Trading Spaces with the "e"
By Mike Riopell Abandoning clever ideas such as trading interview roles or writing duties, the 'Zone recently chatted via phone with a designer from The Learning Channel's increasingly popular show, "Trading Spaces." The premise of "Trading Spaces" is simple. Two families give up full design rights of a room in their respective homes to the other family. Each team gets one professional interior designer, each with his or her individual quirks and styles. Within 48 hours, using a $1,000 budget, the decorators can do whatever they want to the other family's house. Doug Wilson appears on the show as a designer about twice every month. Two weeks prior to a show Wilson receives a packet of information including the layout of the upcoming show's room, a taped interview with the homeowner and other various materials. He then formulates his design plan. "I'm not necessarily trying to please the homeowner whose home I'm doing," Wilson said. "I'm trying to do something that the neighbor wants to do. I want to put my twist on it, too. And that's where one of the aspects of tension comes into the show." While not displayed in an obvious sense on the show, an element of competition serves as an invisible drive for "Trading Spaces" designers. "We all want the best room," Wilson said. Wilson likes to work against/with either Frank Bielec because of their varying design styles, or against his "wife," Hilda (Hildi) Santo Thomas. "We're not really married," Wilson said. "That's like our pet name sort of thing. It's been rumored on the Internet that Hildi and I are married. I do call her my wife and she accepts that name. "You don't have to understand, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever." Not all the work for the show happens on camera. The designers discuss with each other upcoming shows. "I like to try, with Hildi, to create shows that are going to be interesting and edgy," Wilson said. "So we do bounce ideas off of each other." "Of course, you know, I always want the better room, and in my opinion, I generally have it," Wilson joked. To get there, Wilson has to work closely with the homeowners he is assigned, something he enjoys. "It's all tongue-in-cheek with me," Wilson said. "Some of the designers want to be 'chummy chummy' and friendly with [homeowners] right away," Wilson said. "I just want to see what happens and see how they react to me." Sometimes he needs to do some extended convincing before his partners warm up to his designs. "But they end up seeing that I was right," Wilson said. He attributes this to his ability to visualize the finished product and the homeowners' lack of the same ability. "If they [had that ability], they'd be doing their homes beautifully, and I wouldn't have to be there," Wilson said. His 20th episode marked the first time owners of the home he worked on had a poor reaction to a completed room. "We have a thing going with fireplaces where people don't want you to paint the fireplace, in general," Wilson said. "Or we do and they hate it." Before the episode, the owner was very adamant about the fireplace not being painted and even put signs on it. "In my planning, I said, 'OK, fine. I won't paint the fireplace. I'll cover the fireplace,'" Wilson said. His decision sparked homeowner tears on camera, but Wilson maintains the design would have been warmed up to "[had the homeowner] stayed in the room for more than two seconds." A recent project, saved to air in September, is Wilson's work on the University of California, Berkeley's Delta Upsilon fraternity house. Genevieve Gorder designed the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority house in exchange. Wilson worked with the Alpha Omicron Pi girls on the Delta Upsilon house. "Anything you do is going to be an improvement," Wilson said of the room he was assigned. "The girls I was working with were very open. They gave me some flack on a few things, and I crumbled. I left the beer light." The fraternity now shows the room off, locking it to prevent the trashing that plagued the room before "Trading Spaces." As far as dorm rooms and apartments go, Wilson — who attended the University of Illinois for three years — offered some suggestions. "Be creative and get some fabric on the walls," Wilson suggested. "[For] one, it can be a big change and — two — it absorbs sound." He soundproofed his U of I fraternity house in college with carpeting on ceiling, walls and floor. Wilson spends little time at his own home (a self-described work-in-progress) as he works design projects in Florida, Washington, D.C. and the Hamptons, among other places. |
