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Homestore.Com
06.20.02

"Trading Spaces" Questionnaire

By Diana Lundin

Designer Genevieve Gorder reveals her tricks of the trade

Genevieve Gorder is the Gen-X designer most likely to go barefoot on "Trading Spaces," the show on TLC where two sets of neighbors redecorate a room in each other's houses in two days with the help of a pair of designers, a carpenter and a $1000 budget.

Her design featuring a moss-covered wall ("It smells like Oregon") and the tagline "retro-fly" to describe a room are among the two-year-old show's signature moments. In her travels around the country, she's seen how America decorates—the good, the bad and the, well, the just plain ugly. In a more perfect world, Americans would embrace color a little more, stop with the "matchy-match" ensembles, and add a spirit of fun to their décor.

"Every environment you're in should have some sense of whimsy," Gorder says. "You have childish tendencies inside that should be celebrated, if not acted out. How dare we take ourselves so seriously we can't play?"

Fear, she says, is the biggest enemy of decorating. "People think that whatever they do to their home is forever. True, it's not as changeable as your clothes, but nothing you do—the color, the sofa—is such a commitment that you can't change it. Your design choices should change with your life. Slipcovers, color palettes and furniture choices are allowed to move around."

Gorder's designs have been greeted by whoops of delight as well as groans of "guess-what-we'll-be-doing-next-weekend" by homeowners but to her it's all good. "Every time I leave a room, it always looks better. I know I gave them something great. Design is objective. There's no right or wrong," she says.

She's noticed the most neglected room in a home is usually the parent's bedroom. "They always do the kid's room first, but it's just like on an airplane. You have to put your oxygen mask on first. If you're not inspired and happy by your environment, the rest of your house will reflect that energy. Your kid will be happy with a doughnut and a rug. My advice is to do your room for yourself so you have a retreat, especially if you have children."

Calling a one-bedroom apartment in New York City home, the self-described "gypsy" travels the world for fresh inspiration when not on the road for "Trading Spaces."

Favorite color combination: Sage, rust and vanilla—even though sage is played out. My favorite color is a burnt orange that's almost red. The combinations that nature provides are the most beautiful. There are obvious combinations on flowers, fruits... they're all fantastic. You can never say it's wrong. I also like fire colors—golds, mustards, browns and reds—desert fire colors. They make you feel so alive.

Favorite decorating style/period: I don't want to commit to any one although there is a period I think that is more seductive to me than any other and that's post-modern, the late '50s, early '60s. What a revolution, man. We have nothing like that right now. But if I had to do a 1960s retro room every show, I'd be bored. What I'd like to do is take something from 500 A.D. Japan and combine it with something happening right now—the fusion of different times. You're reinventing it, in a sense, but you're also inventing something completely new.

Favorite decorating guilty pleasure: I have this fake bird that's pretty stupid, but I think it's so cute, I can't stand it. I got it for a buck in Chinatown. It's so grandma... it's funny is what it is. When the wind blows through my window, his tail wiggles.

Favorite essential accessory: In any room, you always have to have some form of photography. Photography creates a sense of your world, friends, family, places you've been. I think it's my mission in life to redress composition in photography—capturing the essence of the moment, not necessarily the entire moment, like not showing the Eiffel Tower, but maybe the crack of your smile.

Bring in something living, whether it's dried pussy willows or bamboo or just treat yourself to fresh flowers. It's $5 and the amount of pleasure it brings you is immeasureable. Once they're in your home, the life they introduce for that moment is wonderful. It's mood-enhancing, it's aromatic and it creates balance. If you're afraid of color, buy flowers. They're temporary. They die.

Favorite budget store: Target is the perfect example of where our country has long needed to go. Cheap doesn't have to equal bad. They've taken cheap and chic and turned it into a mass marketed store that's genius. Martha Stewart paved the road for us, whether you like it or not, by mass marketing good taste. Funkify it and just drive down it.

Which Trading Spaces designer would you want to do a room for you? Hildi (Santo Tomás). I think she could do something for me that I couldn't do for myself. Hildi has such a gift working with fabric and lines and I like that. She can do feminine with clean lines and it doesn't have to be frilly. She knows me well. She'd do me right. We all know each other so well any one of them could do a room for me. I know what would make Doug (Wilson) cry... a lot of fabric, a lot of bright, bright color. He's a little more out there. Anything shabby chic would make Doug cry.

What would you do to a room if you had a $100 budget? Oh, easy. Color. Paint, obviously, is the most dramatic and cheapest change you can ever make at $20 a gallon. I'd get two gallons and the remaining I'd invest in lighting. I'd get flea market lamps and rework some shades. The remaining $5 I'd buy a bouquet of flowers. And I'd go get my bird.


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