Top Design 10/8/08--"Eco-Offices" summary

Previously on Top Design: finally we got individual challenges. There was a “triathlon” of sorts. Nathan won the chair leg (last time, I promise) and also the table setting leg. Then there was a leg which involved making sets for a photo shoot, and Natalie won that, although her set wasn’t that great. Doesn’t matter though, because Nathan wins the whole thing. Teresa is judged not interesting enough and was eliminated. I just reread my recap from last week, and I’m really sorry for all the typos. I’ll try to proofread better this week. (click for more)

Eddie is bitter about not winning and implies Martha Stewart will fire him if he doesn’t win. Natalie knows she is loud and is trying to edit. Andrea believes in her heart she is not the best one here. She will try to do something different this time.

In the workroom there’s a chalkboard with a floor plan tacked to it, with all the rooms in different colors. Eddie knows what is coming. India and Danny Seo are here. Danny is a “green” designer, so I guess this is some kind of hippie treehugging challenge. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for saving the environment and whatnot, just not as much as most of these people. They will have to redesign offices in an eco-friendly way. They have to use all of the items in the offices that they find, so they can’t throw anything out. They have special paint with low fumes, and they can’t buy fabric, they have to use remnants. Which is how I made my curtains in my apartment, so: ha. And the Top Design Showroom will have a special eco-friendly section. India (in voiceover, so who knows if it’s true) says that sticking to the environmentally conscious rules will be just as important as a good design. Everyone gets their own client, random draw. One day they should do rock-paper-scissors or something.

Nathan gets a cute boy, but the office sucks. It has crappy carpeting and metal file cabinets and two cheap desks, because eventually they’ll be putting two people in there. His client has lived in East Africa, so they choose some warm colors. Natalie is picking bright colors. She’s got the same crappy furniture, everyone has that. Eddie is horrified at the carpet and immediately complains to the client that his office is terrible and the worst ever. In confessional he pouts that his client is a dork. He wants something funky, which of course is not Eddie at all. “I hate that word. It sounds like it should smell, like, ooh, that’s funky.” Does…does he understand that “funky” is actually used to refer to things that stink? That’s like a Natalie comment. He promises a “super cool” room, which is almost as vague as “funky”. Wisit lucked out and got the boss, so he has no ugly carpet. But his client wants masculine. That should be fun. Andrea has to design the reception area. I spy in the corner some halogen lights like you’d find in a dorm room. Immediately she moves the desk to help her plan. Preston is so pleased that his client matches his style. But then his client ditches him to deal with the conference room, which is what Ondine has. I feel like it’s not really fair to not give everyone a private office. A conference room has different requirements for design than an office. Plus it doesn’t have carpet.

Fabric shopping involves giant piles of fabric on the floor, cardboard boxes, and rummaging. Naturally Eddie demands antihistamines and would probably love to have some gloves. (Kmanpat: “Calm down, prissy boy, an hour in a warehouse with clearance fabric remnants won’t kill you.“) Wisit has chosen pale beige and gray-green for his masculine challenge. The “green” area of the showroom appears to have recycled stuff and office supplies, which Nathan is getting because he already has furniture. India stops them at the end of shopping to make them line up. They all know this can only be bad. She says that they want to see if they can take some more pressure and makes them hand over the keys to the offices. Everyone rolls their eyes and curses. They have to pass the keys one person to the right. So now they have a new office and they are inheriting the decisions the first designer made. Wisit has Natalie’s old room, so he is worried, while Eddie has Nathan’s old room. He is very pleased.

They have one hour to meet and figure out their new rooms. Ondine doesn’t think Wisit chose masculine colors so she’s scrambling. Wisit is worried about his new room, and wants to burn Natalie’s things. “I suppose it wouldn’t be so green, but at least it would bring more peace to the world.” Heh. Andrea and Natalie don’t match either, so Natalie is worried about doing the reception area. Andrea was at first pleased about having Eddie’s room, but then it appears it’s a very small office and Eddie has bought all bright blue paint and fabrics for the room. Andrea interviews that she is worried as she and Eddie move (and subsequently break) the desk. Eddie and Nathan click, of course. Nathan’s plan is to cut the carpet and put it on the walls. It’s not Eddie’s style but he’s cool with it. Preston knows what he’s doing but Nathan feels it’s not new. He wants to put his own style in it. Preston freaks out because Ondine has the biggest room.

Carpenter/seamstress time! Nathan wants “work horses” to make the desk with. His carpenter has to ask him if he means “sawhorses”. Hee. Andrea’s carpenter jokes with her. Eddie spazzes out about light fixtures.

The next day everyone comes back to look at the carpenters’ work. Preston works in a wife beater. (Kmanpat: “It’s called an A-frame t-shirt. And, yum.”) Natalie is trying to make art with her old bookshelves, covered in fabric. Wisit doesn’t want to cut up his furniture. Ondine has to work with the stupid fabrics Wisit bought. She’s making a chandelier with plastic water bottles. Eddie has a ton of work. Andrea’s walls are a bright teal blue and she’s freaking out.

Todd time! Eddie put both desks together in his room, to make a big table. I hope they like that. Natalie is making double sided pillows. Todd tells Andrea to make 3 white things. There’s a rule of threes? Or something? Todd says Andrea, Wisit, and Natalie have the biggest challenges.

Frantic painting, stapling, working. With two hours left the clients show up. Just in time to not be able to change anything! None of the clients really say anything bad. Except Natalie’s client, she asks for recycling bins. Natalie thinks she has leftover wood to make them. Wisit is really defensive in his interviews which makes me worried. Everyone takes a few minutes to visit their old rooms. Eddie says he’s not helping Andrea because he doesn’t want to put his name on her crappy room. Natalie is insulted that Wisit isn’t using her fabrics, but Andrea is irritated that Natalie put boards on the walls. This episode is confusing. Too many things going on.

India has the most gorgeous gown on with this collar of crystals. I want it. Kelly isn’t here for me to make fun of. Eddie: one wall is the padding from underneath the carpeting, all cut up into squares and used as a bulletin board. The room is kind of dark, with orange/brown walls. The wooden blinds are disassembled and placed over the florescent lights all criss crossed, and also over the door. Eddie is still wearing an undershirt full of holes. Natalie: the paint is a kind of mauve, and there are some new shelves. The fabric boards are behind the desk, and she says they can be used for memo boards, although they are just fabric over wood, with no padding. She’s also got the recycling bins, but they’re unpainted. There’s a long bench under the window for seating. She also admits that she likes the color. Wisit: it’s supposed to be bold and colorful, but it’s pale blue and gray, with some sage accents. There’s fabric draped over the rolly office chairs. It’s soothing, but not bold and colorful. Probably the best thing is that the two desks are now pushed together in an L shape. He’s distressed the desk drawers, though, and I am not a fan of the distressed look. Underneath some fabric (not cut or anything, just draped) are the fuzzy chairs Natalie bought. He claims he edited and didn’t buy things he didn’t want. Ondine: the walls are a pale green, and she tried to make it masculine and professional looking. The bookshelves are painted so they look like built-ins, and over the fluorescent lights she’s glued empty water bottles. From far away though, the lights look much the same. She admits she was confused about Wisit’s choices, and India even goes so far as to say she thought this was a woman’s office. Nathan: very dark, with dark green walls and dark shelves. Two walls are white and one is charcoal. The legs of the desk are shelves now, and the top of the desk set on the sawhorses. His curtain rods are the cardboard tubes from inside his bolts of fabric (holding up dark curtains) and there’s some art with left over fabric. Preston: a nice soothing blue, with molding in big open frames. The conference table is painted in the same motif, blue with a white border. It looks very elegant. Andrea: bright teal walls with white shelves and accents. The desk is dark wood, with two lamps on it. Those lamps are big square lamps. She hid the metal thing on the wall that seems to have no purpose. The original desk is cut up into pieces and painted white, and scattered around on the walls. There’s some seating with black chairs and cushions. Apparently the metal thing was the server and the computer wiring, which she’s covered and possibly cut off access to.

The judges were impressed with everyone. The good designers were good even thought they had all those challenges. Andrea actually used color! The artwork was boring but the desk placement was clever. Ondine’s chandelier was great, and her colors were the best she could do with what she had. Nathan knows how to decorate a whole room, and he can back up his edgy statements. Preston can edit himself and he knows how to lay out everything. But his “recycling bins” are tiny. They move from that to Wisit’s sad bookshelf. He doesn’t style well, and Jonathan wanted him to step it up. He didn’t meet the client’s wishes. Natalie doesn’t have the taste level yet. Plus her fabric boards aren’t really useful. Eddie really repurposed the materials, using them in new fab ways.

Everyone comes out to get grilled. Three people nailed it this week. Nathan had a great industrial vibe. Preston repainted the bookcase and styled it wonderfully, and the room was great. Eddie repurposed the carpet padding and Jonathan says he would never have known what it was. Eddie wins! I would like to point out that he stole that carpet idea from my boy Nathan. All three of the boys can leave and go drink. Andrea and Ondine are safe too. Wisit tells the judges that Natalie’s choices weren’t all his taste but he tried his best. Margaret thinks he was confused by this challenge, partly because when they asked him what he did to be creative and “green” he said he wasn’t wasteful in his shopping. His response to that is that if they want him to redo the room, it will be beautiful and timeless so they won’t have to redo it 10 years from now. Huh? Margaret calls him a one trick pony and Jonathan was bored and thinks he should have used Natalie’s colors. Natalie tried to please the client with her room. Guest judge Danny nails her for using MDF for her recycling bins, because it apparently gives off pollutants. Guess my apartment pollutes a lot, then. (MDF is “multi-density fiberboard” which is basically particle board, that they make cheap furniture out of). He wishes that she had used the wood in the fabric panels for the recycling bins instead. Margaret says the fabric panels and the pillows on the window seat say “condo” and that is bad for an office. Jonathan tells her her work is never polished. Ouch.

Margaret was disappointed in Wisit, his heart wasn’t in it and he couldn’t recover from the twist. Natalie was underwhelming. She says she’ll be sad if she goes home. Wisit has always believed in maintaining oneself with dignity.

Back out for judging. Wisit has great taste but fell down on this challenge. Natalie is young but that’s no excuse for a lack of sophistication. Wisit is out. Aww. He was so cute and fabulous. Nathan wipes away a tear. Now who will he sleep with when the world ends? Yes, Kmanpat, we know. Wisit says he hopes someone watches the show and realizes he is a great designer/artist/whatever. He sings us out this week.

Next week: “the toughest challenge yet”. Lots of breaking things and anger. And Ondine trips over some paint and gets it all over Eddie’s set. He is about to shoot laser beams out of his eyeballs.