After a short break, Megan, Linda and I are back in action recording a new Skirted Roundtable. This week we talk about the newest Bravo reality series – Million Dollar Decorators. Gah! My latest obsession!! If you aren’t watching this show, do!!!!!!!!!!!! If you read this blog, you are obviously into design, and this show was made for you!!
What I love most about the show is who they picked to star in it. Instead of going with big name designers with bad taste (fill in your own favorite big name designer whose taste you hate!) – they picked five designers with fabulous taste. Four of the five are personal favorites: Mary McDonald, Kathryn Ireland, Nathan Turner, and Martyn Lawrence Bullard. The fifth designer I am not as familiar with, Jeffrey Alan Marks. Apparently he does a lot of restaurant design which would explain why he may not be as well known. But, his style fits right in with the other four. Some of the designers seem to be best friends: Mary and Nathan, Martyn and Kathryn and Jeffrey and Kathryn. Another designer I feel who would have been great with this group is Peter Dunham, and he does make a cameo appearance on the first episode. As usual, there’s a lot of creative editing involved: in one scene, Kathryn hosts a party for her birthday and makes her 3 teenage sons do the cooking. One of the sons sneezes and snorts over the dishes and the next edit shows the guests eating the guacamole. Yuck!!! Another scene we thought was creative editing is when a client tells Mary McDonald she is getting a divorce and Mary goes ballistic – “You can’t sell MY house!” Linda, Megan and I all agreed they probably cut out the part where Mary was at first sympathetic to her client/friend before she lamented the sale of this “perfect house.”
Best friends stick together: Nathan and Mary, Jeffrey (with quite a hair style!) and Kathryn and Martin! Their friendly camaraderie makes the show that much better.
Oh, the show is just a hoot! Kathryn’s housekeeper, the French “Jack-leen” is going to be the show’s sleeper star! With her scarves and glasses and her eyes staring off into space, she is hysterical. Plus, all the scenes of Kathryn’s house are priceless! No matter how many pictures you’ve seen of her house – it looked so different and so charming in the show. Another sleeper star is going to be Jeffrey Marks’ partner, the gorgeous (did I stress gorgeous enough?) surfer model turned designer Ross Cassidy – and what a diva he is. The show seems to be portraying them as constantly bickering, Ross doesn’t respect Marks – probably all just more creative editing. Nathan is the nice guy. He comes across as the one you would most want to have as your best friend, but Mary McDonald has already claimed that role. Mary’s two assistants add even more wackiness. Neither assistant listens to a word Mary says and both go behind her back at every chance – the male assistant is a riot. For pure name dropping snobbiness - no one fits that bill like Martyn Lawrence Bullard! His voice is so effected, he sounds so pompous!!! But, I absolutely adore his style, even though the apartment he did on the first show for Sharon Osborne looked like a Z Gallerie showroom. Ouch!! What a disappointment. Here’s a recap of the five stars:
Mary McDonald: This house she designed was published in Veranda in the October, 2010 issue. It’s typical of her style, though the red is rather a rare choice for her. Her color schemes are usually lighter.
Martyn Lawrence Bullard: featured recently in Architectural Digest, this style is not his usual. He typically uses more global design with ethic touches, though he can do any style. This house is the home of rock legend Ozzy Osbourne. Those barn doors are to die for!!!!!
Kathryn Ireland: much of her house was shown in the first episode. Her living room is typical of her designs – a riot of patterns and colors and English sensibility.
Nathan Turner: he designed this room for a Veranda showhouse last year. His style reflects the ethnic prints and accessories he sells in his popular store. I love the striped curtains and how he painted the ceiling to match them!
Jeffrey Alan Marks: this is his own home, a typical California look. I wasn’t that familiar with his style before the show, but the house he did which was featured on Episode 2 was wonderful. This room – decorated to remind him of his childhood on lakes – is a little too whimsical for me. Not sure I would ever hang a boat from a ceiling. Wait, I’m SURE I would never hang a boat from a ceiling.
Spreading rumors? While googling for this story, several pictures of Jeffrey Ross’s gorgeous assistant Ross Cassidy on the arm of Martyn Bullard showed up from a few years ago!! Leaves me to wonder did Ross and Martyn ever date before Jeffrey and Ross were a couple? Anyone know????
Episode 1: sneak peek into Kathryn’s house – here is her famous living room with the collection of prints above the archway. Mary McDonald, dressed to the nines – always! – came with her bf Nathan Turner.
There’s a great web site on Bravo, HERE, with lots of pictures and blogs by each of the designers! Great reading. Oh, this series is just SOOOO much fun!!! I’m crazy about it. So, be sure to tune in the show Million Dollar Decorators on Tuesday evening – 9:00 pm Central Standard Time. They repeat it at 10:00 pm CST. And, if you have twitter, the three of us, Megan, Linda and myself do real time analysis starting at 9:00 pm CST sharp. The hashtag is: #mddbravotv OR #milliondollardecorators – be sure to twitter with us, it gives the show an extra dimension to share it with other viewers across the country. Some of the comments on twitter are priceless…wish the five stars would twitter along too!
To listen to our discussion on The Skirted Roundtable, go HERE. Be careful though – there are two links!!! The first green bar is for the skirted roundtable. The second green bar is for a short talk by Kathryn Ireland that we recorded when she was on the skirted roundtable a few months ago. At that time, she wasn’t allowed to discuss the show so we held that part from the recording. You can hear what Ireland said about Million Dollar Decorators by listening to the second green bar! Remember – the first green bar is for the entire Skirted roundtable discussion! Got that???
As usual – thank you so much for your continued support for the Skirted Roundtable! It is very, very much appreciated.