Top Design: Finale
Finally a whole space. Top Design Lofty Designs.
With a budget of $162,500 transform a Loft, at Santa Fe Lofts, for themselves. This task was, unlike ANY of the others, heavy on design time. Matt and Carisa were allowed TWO MONTHS! On the other hand, they were only given five days to execute. Weird.
At the beginning we understand the directions Matt and Carisa are going. Matt is planning a 1940’s thing, were as Carisa has decided she is mid-century modern, with clean and crisp lines. We might as well jump in.
Carisa decided to spend her way to a win. She started by adding a wood floor over the existing concrete. Not just any wood floors, but reclaimed 5″ wide mahogany planks stained black. Her is the thing though, when the carpenters pulled up the construction paper, that protected the floors, the tape pulled off the black paint that was applied to a previously stained wood floor. She paid $8,000 for finished wood floors painted black. Who knows if they were mahgony? You do not finish mahgony black! Next she proceeded to re-purchase pieces from the Pacific Design Center we already saw throughout the show. It was also obvious, or assumed, she had no plan. She was tagging everything she saw. All the while not considering any accessories or fine details. At one time she was $18,000 over budget!
Matt started out cool, calm, and confident. You might have thought Matt had a slight disadvantage because he didn’t have to design his loft just for him (like Carisa did). Matt actually is married with a four year old daughter. Which means, as I would have too, designing and spending additional money so his daughter could have her own bedroom. Matt also went over budget, but was able to accessorize. Since I mentioned Carisas floors, Matt opted to paint the concrete black…twice. Both finalist had there walls painted and floors finished for them before starting. Well Matt added walls which required finishing drywall. This created drywall dust that covered the BLACK floors. This required Matt to spend both money and time to repaint the floors.
The overview, conclusion, opinion:
I was panicing that the whining, unoriginal, unprofessional, Carisa could win. Yep, I was worried. She impressed me with her “architectural” changes to the space. Look at the picture above. She was able to commit a corner for a raised Master Bedroom. Using the interior columns to her advantage, she also created a closet space. The walls of the closet and the platform created division amongst the space without ruining the open loft feel. Did you notice the bed? It is sunken into the floor where all the pillows are. This was HOT! The judges loved it! I began to panic. Only because Matt considered the needs of his family. Spending money and high design consideration on his daughters bedroom. Where as the Master Bedroom lacked some Umpf. I also believe Matt didn’t put enough consideration of Umpf in the Kitchen. Carisa on the other hand did, and did it well.
See why I paniced?
Matt deserved the win. He was the strongest designer throughout the show. Carisa on the other hand developed and learned from all the other designers. It is going to be interesting to follow the careers of the top four. Matt, Carisa, Andrea, and my man Goil. Does anyone have any good ideas how I could do that?
I would like to hear from you guys though, do you think Carisa should have won? Since she improved or do you agree that Matt was consist ant and strong from the beginning therefore deserved the win?
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