A prying eye (Other Peoples' Houses)

Member Name: alirigby

Product:	Other Peoples' Houses
Date:	06/06/02 (554 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting , Inspiring, A bit voyeuristic

Disadvantages: Quite a lot of similar programmes

Yes I’m a telly addict, and one of the millions in this country who enjoys programmes about DIY and Interior Design although recently, even I, have been getting tired of the endless Changing Rooms and Home Front spin-offs that have been flooding the TV schedules.

However, I happen to be moving house in a couple of weeks and so thoughts of how to decorate and design my new home have, of late, been preoccupying me. So when ‘Other People’s Houses’ began on Channel 4 a couple of weeks ago I decided to give it a go. It’s aired on Tuesday nights at 8’o’clock on Channel 4. The programme lasts for an hour.

The programme is presented by Naomi Cleaver, a Design Consultant and expert on interiors and architecture. She runs a design agency which represents young designers at the cutting edge of architecture and design and so her view is up-to-date and informed.

Each week the series focuses on the design approaches taken to a particular style/period of house; the first week looked at 1930’s semis and this week examined Country Cottages. It gives us the opportunity to ‘nose’ inside other people’s houses and see how they have decorated.

A whole variety of properties are on display; the first episode concentrated on 2 guys going to extremes decorating their semi in a variety of themed styles including a Harry Potter dining room, an LA beach-hut style bedroom and a traditional ‘cottagey’ living room. This ‘saga’ was interspersed with views of how others had decorated their semis from outrageous to classic styles. One man had removed all the upstairs rooms to have one huge open plan entertaining/living space, a lady had extended her 1930’s to create a huge modern, and very unexpected, living space, and there were many other unusual and classic homes also shown.

This week showed a couple removing all original features from their cute, cou
ntry cottage and then filling it up with reproduction pieces; for example the crazy lady removed the original, classic Rayburn stove and replaced it with a reproduction one instead of updating the original (which in my humble opinion would have looked much better). The end product of their reproduction interior was rather bland and uninspiring especially in comparison to some of the other things people had done to their properties.

The properties featured tend to provoke a reaction and a lot of them you will either love or hate, either way it does make for interesting viewing. Naomi Cleaver gives tips on how to make the most of your property and advice on what no to do too. It’s a bit like a mix of ‘House Doctor’ and ‘Home Front’, but with the added snooping and voyeristic factors (which suits me fine)!

I do enjoy this programme and do feel that it’s of a better quality than a lot of new ‘housy’ series appearing. What’s good about the programme is that it’s a great source of ideas – I’m really hoping that they will soon feature a 1900 Terraced house, which would be very useful for me soon. :o)

Summary: