37 replies to this topic

[JR Labrador]

Yay! LLB's new design primer!

ETA: Seemed pretty basic (at least for a design-show addict like me). But watching LLB is always a pleasure.

Edited by JR Labrador, May 25, 2004 @ 7:35 PM.

[vallegirl]

What a tedious mess. They need to streamline the presentation a hundred fold. The show didn't seem to know where it was going and listening to Laurence in his pompous, condescending monotone spew 101 design tips on how to make a small room look big was tiresome. The one brief, shining moment of unintentional hilarity was that sad little tree he planted outside the window. It didn't make the garden a feature of the room, it just created an intrusive green presence in the room, like a goblin staring at them.

Rather than pointing out all the ways to make a small room feel larger (Which the final room didn't, by the way. It was just cramped and claustrophobic in a designerly way.) he should have focused on one or two things that would have made that specific room look larger as well as brighter. The color and the flooring were great ideas, but everything else? Big old mess. He removed the family's clutter and replaced it with his own.

And he needs to focus on two sets: the room he's working on and the studio where he demonstrates the rules. Visiting fancy homes, using hidden camera footage, having shots of magicians and interviewing some alleged authority was TOO MUCH.

I'll give it one more chance, hoping the fiasco that was this first episode was just first episode jitters, but I think this is what he wanted.

[choochi]

I also didn't get the need for all that hidden camera footage. However, I did think the redesigned room looked less claustrophobic, although I'm not sure about bigger.

Maybe it will get better. It was only the first day of class!

[vallegirl]

I'm sure it will get better, I just don't think it will get good. In the CR thread I pointed out that I believe that LLB is the least knowledgeable of the male designers and he has a tendency of doing too much with his rooms. To him it's being dramatic, to me it's overgilding the MDF lily.

I think any of the other men and possibly even Linda would have handled this show differently and taken it in a more entertaining direction. Even if Linda's become a scattershot designer with more misses than hits these last few series, she's an engaging personality who works well with others on camera. LLB is a camera hog and that's what was most annoying about the show. He deemed himself arbiter of good design and made it all about him and his design "rules". As such, he kept talking and talking but didn't really say much.

So while I'm hoping many of the extraneous elements will be gone, I wonder if he will get rid of his imperious attitude while he's at it, because Laurence's preening self-importance is the worst part of the show.

[ardona]

I like Laurence (though I can see how others would find him annoying), so I enjoy watching/listening to him. However, there were a couple of things about the "after" room that I found so glaringly impractical that I couldn't appreciate the room as a whole. First, the TV was almost at floor level. That seems to be a favorite trick of many designers to keep the TV from "distracting" from their grand design, however, it bugs me to no end. Second, there was practically no floor space left. It doesn't do any good to have twenty places to hide away the kids' toys if the kids don't have any place to get the toys out and play with them.

[MissStella]

Aw, am I the only person who liked this? I'm such a sucker. I like LLB and his attitude. Didn't mind seeing the various locations, agree that the weird little tree was funny, and didn't much like the "after" version of the room, but otherwise... well, I guess I just like LLB and his attitude. Oddly, though, I thought he looked quite a bit older here than he does on CR - I'd started to think he'd had some work done on CR. (Well, not on CR - that'd be funny though: "This week, we're redecorating Laurence.")

[metallikay2]

MissStella, I liked it very much. And more telling, Mr metallikay2 liked it too, and he has always turned up his nose at LLB.

I'm so sick of the standard design show approach. Sooo glad there's no reveal to the homeowners. Heck, I'm just glad there's no homeowners.

Speaking of the tree, after the first shot, did anyone else shout out, "It's crooked!" ? Just me, then?

Edited by metallikay2, May 26, 2004 @ 6:21 PM.

[JR Labrador]

I like LLB, so I kind of liked it. I forgot about the wee tree, that was ridiculous and the whole production needs to be tightened up. But compared to a lot of crap on HGTV (Joan Steffen, I'm looking at you) it wasn't bad. Loved the British version of the Eichler House but the hideous day-glo pink and green decorating scheme had to go.

"This week, we're redecorating Laurence."

Snerk. Anything but the chintz jacket!

Edited by JR Labrador, May 26, 2004 @ 6:22 PM.

[radiogrl1]

I completely heart LL-B, and I will watch until they pry the remote from my cold, dead hands.....

[suctionprints]

Aw, am I the only person who liked this? I'm such a sucker.

Nope, I liked it, too. I liked the academic style, and the concrete examples. Laurence is a good teacher, and I am so looking forward to the next episode.

[Reality-OD]

I am unabashed in my LLB love. I am so sad that I fell asleep before the end of the show, so I did not get to see the end result. I'm really pleased about the show's concept, because I would like to learn more about the "bones" of design than we see on other shows.

[ardona]

I'll chime in with the love-fest. I liked the show and adore Laurence. I still wasn't wild about the room, but that was more of a practicality/usage issue. Aesthetically, I liked the room fairly well.

[vallegirl]

Episode two has just ended, and Laurence is still quite impressed with all that he knows. My, isn't he smart? Well, not exactly. He whiffed something that, even as an artist, he should know. Two primary colors cannot be each other's opposite. Yellow & blue are both primary colors, therefor their complementary or opposite colors are violet and orange respectively, not each other. That's why so many team colors are either orange & blue or violet and yellow/gold. If he'd bothered to even look at a second grade color wheel he'd have known he was wrong.

Really, Laurence. Your dilettantism is showing.

Edited by vallegirl, Jun 1, 2004 @ 7:44 PM.

[vallegirl]

I just don't think he knows enough about design theory to sell the show. He can dress a room well enough and pick out nice accessories and a good wall color, but I don't think he really grasps the whys of design, so he fills each episode with factoids and tidbits, but very little meat. His color advice was all over the place, and wrong in several cases. To say that painting a room blue in Cornwall is wrong is just too broad not to be laughable. Blue paint needs to be avoided in an entire region? What if someone really loves the color blue, but not the approved colors of Cornwall? What then? Does that person have to move to wherever blue is acceptable?

He needs to dedicate the half hour to dealing with one specific rule. Not 800 rules that fall under one big umbrella. Instead of saying the show is about "color" how about how the right color can make a large, dark room feel warm. And instead of 101 ways to decorate a small room, why not focus on making a small room with little natural light feel more open. He could still use all of his twee camera tricks and give historical information, but it would be focused on one very specific rule.

That will open the program up to multiple series as he won't burn through 15 episodes in one and call it "color."

[MissStella]

Yeah, Bibi, I think you're right - the BBC ordered a fixed-length series, and it's meant to stand alone. If it works well ratings-wise, maybe they'll do another series with more specific design problems...?

Meanwhile, after the second episode - I still love LLB and his attitude, but I do think he's way over-simplifying. I can't imagine that he doesn't actually know about the color wheel, but suspect that he drastically underestimated the existing knowledge and intellect of his audience. Or perhaps, given the national love for "magnolia", the British viewing audience really is completely unfamiliar with the color wheel?

[JR Labrador]

I loved the top 10 paint colors - terracotta, 2 shades of muted yellow, 2 shades of muted violet and 5 shades of cream. Oh those adventurous Brits. And I would have never thought of the effect of grass on the incoming light either, Bibi.

[JR Labrador]

But those Brits do love their purples, lilacs and violets, don't they? Wonder where that comes from?

I think it's because they love saying words like 'aubergine'. Say it with me now: Oooh-bear-gene.

Edited by JR Labrador, Jun 1, 2004 @ 11:31 PM.

[Jet Black]

Love LLB but this show didn't really hook me. I'll have to give it another chance.

[MissStella]

But those Brits do love their purples, lilacs and violets, don't they? Wonder where that comes from? (I've always wondered if it's linked to Royalty since purple is the color - I think - of a regal robe or something like that).

I think it's got more to do with the lovely flowery frocks the Queen Mum used to wear, with lovely matching hats. The regalia are in jewel tones of purple/red/gold with white and black, as are the uniforms of the palace guard. (My history is very, very weak, but wasn't it at some point forbidden for commoners to use royal colors? Anyone?)

[choochi]

The top ten colors should have some as no surprise to anyone who has watched House Invaders. Every shed and garage in the UK must have pots of those colors.

I don't have a problem with LLB on this show, but I would have gotten more out of it if they had simulated various rooms painted different colors at different times of the day and during different seasons. But then I tend to learn by doing, so a lot of theory does not do much for me.

I did think the advice on proper use of tester pots and painting blocks of colors was useful. He should have mentioned how the surrounding colors affect the color of the block. I just wish we had tester pots in the U.S. Even a quart of Benjamin Moore is $15 or so.

I will end by sharing one thing I've learned in my DIY career. Never buy yellow paint on a rainy day. You'll end up with something a bit, ahem, brighter than you expected.

[metallikay2]

I think it's because they love saying words like 'aubergine'. Say it with me now: Oooh-bear-gene

<snerk> I just wish I had the guts to go to the nearest paint store and drive them batty asking for aubergine.

MissStella, as a ren faire geek, I can tell you that some colors were so expensive (royal purple was made from crushing tiny, rare snail shells, for example) that only the well heeled, or royalty, would be able to afford them. There were laws passed that kept those types of colors out of the hands of the lowly & downtrodden for a while. Not just in England, either.

choochi, were you listening to me scream at LLB that the US is in dire need tester pots?

[vallegirl]

Would it make more sense to you if he'd said "a blue room in Miami" versus "a blue room in Seattle"? It might be unfamiliarity with UK geography that makes it unclear to you.

Not really. My point was that he was saying that every shade of a color would be wrong for an entire region. I find the reasoning overly simplistic whether it's in regard to Cornwall, Aberdeen, Miami or Seattle because to make so general a statement with regard to an entire city is just fatuous. My guess is a room with a lot of windows in a gloomier city is still going to have far more natural light than one with a tiny window in a sunny area. What he really should have discussed with regards to sunny v. not sunny areas is hue and intensity of color, not specific colors. A brighter, paler or more vibrant blue (periwinkle since it has some red in it) would work better in a mistier, rainier area than an earthier, darker red (burgundy). And what if someone who lives in Aberdeen just really likes blues and greens but not yellows oranges or reds? With the thousands of paint colors out there, is this person still going to have to move to Cornwall to paint his rooms blue?

And if he's preaching to people who don't know what the color wheel is (I learned about it in second grade. It's not some technical design tool.) shouldn't he be more diligent rather than less about getting it right? He got something so very basic and simple about color wrong. And kept repeating it, so it wasn't just a slip.

I don't like LLB, but I thought the idea of the program was good enough to give it a try. But he's oversimplifying it to the point of it just being a vanity project for him. And I have no intention of watching a show just to validate his ego.

Edited by vallegirl, Jun 2, 2004 @ 10:15 AM.

[LTG]

My point was that he was saying that every shade of a color would be wrong for an entire region. I find the reasoning overly simplistic whether it's in regard to Cornwall, Aberdeen, Miami or Seattle because to make so general a statement with regard to an entire city is just fatuous.

I don't think he was intending to pronounce "rules" for entire cities or regions of the country. He was just giving an example that his viewers would understand to illustrate the idea that you need to think about the amount of natural light that is coming into a room.

[vallegirl]

But that is how he presented that specific piece of information. And the fact that in the entire half hour he spent the majority of his time discussing warm v. cool colors meant he overlooked hue and intensity, which are at least as important. How often have we seen a HO on one of these programs end up loving a room painted in a color she said she hated, only to realize she was thinking of specific shades of that color. (Pink, red and brown are the most obvious examples.)

He only addressed the tonal range in a color and showed how lightening a color can brighten a room, but he didn't discuss how adding minute amounts of blue to a red can make it cooler while adding yellow to it can make it brighter.

The show is a mishmash of ideas around a very broad theme. If he chose to fine tune what was being addressed it wouldn't seem so scattershot. Presenting the nuts & bolts of design theory requires a more precise approach. Architecture and interior design are very much like photography in that they both benefit from a more scientific or technical approach to the artform. Laurence doesn't bring an architect's eye to design, he brings and artist's, so while he may innately grasp why certain things work in design, he doesn't have the facility to explain it any deeper but the most shallow terms.