HGTV Design Star: Next Gen Episode 2
ARI’S PROFOUND OBSERVATIONS AND SAGACIOUS THOUGHTS
Hello friends!
Welcome back to my new blog series where I masterfully breakdown and thoroughly discuss each episode of my season of HGTV’s Design Star with a primary focus on my own unparalleled performance!
Aaaaahhhhhh, what a good episode! I’ll go ahead and really quick talk about the challenge! We showed up on set that morning and were given the second challenge right away; Transformers! Basically, the gist of the challenge was we needed to design offices, but these offices needed to be able to completely transform into entertaining spaces by night! We were responsible for custom builds that not only transformed themselves, but also helped to transform the entire space!
I think my face says it all, lol, and this challenge honestly scared the shit out of me. I live in a pretty large home and don’t have to make a lot of “space saving” decisions or hacks. I also am pretty open about the fact that function is secondary to aesthetic for me! I love something functional, but I’ll sacrifice a bit of function if that means making something prettier! With this challenge, that was not going to be an option! I had to come up with a concept that not only was super functional but space saving as well!
Andddd, Here’s my transforming Drug Lord office/ lounge!
Transformational Custom Build
I loved the idea of a wall mounted fold up desk! I have seen them in small spaces before and knew that would be a really great space saving piece, but I also needed to think of a way that they would “transform”! My first draft of these desks had a solid plywood board leg. I was going to just hang some art on the outside leg, but it would be visible all the time, and that didn’t feel transformative enough to me! I was talking through it with my carpenters and I realized that if I made the desk legs into a square cut out, that it would act like a picture frame and I could custom paint some art on the underside of the desk!
We decided to do it in reverse for the bar, and used the same concept, but had a bulletin board turn into a bar! I still can’t believe I came up with this on the spot, because it really isn’t my strong suit, but I’m so proud of the idea and it’s something that I’ve never seen before!
The Vibe
As far as the entire room and the vibe, I was going for dark and moody! Nate and I were the clients and I wanted a space that would allow both of us to work but also had spots where we could let the kids hang out. At night I wanted the space to keep the same moody vibe, but the the “work” to be out of sight. Nothing says “entertainment” more to me than drinks, so of course the room needed a hidden bar! The space had been almost cut in half from the size it was the first challenge, which made shopping easier and gave me a bit more time, so I decided I wanted to flex a little! I really feel like interiors is my art and I love to utilize paint so I decided I was going to spend a little extra time and paint a large focal point mural on my back wall. I painted every wall black ( “totally black” by Behr) and used a fun peachy color paint as well as white for my mural!
I wanted a big contrast so I used a fun white shag on my floors! Then of course we layered on lots of velvet and some fun pops of peach, pink, and teal throughout the space! I’m honestly just so in love with this space and I can’t believe that we got this all accomplished in 3 days! I say “we” because I couldn’t have gotten this all done without my two amazing carpenters!
The Reaction
Overall, my space got raving reviews! The judges loved my use of paint in this space as well as my transforming pieces! The only critique they had was the I did the same transforming piece 3 times. I reminded them that technically the challenge only called for ONE transforming piece and I did it 3 times and that was honestly worth extra points! haha. Thanks to this weeks sweet guest judge, Kim Myles!
The Social Media Challenge
Let’s talk about this weeks “Brand building challenge!” On the second day of the challenge, we got to meet Allison’s husband, Twitch! We allllll knew who he was and he was so nice and lovely and gave everyone such great advice on social media and creating content! He and Allison mentioned to “use my voice.” I realized that I hadn’t spoken in my first video so I decided to go ahead and narrate this next one to try and make it a bit more personable!
The challenge was to make DIY videos for Tik Tok! I made a video that really broke down step by step how to build a fold up desk but also incorporated some fun tik tok “transitions” that I feel made the video really fun and engaging to watch. The judges responded well to my video but did mention that I could have spiced it up a bit by adding some music under my narrating and I definitely agree with them and don’t know why I didnt!
The Elimination
For this episode, there was no winner for the brand building challenge, and instead our video content would be taken into account when choosing the challenge winner! With that being said, after I saw everyone’s videos and everyone had been judged, I was pretty confident I had the win in the bag! Eli was announced the winner and I’m still a little salty about it. sorry Eli , haha. Really though, his space was really beautiful and I think his desk into dining table concept was brilliant! I loved his hand painted terrazzo detailing as well! Carmeon joined us in the top 3 as well which makes her the only person who was in the top 3 for both weeks and definitely major competition! Another one of my favorite rooms this week was Tony’s! I think it was such a fun transforming concept and it was just so “Tony” and I just love seeing peoples personalities shine through their design!
The Overall synopsis
Ari’s back! I came back from being in the bottom 3 and made top 3! I’m really really proud of my space and I think it was very representative of my drug lord brand and I just love how it turned out! I did well on my brand building challenge and I think that my social media and video editing skills + the hours I spend on Tik Tok are definitely paying off for me here, haha!
Stay tuned for next weeks episode! It’ such a fun one and dare I say my favorite episode this season! Thanks for all the love this week! Your support means the world!!
