Here's Heather!

Heather Ashton, our favorite insider designer/recapper returns one last time with her excclusive look at the Top Design finale:

Was there ever any question?

I have a few questions. Why does Matt’s daughter get a door and Matt + spouse get a curtain? I think Trudie had the same question. Why, knowing that Jonathan’s fortune is home accessories did Carisa chose nary a vase? I think all those comments about editing her pillows freaked her out. And why were the latered contestants not brought back to help out!!!! Always about me people!

But SERIOUSLY, Matt and Carisa blew me away. I have no idea where to start…ok I do. How sad was that first shot of the workroom with all the empty tables? Just me? And I do have to admit that I had a secret wish for Matt to lose so I could horn in on his Mexican exile. Sounds fun right? And by the way Matt, we all lost to a student and are just fine.

Carisa did an amazing job. She should be commended for sticking by her strong, personal aesthetic. She easily could have run home and mimicked someone like Miles Redd who is heavily featured in Elle Décor and shares her same love of bold color statements, but she stuck to her guns. Her room was super fun and I would love to hang out there. I have a feeling that with all that fanciness in Matt’s pad, his daughter might be sneaking over to Carisa’s to play ping-pong every now and then. She’d be wearing a tiara, but it might be askew. With my Standard Hotel background, how could I not love the pit bed? I also loved how she chose to retain the essence of loft living, which is openness. Carisa didn’t disappoint with her color choices either. It took chutzpah to go black and white and her level of commitment to that choice was outstanding. Carisa rocks.

Matt couldn’t be more perfect for Elle Décor. He’s chic, articulate and surprisingly cocky. Who knew? He’s great with furniture and has impeccable taste. The personal touch with the wall of family photos (Bruce Weber style, not Dad in Bermudas), I think stole the competition from Carisa. You could not avoid becoming personally involved in Matt’s design. The warmth of those photos made Matt’s perfectly decorated space accessible. Genius touch!

Click here to continue reading Heather's exclusive recap of the Top Design finale. Don't miss her list of "Here's Heather" TOP award winners!

Here's Heather!

As we get ready for the Top Design finale, Heather goes ahead and gets all mushy on us:

Bring in the Violins

I still haven’t recovered from last week’s latering of my pal Andrea. I put all of the hope I had for myself in her after I left so I feel like I just got latered again, darn it! Not that I don’t have love for Matt and Carisa, but getting to know Andrea was one of the best things to come out of the show for me personally. She’s a great talent and we all will miss her level of experience and imagination in the finals. Too bad it couldn’t be three of them like Project Runway. Ok, I’ll stop.

But some cool things happened on the episode too. Michael Berman was the Interior Design judge during my round of auditions, so as he was part of getting me cast, he has impeccable taste! It was cool to see him appear as the guest judge.

We also got to finally see the genius that was Todd Time. Todd Oldham used to be the interior design guru on MTV’s House of Style and I was addicted to it! I loved watching him coach Matt on the proper way to jerry-rig a home upholstery job. I felt so nostalgic for the days when Todd would turn a dorm room into a college girl’s fantasy post teenage escape with like a dollar and a hot glue gun. Please more of that next season, Todd!

As I am still too bummed to make silly observations about last week’s show, I want to take a moment to say thank you to my pals at Blogging Top Design for allowing me to be a part of their blog. They have all been so encouraging and it has been a pleasure doing the recaps. Also a big kiss to the PTD boys. Maybe I can still pull that Franco you’ve been angling for. And the only reason, besides the PTD boys, that would make me even consider “pulling a Franco” would be because of the support Margaret Russell has been so kind to offer me both through her blog and her interviews with Andy Cohen on the aftershow. Being asked to take part in the panel she organized and moderated during West Week here in LA was the highlight of my young career. I never thought being latered so soon would turn out to be such a positive experience! And finally thank you to every one that commented. I love you guys! I don’t think I have felt so high, then so low only to feel so high again. It’s been a very bi-polar year, and I wouldn’t change it for anything…well, that 100grand wouldn’t suck.

Back to my normal sarcastic self next week for the finals!!!!! Best of luck to both Matt and Carisa!

Awwww....we love you too Heather!

Here's Heather!

A lot of you may be wondering, "Where's Heather?" Well, wonder no more. BTD is pleased to welcome back "latered" contestant Heather Ashton for her exclusive commentary on Top Design.

Wednesday 8pm----2 hours til Andrea, Matt and Carisa!

Top Carl held me hostage!

I thought about taking full responsibility for my lack of recapping….but then it occurred to me that I could always blame Carl. So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

But I do owe some ink to my boyfriend Michael and my FABULOUS Goil.

Michael, I am your #1 minion! You made the show fun even if you were ever so slightly maligned by out of context sarcasm. I wish I had a small part of your dedication and drive at your age. You went from never having painted to besting the majority of the cast. That rocks! I loved the short amount of time I got to gossip with you and can’t wait to see what you come up with in the future. Big kiss.

Click here to get more of her insight into Top Design, as we head in to the homestretch.

Here's Heather!

BTD welcomes back Heather Ashton (early this week!) for her exclusive recap on Episode 6: "Life of the Party."

Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!

I am not completely oblivious to the fact that I have a tendency to make my recaps just a tad, teeny bit about me. It’s about to get worse.

I am sooooooo jealous of the final six right now. While most people in Los Angeles support their dreams of the entertainment biz in the service industry, I was the lone decorator slinging drinks in LA. Not only have I worked more parties, premiers, launches and award shows than I would ever admit, I also art directed for a huge event production company for over a year as well. I was fortunate enough to design everything from the annual Frederick’s of Hollywood Fashion Show and Charity Event, to the Nintendo DS Launch. I even got the opportunity to turn a loft into my idea of an Eighties NYC underground club(a la Area) for the Soros family. Are you tired of hearing about me yet?

Event design is totally different than interiors or architecture. It’s about shoving the product down the throat of “influence” both visually and literally while creating a space that can amuse a bunch of people that are paid to go to parties. All without losing the true point of the event: Brand (Bacardi) exposure. Oh and all this has to be accomplished in minimal time, with limited budget and must be dismantled, removed and trucked away at 2am. I love events. A designer will never get the freedom to run with the inner crazy more than on events. I hate events. The longest hours, the most stressful challenges and the lowest budgets I have ever had…until Bravo cast me. I had the confidence to think I could handle the physical challenge of the show because I designed events.

Are we tired of hearing about Heather? Short answer: no. Click here to learn even more about her and her take on Episode 6.

Here's Heather!

BTD welcomes back "latered" contestant Heather Ashton for her exclusive commentary on Episode 5:

Better late????

So that lost hour on Sunday morning turned into a lost weekend and then a lost Monday; I got a little flustered by DST. Don’t hold it against me.

Let’s just say it ... this challenge kind of sucked. The intention of the challenge was cool and I liked that for the first time, the project yielded a lasting benefit. I usually shy away from any socio-political comments, but after 5 episodes of tear downs, I have started to become mindful of the amount of good design and solid materials that could have potentially made some folks happy outside of the controlled setting of the cubes. And after spending way too much time reading comments all over the blogs, team challenges bum everyone out. While I have my little soap box out, I have one more idea. I think season 2 should be teams, like Amazing Race with paint and hammers. It would eliminate the need for team challenges since the teams would have enough people in them to complete the challenges in the time allotted. Plus the teams would have the same design approach and aesthetic so you wouldn’t have to see the confused collaborative effort of a bunch of designers with widely different tastes. f course I think I’m a genius, but what do you think? Anyway - what am I supposed to be talking about?

I have had some pretty shady design gigs while building my resume, but cleaning someone’s garage ... I’m with Ryan. Even Matt offered the solution to torch the whole thing. I think the team did an amazing job with what they had to work with and the family seemed pretty happy on the reveal.

Click here to continue reading Heather's take on Episode 5 as we learn about her secret weakness for purple and her love of organization!

Here's Heather!

BTD welcomes back "latered" contestant Heather Ashton for her exclusive commentary on Episode 4:

“Do you really want to be an interior designer?”

Such a loaded question Margaret posed to Ryan in the white room. Did you force a sports themed bed or a princess dresser on your parents as a child? Were you empowered by that first trip to IKEA when the Lak shelf struck you as sublime? Then you have been a designer. However, what Margaret refers to is completely different and actually speaks to an age-old question: can art exist without commerce? And without commerce, how is art ultimately valued? Or was she just irritated with Ryan for taking it too far?

I really do have to get a few things out of the way. Did anyone one else notice that the words Otis School of Design were dubbed? Hmmmmm. And Zeal was paired with Goil? Was it me or was Andrea’s student so besotted by Andrea that his opinion could be summed up by the word “dude!”? I had a hard time placing Felicia’s student until the judge’s walk thru when I had an All About Eve moment. That kitten has claws F, do not let her intern!

Click here to continue reading Heather's take on Episode 4 - she actually likes Ryan's room!

Here's Heather! - Episode 3

BTD welcomes back "latered" contestant Heather Ashton for her exclusive commentary on Episode 3:

Topless Women and Motorboats

I’m not sure what happened, but I can only assume the hangover became a bender and the powers that be at Blogging Top Design are too busy doing shots and Karaoke to watch content so I snuck back in. Seriously, thank you for all the positive comments. Big ups to Blogging Top Design asking and Bravo for letting me.

Episode 3….well to be honest, once the teams were discovered, I knew the outcome, so instead I focused my other loves: fashion and boys. Michael said it “It takes a gay village to build a cabana.” Allow me to translate. Interior design is never the product of one person. Like film, it takes a well connected group of people to execute a successful project. Team St. Tropez and Team Tahiti both were lucky enough to have the input of an architect. Team Miami, created a great structure, but Goil and Andrea’s influence took the cabana off the beach and elevated a simple place to escape the sun to a conceptual sculpture. Team Miami was working behind the eight ball from go.

Click here to continue reading Heather's "graphic" take on fashion, half-naked boys and cabanas.

Here's Heather!

BTD is pleased to welcome in "latered" contestant Heather Ashton for her exclusive commentary on Top Design. She kicks it off with a look back at Episode 2:

Ahoy Top Design!

So the folks here at BTD have been kind enough to allow me to just not go away. They must have had a few cocktails to agree to this right? Well, I’m running with the opportunity while they are still a little hung-over and confused about what they agreed to.

I’m new to the blog world so give me a break while I get my sea legs….harhar.

Jumping right in, I was really surprised to hear John’s HIV confession. I must admit, John made me very nervous. He came off like a very angry person and I was a little scared of him. His announcement made a lot of sense to me and I wished I had known about his testosterone shots when I was there. I would have more open to getting to know John had I understood that his nature was being altered with treatment. I also thought it was inspirational to hear that he had been positive for 13 years. John is a great success story for others living with HIV.

On to the challenge. I kind of loved it. Of course it was shady to withhold bed size and not offer a few options to change up paint or a couple of furnishings, but I have a little “latered” advice to all my fellow contestants. Always prepare for a twist. I must tell you that I watch way too much TV and the twist is the staple of every competition show. It’s not real world accurate, but it makes watching a lot more fun. And as I am now Monday morning quarterbacking, I want it to be fun. Sorry guys!

Click here to continue reading Heather's debut venture into the world of blogging.