Th penultimate episode of HGTV’s “Design Star” is in the books, and contestants Meg and Karl will be competing in the final next Monday night. The design challenge of the week was to design a whole house. The competitors seemed overwhelmed by the very thought. Tanya led them to Battery Park where their new homes had been constructed—tiny homes! Each was an 86 square foot, one-room home.
This was one of the most fun-to-watch challenges to date. The designers had to find a way to fit a sleeping area, kitchen, dining space, living area and a toilet all in one miniscule home. Each was assigned an HGTV carpenter, and the first camera challenge was to interact with that carpenter on the air. The second camera challenge would be a walk-through of the finished house.
All of the designers chose to have a loft bed built in the tiny houses, which was pretty much a necessity. Meg chose to have her closet and enclosed toilet at the entry, on either side of the front door. This created the feel of a walk-in foyer. Karl and Mark positioned theirs on the sides. Meg painted her home’s interior a bright yellow with bright green trim. Mark used stripes and belts on the walls to try to create an “argyle” pattern look. Karl focused on accessories that all did double duty(cutting boards as placemats, small tables that could be seats) and had his carpenter create an architectural ladder leading to the loft bed. The difficulty of this challenge was to find a way to fit everything into the space without having it look too jammed and cluttered.
Mark stumbled a bit while on camera with his carpenter, but all of the other camera challenges were on a par. Meg seemed the most natural on air, but Karl has improved a lot over the course of the competition. The judges (Candice Olson rejoined her colleagues for the last two episodes) found pluses and minuses in each tiny home—-they didn’t understand Mark’s use of belts on the walls, or Meg’s use of purely decorative items when space was at such a premium. They also questioned Karl’s use of red on the walls in such a small space.
In the end, Meg and Karl survived and Mark was sent home. It was a bit of a surprise as just weeks ago Mark seemed like the clear frontrunner. Vern praised his willingness to take chances and use creative and unusual items in his decorating. The winner of “Design Star” 2011 will be chosen next Monday night at nine p.m.
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