Top Design 11/5/08--"Finale pt. 2" summary

Previously on Top Design: the final 4 designed one room, with the hopes that they would be allowed to continue and design the rest of the house. Preston and Ondine did their usual good jobs, with Ondine being slightly better. Nathan tried to please the judges, which backfired, but he was still better than Eddie, who was still “old” and also irritated Jeff Lewis for some reason. As a bonus for the episode we got to watch Nathan and Eddie get drunk and paw each other, and do a drunken interview where they pretended to blow up their muscles and it was kind of disturbing. We also got some shots of the designers’ actual houses. Preston = looks like no one actually lives there. Nathan = very Nathan and funky. Ondine = also looks like her and like people live there, and is probably the one I would live in. (Kmanpat: “Whatever, I’m living in Nathan’s house. With Nathan.”) Who will win…tonight? (click for more)

First we get a nice montage of our final three’s wonderful spaces and also the disasters from some other people. Season long montage! Finally it is morning in the loft. Nathan says that like all of us, he thought he was going home last episode. As he puts his shirt on (Kmanpat: “Aww!”) he says how he is going to fight back to the top. Preston reminds us that he didn’t get plastered and stupid with Eddie and Nathan because there’s a history of addiction in his family. This is accompanied by pictures of Preston as a child. I especially like the one where he’s sitting on a plastic tub, surrounded by paint-splattered walls and paint cans. Oh man. Ondine lets us know they have $60,000 to spend on furniture today. Nice. She’s very excited for this opportunity. Ondine lived the 80’s to the fullest, according to her pictures. Where are Nathan’s pictures? Anyways, the 80’s look was something she designed herself. That makes them cooler.

Wallpaper! That’s about how long that shopping trip lasts. Why don’t they get lots of time to design? Didn’t the two finalists last season get months to plan? Everyone discusses the concept of their houses. Nathan‘s concept is “hip, young, good looking art collector‘s house“, Preston is doing “sleek and modern with a traditional twist” , and Ondine is doing “Danish modern chic.” None of those seem like anything more than buzz words. There’s a very cute shot of everyone sleeping in the car. Hee.

The next day, everyone meets India at the houses. They have a little more than 2 days. All the rooms have been painted and wallpapered, and everyone gets 2 carpenters and 1 seamstress. But of course, they might need more help. So Natalie, Andrea, and Eddie pop out of one of the houses. Eddie is bitchy as usual, because of course he just got eliminated. Nathan gets Natalie, Preston picks Eddie (oo, he’s pissed), and Ondine gets Andrea. Preston says he’s pleased. Eddie demonstrates why they should have passed him over by saying if Preston asks him for coffee he’ll tell him to go f*** himself. Eddie: YOU ARE NOT FUNNY. Actually it’s also entertaining that Andrea, who chose to go home, is paired with Ondine, the person she saved.

One of Ondine’s rooms has bright yellow stripes. Andrea complains that she totally could have done this challenge and rocked it. Eddie views Preston’s rooms as hotel rooms. Whatever. He complains about the heat and then pretends that he respects Preston’s designs. Natalie loves Nathan’s room that almost got him eliminated. NOW we get the pictures of Nathan, all blond and precious. And with freckles. Ondine has a 12’ by 12’ headboard of mirrored tiles for her carpenters to make. Nice. She worries if they can finish. Preston rearranges his rooms, because he’s changing the room he made into a dining room. Nathan makes 7 people move this giant ass chest/sarcophagus into his house. Up the stairs. When he gets it in there, he discovers that it’s too big. Oh, Nathan. You could have avoided that. He wants to move it or possibly cut it in half, but he can’t bear to move it again after all that.

Everyone gets $5000 to shop at one “dream” store. I thought there’d be more shopping shots. Back at the houses the assistants are running the show. Eddie is wandering around, and Natalie says she’s doing more than Eddie but that’s because Preston wouldn’t give Eddie anything to do. Hee. Preston calls him and tells him to do some painting, and move some stuff, and basically refutes what Natalie just said. Eddie, because he is mature, rolls his eyes and makes faces, and eventually ditches the phone on the staircase and leaves. Asshat. Do you think Martha approves of that? What if I hired you to design something? Would I have to worry about you rolling your eyes and ignoring me all the time? I hope you get fired for that.

As the designers return, Nathan lets us know they have 2 ½ more days. Todd time! He loves Preston’s wallpaper in the bedroom, which is a floral dark brown that I feel we’ve seen before. Cut to a shot of Nathan’s house, with the same wallpaper. Somewhere else though. Ondine’s got a lot of dark furniture. Todd only has praise for everyone, of course.

Ondine goes to check on her furniture, which hasn’t arrived, and the construction stuff is going slowly. So she’s freaking out. But this doesn’t prevent the designers and their helpers from heading for the pool after work. Hee. Nathan lets us know he “got to show off [his] body”. (Kmanpat: *drool*) He’s made lifelong friends. Lord, I hope not with Eddie. Preston sits in a deck chair while everyone else is in the hot tub, to get some alone time. It’s hard to get alone time when everyone is right there.

Day 2! This is the last full day. Nathan is taping and painting a console table, with the random stripes. Preston looks for shortcuts. Ondine ventures over to the carpenters and offers to speed things up. Nathan has made a chandelier out of paper plates and chicken wire. It looks like paper plates and chicken wire, but I like the shape of it. Ondine’s carpenter is like, I can only do one thing at a time, and refuses to answer her question about whether everything will be done.

The morning of the last day brings everyone talking about how they want to win and their dreams of what they’ll do when they win. 2 hours to work today, which isn’t that much time. Ondine is still freaking out. It’s a theme. Her carpenter promised her that the kid’s bed would be done when she showed up that morning, but it’s not. She’s painting valences. Nathan makes some art by pouring paint on a canvas. Ondine’s headboard with mirrors looks awesome. Finally everyone is finished. I hope this means Eddie will go away. However, Andrea gets in the more annoying comment by saying if Ondine wins she should take Andrea out for dinner and buy her an outfit. Yeah.

Ondine’s house is up first. Sadly Kelly’s dress is almost normal, although she‘s wearing a braid wrapped around her head with a big metallic flower. Her house looks comfortable. Downstairs is a sitting room in camel and dark woods, and upstairs the living room has dark wallpaper in a fan pattern and bright pink couches. It looks really cool. Shiny wall sculpture! The dining room goes along, with black and white. Master bedroom has the giant headboard with mirrors, turquoise walls with gold brocade looking wallpaper and coordinating drapes. The girl’s room is bright yellow and pink, with a bed recessed into the wall under the window. With curtains. It’s so cute! Ondine acknowledges she asked her carpenter to do a lot. Her room she did last week is the same except she has black drapes and different artwork. I like her house a lot. It looks really cool but also like you could flop on the sofa and put your drink on the table.

Preston gets the second spot. The bottom sitting room is gray and warm woods, and upstairs the “lounge” is also warm browns. He calls it a “Ralph Lauren” type feel. It’s very magazine cover. Jonathan tells him he could have used a splash of color, since everything is dark brown. He thinks that the flowers (small purple heather-type flowers) and the artwork (rusts and browns) and the drapes downstairs (green but not bright) are enough color. The room he did last week he kept the wall the same, but the whole rest of the room is different. All the furniture is brown and black and heavy in the new dining room. The master bedroom is pretty dark, with brown wallpaper. He keeps claiming his color is the green which I think is faded and not very bright. Not to serve as a pop of color. The guest room has molding and a couch with some bright cushions. The office is full of all the color that is lacking in the rest of the house. Lots of artwork, the orange bench from last week, it’s cool. He says that his house is playful and works for any client.

Nathan has a foyer instead of a sitting room. There’s a wardrobe and a big table with some artwork on it. Upstairs is his console table and a square dining table. The artwork with the poured paint is horizontal which I like, but the paper plate chandelier still looks cheap. The family room is cramped because of that giant chest thing. The sofa looks cozy. Jonathan wishes that he had used the chest as a table at least, instead of having it hulking in the corner. Nathan didn’t much change his master bedroom, and Jonathan thinks he should have. Ouch. The child’s bedroom is the coolest bedroom, although it’s very neat and clean. Not as much color as Ondine’s. The office is turquoise and has the same wallpaper as Preston’s bedroom. Lots of pictures, and a sofa and a big desk. A big foofy mirror above the desk.

India reminds everyone of the prizes, when they gather for judging. Nathan is wearing a huge necklace that says something, but I can’t read it. Jonathan had expected more lows from Nathan, but he liked what he saw. He’s chic and intellectual and surprising. Nathan’s least favorite piece is that giant chest. He tells them he didn’t take it back out of the room because of how much it took to get in, and Margaret asks if it wasn’t worth $100,000. They loved the art, especially the dining room pieces. Jonathan helps me out by asking what the necklace says, which is “another friend” in Russian. Aww. Ondine’s house was the most pulled together work they’ve seen from her. Kelly wishes there were fewer accessories. Ondine badmouths her carpenter, even though she asked him for a lot. She implies that she didn’t know he couldn’t do anything. Preston’s guest room with the molding was great, but the dining room was like a set he bought all at one store, which is bad I guess. But he fixed the bed by putting an upholstered piece in the headboard.

The judges talk alone. Everyone did an incredible job. Jonathan is “wildly conflicted”. Ondine had some big ideas that worked (headboard and child’s room) and some things didn’t work (the conflict with her carpenters). They’d like to see her let herself go a little more. Basically, they want to see the child’s room, all through the house. Backstage Ondine is still complaining about her carpenter. Nathan is bold and individual and creative, but his best room is the foyer, a room that is basically useless. Kelly disagrees, but they all agree that the wallpaper along the stairs is crappy. They love the photos in the office. Preston’s house was polished, but boring. Jonathan says it needs more “kapow”. Kelly makes faces and Margaret tells her to shush because the house can be polished but not so boring. Each designer has their clients that would hire them over the other two.

Commercials. Everyone thinks Preston should win. Silly people. Don‘t bore Nina! Or Margaret, I guess.

Everyone should be proud of themselves, but there can be only one. Nathan’s grown and is versatile, and can succeed after failure. Ondine’s progress has come from her listening to the judges, and she needs to be herself all the time. Preston has come a long way from his crappy flower arranging, and he knows exactly who he is and what his design style is. And the winner is…Nathan! Wow, I thought Ondine was going to win. Not that I’m complaining. Preston is going to have the confidence to think outside the box. Ondine knows there’s plenty of room for everyone to be successful. Nathan’s so pleased, and it hasn’t kicked in yet because he feels like he has another challenge coming up. Hee.

Thanks for reading, you guys! I’ll be back next week with “Top Chef”!