Hello friends! Happy Saturday! As promised, I’m breaking down my thoughts and experience of this and every episode of Design Star: Next Gen!

Hopefully, you guys caught my live after the show on Wednesday night! That’s where I’m sharing my immediate reactions to each episode, answering your viewer questions and dishing all of the juicy behind the scenes. They’re raw, unadulterated and pure entertainment solely for those that tune in, so they will NOT be saved! But don’t worry, If you can’t catch them, I’ll be answering a few of the popular ones here! So… let’s get into it, shall we!?

The show opens with all of us walking on to “campus” and meeting our fellow contestants: Peti Lau (Los Angeles, CA), Eli Hariton (Denver, CO), Marisa Molinaro (Los Angeles, CA), Tony Allgeier (Pittsburg, PA), Justin Q. Williams (Atlanta, GA), Chris Goddard (Springdale, AR) and Arianna Danielson (Colorado Springs, CO). We had no idea who else was cast for the show until the moment we laid eyes on each other, but I recognized two faces immediately, Justin and Arianna, thanks to Instagram! (And yes, social media plays a huge role in this competition, in more ways than one!) I knew they both could rock out some amazing designs and that they’d be stiff competition for sure. But it was Chris that gave me pause. He walked in to the competition with 35 years of experience!!! Guys! I’m 35 years old!!! How do you compete with that???

After meeting each other, we met our host, Allison Holker Boss, and she hit’s us immediately with our first challenge. We had to transform and structurally reconfigure our labs, which were set up as some of the ugliest spaces we’d ever seen, into a living and dining space that reflects our unique style and brand. We also had to transform at least one existing item in our lab to fit into our final design. (By the way, in reality, we had to transform 3 items from the before, but in the final edit of the show, it was only 1.) And, of course, we had only 3 days to complete the challenge. (It was 3 days in TV time, but in reality, it was a total of about 18 hours stretched over those 3 days: about 5 hours the first day, a full 10 hours the second day and about 3 hours the final day.)

I walked in to what felt like the worst of the worst! They named it the “Seaside Shack”…an acid teal box of Sea World and Goodwill castaways!

I simply called it “TRAGIC!”

I, immediately, got to work, trying to determine what was worth saving and simultaneously ridding myself of everything in sight! Once I got all the furniture out of the room, in walks my help! Each designer was assisted by a carpenter and carpenter’s assistant. I told them everything in the room had to go, so they got to work demoing the pony walls and I ripped down all the bead board and wallpaper border.

Once the room was cleared, I set out to the design center to get to work on my plan!

Since it was a brand challenge, I knew I was going dark and moody! The first color that came to mind was Sherwin Williams color of the year, Urbane Bronze. Its such a chameleon color with so many beautiful undertones, so I knew it would work with whatever I could get my hands on in the furniture warehouse. As far as space planning goes, I knew I wanted to keep things feeling open, but change the way the space flowed. In the before, the two pony walls divided the space and pushed you to the center of the room. I wanted to create some visual separation, while also pushing the flow to the sides of the room, which would help me achieve the task of reconfiguring the space. I also moved the living area to the back and the dining area to the front, which also gave the space a whole new look!

Once I got a space plan together, I waited for my turn to get into the warehouse to shop. Behind the scenes, we were assigned numbers 1-8. The numbers were thrown into a hat and they randomly drew the order in which we could go in. I was 5th (!!!) which meant 4 of my competitors got in before I did! Peti was first and literally tagged every damn accessory in site! It was slim pickings by the time I made it in, but I was able to get some things that could bring my design to life.

In the middle of working on day one, we were called to the “principal’s office” as Justin called it. We all were equipped with iPhones to stay in the know with Allison and the judges. And speaking of judges, it was time to meet them! Permanent judges are Lauren Makk and the Jonathan Adler and every week there’s a guest judge; this week, it was HGTV’s own, Jasmine Roth! They handed us a 2nd challenge and this time it was a brand building social media challenge! We had 2 hours to submit a 30 second video that showcased who we are and what our brand it while highlighting at least one element that showed our design point of view.

Soooo….being that social media is literally my day job, I knew I had this one in the bag! But, considering my competition, I knew Arianna would bring it and be the person I had to beat! What I didn’t consider, though, was trying to create some super engaging content that would impress the judges, while also trying to work on staying on task with the main challenge! That shit was HARD AF!!!!

I knew I wanted to incorporate a mural in my space, since hand-painted elements are a huge part of my brand. But, it was day one and I had to get my walls painted before I could even think about the mural! Going from that acid teal color to Urbane Bronze was going to take a few coats, so I really had to focus on getting that color up on the walls and dried as soon as humanly possible! Did I mention that we only had 2 hours!?!

Originally, I wanted my mural to cover the entire back wall, but with the time crunch, I had to pivot and change up the design a bit. I blocked off an area that would be large enough to make an impact, but small enough to complete in the little time I had. By the grace of God and the stars of the universe aligning, I was able to get the paint job done. I got my mural on the wall in about 20 minutes with about 10 minutes left to edit and submit my video!!! Talk about PRESSURE!!!! I was so relieved to be done with it and get back to pulling my room together!

Although I felt pretty confident about my video, Arianna won the challenge and extra time to work on her space, while the rest of us had to call it a night. I told you she would be the one to beat!

On the final day, it was a mad scramble to finish our labs and get them ready for the judges. I took some time to walk around and check our everybody’s spaces and noticed that Justin and I had painted our labs the SAME EXACT COLOR!!! I freaked out a bit, because in looking at his almost finished space, I could see some major similarities in our styles. I just prayed that the judges could discern the difference and that I could speak to what made mine unique.

I, also, got a glimpse at Chris’s lab and y’all! I was blown TF away by what I saw! The guy didn’t just transform his lab, he had totally transported it to another country!!! There were soooo many layers and details that looked like someone had lived in it, collecting treasures for years! It’s insane to think that he achieved such a look in a matter of hours!!! I was absolutely proud of what I accomplished, but that confirmed what I was worried about from the beginning…Chris was going to be my biggest competition!

So, in the end, Chris, Justin and I were the top three spaces selected by the judges and as I expected, Chris won the challenge. At the time, I wasn’t surprised at all, but after watching the show, was a little like, my video was better AND I had a great space, so combining the two should’ve given me the win, but…..it didn’t. He did have the better space, which was what the final challenge was about.

When the time came to announce the bottom three, the judges selected Arianna, Tony and Marisa. A question I got asked a lot was did the show manufacture her (or any) drama and the answer to that question is a big fat NO! What you see is exactly what happened. Marisa picked out a beautiful wallpaper that she built her entire design around and in the middle of the challenge, she found out that it wouldn’t make it in time! She had to totally rethink and redesign her space and I think it was all just too overwhelming for her. In the end, it was Marisa that was eliminated, but in the most dramatic fashion anyone has ever seen in a competition show!

The bottom three were told to walk back to their labs and attempt to walk in. If their door opened, they got to move on in the competition. If their door was locked, they were going home!

Y’ALL!!! YEEEESSSSSS!!!! IT WAS JUST AS DRAMATIC IN PERSON AS IT SHOWED ON TV!!! We didn’t find out that that was the way elimination would go until that very moment when Allison announced it! We were FLOORED!!! Yes, it’s sad and dramatic AF, but makes some great TV! The other crazy thing is that those of us who don’t have to take the walk of shame, don’t know who the eliminated person is until we walk down to see who’s still standing on their porch! It’s CRAZY!!!

The sad part, though, is with all the COVID restrictions, we weren’t allowed to hug or shack hands EVER! Not even when we had to say goodbye to the eliminated designer. You’ll notice a lot of COVID precautions when watching the show: how we’re all working separately in our own labs, how we’re all spread out and at least 6 feet apart when ever we’re all together, how all of our carpenters are double masked, etc. The designers and judges were the only ones on set that were ever allowed to go without masks; and that was only when the cameras were rolling. If you weren’t on camera, you were masked up and social distancing. We were also tested frequently, like every 3 days! In the beginning, it feels super awkward, but I think we’ll all get used to is as the season progresses.

So, yeah, I made it through round 1! That was the only goal I set for myself when I headed out to southern California to shoot the show last October. Now, you guys have to stay tuned to see how far I actually go!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS…ANSWERED:

When did we shoot the show?

End of October 2020 to end of November 2020

Where did we shoot the show?

In a vineyard in Southern California near Torrance, right on the ocean.

Do we know who won the show?

Yup, and I’m not telling. We were all there from beginning to end, so you can’t calculate it that way either.

Did we really have to do the work or did special fairies do it for us?

I hope the sarcasm helps to answer this question, but if it doesn’t, we, the designers had to do the work. We did have 2 carpenters each to help with painting, building, loading, etc., but we all had to do the work.

What’s Jonathan Adler like off camera?

Basically, the same, but a lot funnier!

Did we have access to things outside of the warehouse?

No, not really. Outside of asking the art department for supplies like art canvases or gold leaf, you had to work with what was there. Be sure to watch the Behind the Scenes episodes, hosted by head design producer, Veronica Valencia, for more info on the art department! There’s also tons more insight as to what’s happening when we’re not designing!

So that’s it! That’s my recap of episode 1! And for making it to this point, you win a prize of seeing a few extra shots of my space and more!

And because I love you guys, you can shop the look below! I’ve linked as much as possible of the exact items. A few are look-a-likes and others are alternatives to get a similar look!

P.S.: Huge thank you to Rob Pryce for all the super profesh shots of us and our spaces on set and to my own field producer, Jamala, for all the sneaky shots that I never knew was being taken! LOL!