If you’re a fan of “Trading Spaces,” The Learning Channel’s popular decorating show, maybe you’d like to know what really goes on behind the camera when neighbors swap houses and redecorate a room for each other on a budget of $1,000.
Program host Paige Davis has written a diary-style journal, “Paige by Paige, A Year of Trading Spaces” (Meredith Books, $19.95). Davis is the enthusiastic cheerleader in charge of keeping the show within the time frame and budget, refereeing disagreements, defusing crises and such.
The musical-theater actress chronicles the twists and turns of her on- and off-camera journeys crisscrossing 16 states (30 cities, 200 rooms and 400 neighbors) along with the joys and tensions associated with the show.
While many of the makeovers have delighted participants, her Jan. 22, 2003, entry tells about an angry Las Vegas homeowner who hated the color of her new room so much she refused to talk to her neighbors, blaming them for the mistake. Other entries talk about the naked homeowner in Austin, Texas; the fabric fiasco on Long Island; and the paint-thinner trauma in Collegeville, Pa.
For those who’d rather energize, transform or decorate spaces in their own homes the “Trading Spaces” way, two new jazzy-looking books–“Trading Spaces: Color!” (Meredith Books, $19.95) and “Trading Spaces: Make It Yours” (Meredith Books, $19.95)–might be useful. Each book is loaded with affordable decorating ideas, some more appealing than others, depending on your lifestyle. More than 250 color photos (lots of before and after pictures) and illustrations, along with tips and techniques, jam each book. They combine the skills of the “Trading Spaces” cast and the expertise of the publisher’s decorating editors.
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In “Color!” you’ll find ways to revive a room dramatically and inexpensively. Each chapter addresses a specific style–warm, cozy, elegant, exotic, funky, edgy. And you’ll find out how to carry color into play in furniture, light fixtures, pillows, headboards, canopies, flowers and vases.
In “Make It Yours!” you can learn how to rearrange rooms, customize walls (or floors or furniture) with faux finishes, have fun with photos, design with decoupage or mirrors, stamp or stencil, make screens, upholster a headboard, create media center solutions, add moldings and much more.