“Jackpot, Danny!” exclaims an excited parent after seeing his son’s parlor-game-themed bedroom in “Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls.”
The episode, which airs next Saturday, features kids from Buffalo Grove who switch rooms for two days and remake each other’s spaces.
Jordyn Malkin and her best friend, Lauren Patterson, take on Danny Barry’s room while Danny and his friend, Josh Friedman, tackle Jordyn’s basement.
Like the grown-up version of TLC’s “Trading Spaces,” the kids work with designers and carpenters to execute what they envision will be the perfect room for their friends (based on three choices submitted on their application). They have to keep it a secret until the end, or “reveal,” and parents aren’t allowed to participate, even though they have to swap homes along with the kids.
The girls, inspired by Danny’s zeal for games, along with designer JordinRuderman and carpenter Barte Shadlow, set out to create a room that showcases this passion. While Jordyn and Lauren make a collage out of game pieces, the crew replaces Danny’s carpet with a checkerboard floor. He also gets a regulation-size shuffleboard, a crossword-puzzle wall and a desktop that can be converted into six games. Shadlow carefully supervises Jordyn and Lauren as they use power tools on dice-shaped chairs.
But it’s not all work on “Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls.” In a Nickelodeon-inspired series of sticky, slimy challenges, each team can win “Labor Savers” or a trinket from the clue box, hinting at the work going on in their room. The Labor Savers — crew members adorned in white jumpsuits and goggles (and looking ominously “oompa loompa”) — complete a task of the team’s choice, such as painting or building an entertainment center.
Over in Jordyn’s basement, Danny and Josh transform a former play area into a Mexican retreat — complete with nacho stand — to reflect her favorite family vacation. Designer Scott Sicari and carpenter Ginene Licata help the boys stencil, paint, hang a hammock and build fountains and Day of the Dead dioramas.
“Jordyn tells people that she’s off to Mexico,” when she’s going to the basement, said her mother, Pam Weiner. “It’s fun when people come over and they haven’t seen it yet.
“We haven’t changed a thing,” Weiner said of the new room.
“Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls” taped the episode in September. Danny got the idea to go on the show, said his mom, Mara Barry, after receiving a birthday present of the book based on the series. He and Jordyn “thought that it would be cool to apply,” Barry said. Next came a phone interview and a visit from a scout, and then the phone call that they’d gotten on the show.
“It was really an incredible experience,” Mara Barry said. “Truly, he loved what they did.”
All of the crew members, including host Diane Mizota, interact seamlessly with the kids. Sicari’s mini-serenade in a poncho, sombrero and fake mustache is grating, however, and could have been left on the cutting room floor.
Last month, the series aired an episode filmed in Aurora, where sisters Alex and Rachel Lovely had their basement made into an exercise room by brothers Dylan and Hayden Barnard. Their basement was converted to a high-tech James Bond “penthouse” by the girls’ team.
“Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls” airs Saturdays on NBC. Check local listings for times.
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Carmel Carrillo is assistant editor of Real Estate. You may contact her at [email protected], or write to her at baiduhai, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611.