top design: the finale (or the supremacy of Monochromatic Matt)

I waited a few days to watch the season finals of Top Design. The top two were a disappointment. Monochromatic Matt has been dull throughout, while Carisa uses even excess to the excess. Mostly, Carisa is more irritating than her rooms. She has come on strong the last few weeks, although I still find her immature and obnoxious. Since the first week, with the unfortunate partner challenge, strong and innovative designers have gone home. The show itself is not dull, but the designers who move on often have been. As on Project Runway, and to a lesser extent, Top Chef, group challenges are irritating to watch and lead to unsatisfying eliminations.

My distaste for Carisa and more often than not, her aesthetic, is not a secret. Mostly I forget about Matt, until he made it so far I had to remember him, even if I can't recall a single of his interior designs. When I sat down to watch, I wanted Carisa to lose. I didn't think Matt deserved to win, but I figured the producers wouldn't pull a Big Brother and bring Goil back into the mix.

The loft concept was a good one. Carisa surprised me. I liked her loft. I liked her color choice, and the bed was genius, fun, and absolutely channeled Big. I would buy that loft just to have that bedroom space. (I would also add three walls of bookshelves and mount a plasma on the fourth, if I could afford to purchase such a space.) The bedroom in Carisa's loft was far and away the best piece of design in either loft. For once her pillows weren't over doing it. She stayed true to her vision, taste and aesthetic, but she did it in a more beautiful way. Perhaps she needed a bigger room from the beginning. In my mind, Carisa clearly should have won. Granted, in my mind, neither Carisa nor Matt should have even had a spot in the finals.

Matt's loft was dull. The only thing in his refrigerator was a bottle of Grey Goose, which could explain his increasing skinniness. Have a drink and think something up, Matt! As he said, "I love to go home at night to a place that's sterile." Sterile should not be a desirable word in interior design it seems to me; sterile is for hospitals. Whereas Jonathan Adler, with his patented smile-smirk said of Carisa's space, "That bedroom was really fun. I can imagine getting into some really freaky scenes in that pit." It's not exactly the image of Adler I wanted, but it showcases the creativity in Carisa's design. Sterile or creative? You idiots chose sterile? My money's on Margaret orchestrating the whole affair. She knows Carisa has no place in Elle Decor, and sterile is perhaps what her readers want. It may be Elle Decor's style, but Top Design certainly showed a lack of style.

I do hope the series returns for another season. It's an intriguing, if not always well-executed, concept. I do hope the next season brings a little more flair with its style.