'Trading Spaces': The aftermath
By Bill Dupre "Trading Spaces" fans in the Triangle must remember Jenny and Jer and Mike and Mir, the Garner couples who had their 30 minutes of fame on the show in May. The News & Observer profiled the efforts of Jenny and Jer Harwood and their next-door neighbors Mike and Mir Haynes in April, when the show was taped. Now, after six months of living with bedrooms designed without their input, we wondered: Have Mike and Mir found happiness in designer Doug Wilson's "China blue" room with the Orient-inspired mural on the walls and the cheesy Styrofoam "Zen sculpture"? And do Jenny and Jer still like the "Paris-green" walls and Shoji screens that Hildi Santo-Tomas gave them? Have our young couples settled comfortably into their new digs or tossed and rollered over everything? The good news for fans of "Trading Spaces" is that after half a year, contentment rules: Both rooms remain much as they were when last seen as the "Trading Spaces" crew packed up and left town. "We have changed very little," said Mir Haynes. "We got rid of the sculpture almost immediately. Put it on the curb. We thought about selling it on eBay. We're not sure if some 'Trading Spaces' fan or just the garbage man picked it up." After the show, Haynes said, Wilson said "almost apologetically" that what would look really nice would be a black wicker chair and a reading lamp. "I wonder if that was Plan A and the sculpture was Plan B," Haynes mused. "We spent $914 [of the $1,000 budget]. Where's the rest of that money? Give us a lamp or something. The quality could have been a little bit better." Likewise, the Harwoods have settled easily into their new room. "Life is pretty much back to normal," Jenny Harwood said. "It's still nice to have the room all decorated. It gives that room its own personality." In fact, she says, she will paint the rest of the house soon and hopes to give other rooms a complementary treatment. Both women say the bold bedroom makeovers were inspirations. "It loosened me up to be a little more brave [about] color," said Haynes. "It helps you to see the potential.... Try something new. You can always paint over it." Harwood agrees that the redecorating by proxy was liberating. "Before we had our room painted, it was pretty much like a blank canvas," she said. "I kind of knew what I wanted but didn't really. With them doing it for us, it opened up the canvas to the rest of the house." |
