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Trading Spaces Behind the Scenes: Including Decorating Tips and Tricks

Trading Spaces Behind the Scenes: Including Decorating Tips and Tricks

List Price: $19.95
Your Price: $13.97
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: fabulous
Review: This book looks and feels just like the Trading Spaces show. It's like TV in print. How'd they do that? I love it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The perfect gift for the Trading Spaces fan
Review: If your wife is always watching Trading Spaces then she'll love this book. Buy her this book and while she's reading it you can turn the channel to something better!

I've flipped through it and it seems to be a very thorough book that's mostly pictures and pretty thick too. Seems like a good deal to me.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Tiger Beat meets Ty, and Vern, and Paige, and so on.........
Review: O.K. If you are a Trading Spaces fan you will probably find this book an amazing wealth of not so juicy tidbits. Sorry voyeurs, no real shocking scandals among the cast members, (I was kind of surprised that some of them had never been arrested for possession of narcotics or redecorating under the influence).
My only gripe was that this book read like it was written for 13 year olds, kind of like those kids magazines we used to get in school and read aloud in class every Friday. Yea!!!! Weekly readers, thats what it reminded me of!!
Don't look for any real good redecorating tips but you do get to see the carpenter TY in a "Tiger Beat" styled portrait for the ladies. For Serious Fans only.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Must-Have for the True Fan
Review: I've become a big fan of Trading Spaces. It's not because I'm interested in decorating or room design. Trading Spaces is about people. It's an honest "reality" show about homeowners reacting to the designers. So it is natural that the first Trading Spaces book wouldn't be about the designs. It's about the designers. (And the host and the carpenters.)

When watching the show, I've often wondered who the designers are, and what happened to them along the way. What events in their lives are they drawing on to create the rooms. And this book attempts to begin to fill in those blanks.

The book is also filled with pictures. Pictures of the rooms. Pictures of the designers as they are now. And, of course, pictures of them as children.

Yes, they do talk a little about their theories on design, but this book is about them. It's not about design. It entirely fullfills it's purpose as a fan's guide to the show's stars (at the end of season 3).

There are some people missing from this "official" book: The departed. Alex McCloud, as well as designers Dez and Rodrick are mentioned in the episode guide, but they don't have even a single page devoted to them.

I eagerly read through most of the book the first night I got it, but it will be sitting near my TV chair so I can relate the reruns to the blurbs in the episode guide. But then again, I'm a fan of the show and the people on it.

Now if only one of my neighbors had a room they wanted changed...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Must Have for Any Viewer!
Review: This book is a must-have for anyone who is addicted to Trading Spaces the way I am! I found all of the behind the scenes info intriguing. It was interesting to learn what really goes into the making of a show, but more fascinating was learning about all of the designers' backgrounds. I was surprised by alot of things I learned. I feel like I already know the designers and carpenters and Paige, and this book makes me feel like I know them a little better. They each come from very different and interesting backgrounds and it's interesting how each one of them ended up on this show. This book is definitely worth reading!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Never judge a book by it's cover
Review: ...or it's title apparently. I thought this book would be about the making of the show with decorating tips along the way. It's actually bio's of the on screen personalities. Sure there's some behind the scenes content and a few decorating tips (if you can find them) but I'm giving it two stars instead of three specifically for the misleading title.

About 1/2 the book is filler such as the Ty v. Harrison Ford comparison chart. This demonstrates that the author can come up with creative little space filling ditties suitable for People magazine but who really cares?

The layout of the book is based on the chaos principal. If everything's all over the place, then maybe no one will realize that 1/2 the content is fluff. It's a bit of a disappointment since the TV show is essentially about design.

Bottom line? There IS a good book in there somewhere... some good solid content especially for fans of the show (like me) but it's buried under a blanket of fluff and chaos. Vern would not be pleased...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A fan since Knoxville
Review: I have been a fan of Trading Spaces since the first episode (Knoxville) [where you will see possibly the best makeover of a tv armoire ever [thanks to Frank]. When I heard about this book, I thought, how great is this ! I love Trading Spaces. Liked Alex. Love Paige ! I couldn't wait for this book to hit the shelves -- until I read it. I like the bios of all the designers; I just wish they spent more time describing the projects, the locations etc. The worse part is that the book kinds of diminishes the whole TLC charm where the neighbors work like dogs doing the sewing, painting, etc. -- until you peek behind the scenes and learn that there is a back-up carpenter for Amy and Ty and a whole SEWING world. Anyway -- I'm still a fan. Always will be.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not as much fun as I expected, but good trivia
Review: Well, I love the show, but this book wasn't nearly as much fun as I was expecting. I guess I wanted a more "behind the scenes" look, but the producers carefully maintain the big happy family image this show works so hard to create. Nevertheless, it is good for little tidbits on each designer. I recommend getting it from the library rather than spending your money here!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Fluff
Review: While I loved getting a peek into the lives of my favorite designers (go, Vern!) I would have liked to get more information about actual decorating projects. I guess I was looking for more DIY substance. There is a little bit of it, but not enough to justify the price of the book. This is one you're better off borrowing from a friend, or checking out of the library - not necessarily for the permanent collection.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Gangs All Here
Review: I had never seen (nor heard) of "Trading Spaces" until a house fire forced us to pay attention to such things as light, design, furniture, carpets - in other words, the entire panoply of this show. The book is what one expects - many fine color photos, short bios of the stars, behind the scenes tales of ventures and misadventures...in short, a fan's Nirvana.

The book follows a pattern much like the show. We meet the main players starting with our hostess, Page, and concluding with the two carpenters. We learn that there is more than meets the eye, that a few things are staged (so what?) and that, all in all, the whole group appears to have a great time besides providing a service for decorationally-deficient folk. The best part about this book is the before and after shots - truly amazing in some cases.

I have my own preferences (Vern, Edward) but I stopped watching long ago for any architectural or decorating tips. I concluded that these makeovers are either (1) too exotic, (2) too tacky or (3) too difficult without professional carpentry, electrical, fabric, artistic advice. The rooms on this show look ten times better than "While You Were Out" (despite that show's propensity to spend more money) and 100 times better than the tacky "Design on a Dime". Get the back, cook some popcorn and tune into the show.


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