Top Design - Judging the Designs Episode 8

"Metropolitan Home Hotel Suite Challenge"
Individual Challenge: Design a hotel suite for Metropolitan Home magazine that is based on one of the earth elements of: Fire (Goil), Air (Matt), Water (Carisa) and Earth (Andrea).

Budget:
$1,550 fabric, paint and lumber
$30,000 memo furnishings from Pacific Design Center
$3,000 bedding budget from McGary & Co.

Winner receives an editorial spread in the November 2007 issue of Metropolitan Home

Guest judge is Linda O’Keefe – Metropolitan Home director of design and architecture.

Time frame: 3 days for entire challenge. 30 minutes to sketch, 1 hour to shop at PDC and the rest of the time to build.

I have an early breakfast meeting tomorrow morning (and I am NOT a morning person!). So my detailed analysis will have to come later. But, I will leave you with photos and this, my first impression:

Matt won the challenge, but I think it was a toss up between he and Carisa. Matt's space was filled with beautiful things and the wall color was stunning. But, it looked like a design center showroom display, particularly the seating area. Beautiful, but not original. Carisa's room was sharp and vibrant and she had a unique and original take on the concept of air - how it flows and what it flows through. So, I was happy with either winning. Andrea was on the chopping block and Goil was sent home. I think I would have had it go the other way. Andrea's room was not cohesive and the colors were blah. Goils room was vibrant (maybe I just respond to red better?) and he had some amazing concepts, although his bedding was definitely not luxurious and he again didn't fully render his vision well. So, more on this later.

(3/29 later on - amended to add - see my additional thoughts posted under comment)

Meanwhile, here are some photos:

Jonathan Adlers' Parker Palm Springs Hotel





Kelly Wearstler's The Viceroy Hotel:









Andrea's Earth room:

Carisa's Air room:



Goil's Fire room:


Matt's Water room:


(3/31/07 amended to add) I was at the Boston Design Center today and this is the Webster & Co. display window. As I said above, Matt's design was beautiful, but not original. Incidentally, the blue wall color is Pratt &Lambert 's "White Smoke".

What do you think?


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