Change EVERYTHING about this show please (Changing Rooms)

Member Name: poet831

Product:	Changing Rooms
Date:	11/05/09 (13 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Makes you feel that you have excellent taste in decorating when you see some of their awful results

Disadvantages: you have to put up with Carole Smillie, Anna Ryder - Richardson and Laurence Llewellyn - Bowen

I must admit, the idea behind Changing Rooms seems to be pretty sound - until you see them in action and realise that most of what they do is like a cheap fix, a lot of it is tacky and that some people have actually disliked the new look so much they've actually had to redecorate all over again.
Carole Smillie, all teeth and smiles, introduces each half hour session where two couples - friends, neighbours or family - nominate a room in their home that the other (armed with a budget of £750 and a team of some of the most AWFUL interior designers known to man) will redecorate over the next 48 hours...

These designers, two of whom - Anna Ryder-Richardson and Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen, seem to have achieved some kind of celebrity status and yet one has to wonder why because most of what they turn out is awful and absolutely garishly rubbish. That any of the makeovers actually appeal to anyone is beside me, although a recent re-run showed a Japanese style bedroom which did look ok if you like that sort of thing.
The workmanship is very ship-shod, but then again , I guess with a budget of only seven hundred and fifty quid, what do you expect? There really is truth in that you get what you pay for.

Unlike Ground Force, which does seem to achieve some excellent results in the gardening department in the same 48 hour time frame and on limited budgets, indoor decorating takes time and preparation to do properly. You can't just slap a coat of paint over old wallpaper or old cupboard doors and expect perfect results. It doesn't work. Sometimes they've even stapled fabric to walls - give me a break. Do it properly or don't do it at all.
I find the whole team on this show annoying and for the most part, very untalented. I'm at a loss as to how this show ever got the following it did the first time around. If people were watching for d-i-y hints, they could do better by going to the local library and checking out a few books on the subject or looking in some of the many decorating magazines that are out there now. Maybe it was just to laugh at the awful results and to wonder what these people had done to each other to merit such awful makeovers. Maybe I've got it wrong - maybe they just all had awfully bad taste and were really doing their best. Then again, I could be wrong. It might even be that I'M the one with the problem - how silly of me not to think that garish purple and orange don't go together!

Summary: Change EVERYTHING about this show please