I was also irritated by Felicia’s elimination this week. Yes, her room wasn’t good, but I don’t think it was the worst, by any stretch. And, this marks the second week in a row where a woman, who in previous episodes had won/come out in the top few, was eliminated seemingly primarily based on negative impressions from one detail (last week, paint color, this week, the afghan), as opposed to a man (in fact, the same man!) who has consistently been in the bottom 2 or 3. I feel like, just like on Top Chef, while women sometimes win the challenges, when it comes to eliminations, it’s the women who re shipped off as quickly as possible, while the men with personality/attitude problems AND poor cooking/design/execution, are given the benefit of the doubt over and over and over again (i.e. Michael from Top Chef). Normally, I tend to be naive and assume that sexism doesn’t exist, but in these shows it seems to be happening a lot. I mean, Felicia’s room had more problems than just the afghan, but if that wasn’t in the room, you can’t say that it’s so much worse than John’s cage, black walls (sorry, in a small studio you just can’t pull that off!) or Michael (another male in the bottom repeatedly given the benefit of the doubt). As for Elizabeth last week, yes those colors were not particularly suited for a cabana in Miami, but why was that worse than John’s HORRIBLE shopping? It wasn’t! I mean, my god, if you can’t freakin’ pick out some reasonable furniture, how can you be a designer?

I think you’re right, they keep those obnoxious guys on for the drama/controversy, as opposed to talent and what they actually produce. But, it seems like it’s the women (who seem fairly normal and reasonable personality-wise) who suffer as a result.

So are designers on the show using “white with brights” as a crutch? (That would be a bummer, even though it’s a color scheme I love.) The thing with the pic above is that the walls on the left side of the room (the upper halves of both the left wall, and the left half of the far wall) look so bare and unbalanced compared to the rest of the room. That 25mph sign does tie in the orange in the room, but I think I might have tried it on the left wall over the bed. =/

I would like to see them venture more into furniture design instead of limiting them… even just for one challenge. I would like to see more design and less decorating.