would like to see Heather tackle budget friendly home office design (dining room/office combo) using found items, keepsakes and things from Target, Ikea and WalMart. Something that demonstrates how to live "divinely" (homage to Candice Olsen) on a dime.
I have something totally different in mind. I'd like to see Heather and Camilla travel the world. Heather taking the high life road in a town or country while Camilla takes the low rent road of the same town or country. One is in a nice hotel, one is in a crappy hostel. One eats well, one eats street food. One is in a spa, one is in the ocean with a bar of soap. Maybe their paths cross during the show. But it's all about fun and information for the traveler, what can be done on different budgets. Show how much they spend again, it's about fun and real information. Then some weeks Heather and Camilla trade places….maybe one episode they are together. Mix it up, throw clothes fashion and design in there as well. This has to opportunity to be huge. Beside 10 years of Samatha Brown, enough!!! A show like this will fell the gap. Send me an email I have ideas…….
So excited about Heather joining HGTV.
As for topics I'd like to see covered: calendar/organization for the family (e.g., whiteboard? calendars? lists? do school age kids get their own calendar or list of chores?…); patio decorating,;storage/organization of cords, electronics, etc.
I eagerly look forward to Heather's involvement!
Who is she? I'd rather get my design advice from an actual designer than a blogger.
I read her posts. what does Dooce have to do with design?
Heather! My sister from another mister! I am so excited! I have read your blog Dooce for years and you will rock it in HGTV!!! You can be the Candice Olsen of the US, then come to my house and HELP!
I'm all about storage!! Her house seems so neat and orderly. I only have one kiddo and I can't seem to pull that off. Where do you put everything? and How do you keep it there? Thanks!
mmm, yeah, GET OVER IT- great advice. You seem to have taken it quite personally that she got the gig in the first place, and felt a need to mention her bathroom tiles? Who here is clearly not the professional?
I heart Heather Armstrong and have followed her blog loyally for years. I'm thrilled that she's part of the HGTV family since I'm a HGTV watcher too. What a great pairing! Anyway, in response to your question, I would love her to focus on home designs for children. Honestly, there's not much out "there" about designing for kids (i.e., bedrooms, storage solutions, school materials / desks / organization, art projects, etc.), and we moms need ideas, darn it! Plus, I feel like HGTV already offers a wide variety of programming focused on adult spaces, with ideas about kids' spaces sprinkled in here and there. I would love to see a whole show just about kids. You could also tap into Heather's interactive know-how and audience base by incorporating skype video with real moms/families. Just my two cents!
I would love to see some ideas for decorating and furniture placement for oddly shaped rooms. I've got an L shaped living room and I never see any ideas on how to make the room flow nicely.
I miss the geniune design shows that gave us amatuers ideas we could actually afford. Renos are great, they cost us a ka-zillion bucks. We do it once….then what? I want and need real world, affordable decorating, room make-overs. Ideas that I don't have to take out a bank loan for! I, for one, am bored with the cookie-cutter 2010 room with the same Ashley or Ikea furniture and the same Pottery Barn accessories!
I'd love to see her thoughts on kid's rooms….Leta's room looks *amazing*!!
Kids' play rooms. And storage. Of kids' stuff.
I would watch an entire show about hiding wires.
omg great stuff! where does she hide all the bits of paper, toys, pushchairs, books and magazines, kitchen equipment, piles of laundry, boots, beanies and coats that seem to evade my home and take roots?? and I only have one gorgeous 15mth old girl and one lazy husband!
Heather has a great sense of style.. she knows when to go new.. and when to go vintage. She also knows how to find a bargain. Incorporate that!
I have no interest in anything she would have to say about decorating. How is she any different than any other boring, whiny housewife with too much time on her hands exploiting her family for money? She's just the future "Kate"
I agree Bee. I was curious and went to her site and read some of her stuff. She is very crass and vulgar. Evidently she is a very popular blogger with a very loyal fan base so I'm sure that is why she is here. Her decorating style seems very cold and uninviting to me. I wouldn't consider her a designer, just a mommy blogger designer wanna be. Horrid.
I would love to see tips on how to create very cute yet organized nurseries and children's rooms. Her house always looks spotless. Also, any tips on keeping a clean an organized house with a newborn would be great too.
This could take so many directions. Weekly ideas and step by step instructions. Visit homes and create a nursery (on a shoe string or with a bigger budget). Home office storage. Share ideas people send in. Style- not of a professional designer, but a person who has a fresh take on style. Perhaps team with one of the HGTV designers for a quick solution segment. So many of us want to a little better and lack the nerve to get started. We love watching the creativity on HGTV. Good luck and we'll keep checking back.
how do you deal with clutter? and keep things so streamlined and neat? especially not having much time in the house to clean and organize?
and can you decorate walls without putting in holes? i'm a student with constant leases and rentals, not an owner of pretty much anything.
Help me deal with all the kids' toys in my house, please! I need functional storage in the family room and the bedrooms. My girls are 9 months and just barely 3 years old and it seems every inch of home is broken up by toys… many they don't even use.
Whatever Heather does, she needs to bring her wit and humor to the show. I really, really, really would hate to she her edge be watered-down by HGTV.
Taming the electronic octopi! Esp. when you don't have a separate room for your "home office".
So, basically you (HGTV) don't know what Heather's show is going to be about either and instead are asking us what to do with it?
Don't get me wrong. I am a big fan of the network and have followed Dooce for years. I personally like her style but I'm still not clear on what this show is about.
Keep working on those "tricks"
I’m excited about Heather [I've been entertained by her blog for years and love the photos of Chuck & Coco!] being on HGTV [I love the design & organization shows]!
It’s interesting – the polar opposites of those for the collaboration and those that aren’t – c’est la vie, oui?
IDEA:
Come to people’s homes who are in need of decorating & organizing ideas, then go shopping with them to places you’ve scouted out in their neighborhoods – esp. mom & pop shops, but also Target, IKEA, Daffy’s, TJ Maxx, Bed Bath & Beyond, Michael’s Arts & Crafts store, Jack’s 99¢ Store, etc. (yes, I’m in NYC).
And if you need any help with other places to scout or with decorating & organizing… ask me! ^ _ ^
I like Candace and her work, but I'd also like to see Heather and Vern, to see how (and I guess if) their design ideas mesh.
kait
Just stumbled across this – love, LOVE Heather Armstrong. (And I'm shocked at the angry girl comments on the flower wall in baby room post – seriously, what is wrong with people?!) I have an 8 mo old and need to find clever ways to hide all the CRAP that has taken over our house. My taste aligns with the images Heather has posted from her own home – contemporary pieces – but in a 1926 home with wood trim that I'm afraid to paint because surely the wood-details-in-old-homes-must-be-preserved police will visit me.
Come help me with my baby nursery! I have twice fallen in love with two different nursery bedding sets, only to have them both discontinued. Now I'm getting to that crazy stage in pregnancy where I think I can suddenly just make something on my own even though I have no idea how to use a sewing machine (I think lots of iron-on hem tape is in my future). Not to mention the crazy hormones that hit, making me love/hate a new color every other day.
I down sized, however my 26 year old daughter still lives at home…she is now in a tiny bedroom with a lot of stuff..wish a HGTV designer could come to my home in Memphis (Heather's home town) and show America how to make the best of a small space! Pleeeaaasssee!