The Reality of those Home Shows

Enter the dusty, dilapidated home. Show the designer walking around the spaces, pointing to

the walls that will be torn down, the windows and larger fireplace that will be added, and then hammers come out and the demo begins -- all before the first commercial break!

I HAVE BEEN AN INTERIOR DESIGNER IN DENVER, CO for nearly 20 years, and I can tell you that though this may be the order of events, the editing process of design reality shows presents a highly over-simplified and unrealistic portrait of the design process. The audience doesn’t see the contract negotiations, the measuring and photographing of the existing space, the client interviews – and the hours of drafting and 3-D rendering that happens.

Sure, those 20 minutes make for entertaining TV and generate excitement for the

transformations we imagine in our own homes, but projects take weeks in between the initial phases: contract, concepts, sketches, selections, drawings, specifications, meetings… And that is all before construction begins.

Then there are:

- FRAMING WALKS

- ELECTRICAL WALKS

- SITE DILEMMAS

- FINISH APPROVALS

- BACKORDERS, and

- DISCONTINUED PRODUCTS TO RESELECT

There are subs to schedule (and re-schedule) and weather delays. And sometimes there are slow, quiet weeks where nothing much happens at all.

The TV excitement is real – and the transformations are amazing. But a 20-minute snapshot of a 6-month project? Think of it as entertaining, but not reality.