Design Star Season 7: Photo Highlights From Episode 1

In the season seven premiere of Design Star, host and mentor David Bromstad challenges the 12 hopefuls to redesign their 10,000 square foot home in Hollywood.

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November 25, 2014

Related To:

12 New Hopefuls

New season, new location: 12 new designers head to Los Angeles to compete for a chance to win their own show on HGTV.

Guest Judge: Daisy Fuentes

Model and TV host Daisy Fuentes joins veteran panel members Genevieve Gorder and Vern Yip.

Sizing Up the Competition

The new designers arrive one by one, sizing each other up as they walk into the courtyard of their new Hollywood home.

The First Challenge

Host and mentor David Bromstad presents the designers with their first challenge: Pair up to design six rooms in their 10,000-square-foot Hollywood mansion. Each designer must incorporate a personal item they brought from home.

Master Bedroom: Bex and Kris

Easygoing Texan Bex and detail-oriented Kris clash from the start as they work together to design this space. "I'm used to collaborating, and Kris just has a different style: 'You do your plan, I'll do my plan, and then we'll talk,'" Bex says. "So I'm getting increasingly nervous."

Neon Accents

The room's overall theme is inspired by Kris's personal item, a glass table he coated with strips of neon tape. Kris also chooses the bright wall hue: passionate plum. "With color, if you're willing to take extreme risks, you can have amazing results," Kris says.

Spinning Her Gears

Bex struggles to find a way to use her personal item, until she sees a pile of mechanical gears. She uses them to create a bright focal point, using her wooden hand as a controller.

Tension Until the End

As Bex works against the clock to finish her art piece, Kris continues to nag her about timing. "I'm feeling enough pressure on my own, buddy," she quips.

Before: Strange Details

Kris and Bex have to work around the room's existing details: a huge, black marble fireplace and two-toned wood built-ins.

After: Bold Bedroom

The duo creates a bold bedroom — perhaps too bold? "I'm trying to make sense of it with my eyeballs," Genevieve quips as she enters the room. "They chose a really tough color."

Cohesive Woodwork

The designers incorporate the room's existing details — two-toned wood and black accents — into their bed frames for a cohesive look.

Neon Niches

Kris incorporates the table's neon stripe detail into the decorative niches over the bed.

Bex's Finished Collage

The judges love how Bex's finished collage thoughtfully combined the two designers' different styles. While the panel had mixed feelings about the overall room, Bex and Kris are both safe this week.

Great Room: Danielle and Luca

Danielle and Luca are paired up to make over the home's massive great room. Danielle immediately takes the design lead, leaving Luca in more of a project management role.

Before: Cold and Cavernous

This massive room's huge windows and soaring ceilings leave you feeling dwarfed in the space.

After: Warm and Inviting

The right hue of gray and properly-scaled furniture and artwork make this room cozy and inviting.

Oversized Artwork

Danielle decides to take photos of she and Luca's personal items — a metal angel wing and a pair of copper jacks — and blow them up to create personal, large-scale art. The judges praise her smart use of space.

Architectural Details

For the opposite wall, Danielle fills the space with picture molding to create large-scale architectural details. Genevive isn't sure if the look really matches the contemporary style of the home, but the panel appreciates the attempt to bring this room to a manageable scale.

Safe For Now

Vern dings Luca at evaluation, saying "It's Design Star>, not 'logistical manager star.'" But overall, the cohesive space keeps Luca and Danielle safe for another week.

Guest Bedroom: Mikel and Britany

Britany came into the bedroom space with a vision — geometric walls, bright colors and lots of contrast — that left Mikel's "vintage glam" aesthetic playing second fiddle.

Mikel Searches for His Style

After a consultation with David, Mikel resolves to bring more of himself into the space.

Before: A Great Place to Start

This room started with great architectural details, like built-in shelving and crown molding. It just needs some color and pattern.

After: Bold and Comforting

Mikel and Britany's citron, blue and white room delivers the right balance of bold eye candy and soft comfort.

Global Accents

Warm wood tones and global accents add soft style to this contemporary bedroom.

Geometric Pattern

Britany's bold, graphic fretwork pattern wows the judges. She had a carpenter cut the pieces out of MDF, then painted them white to contrast with the blue walls.

Mikel's Signature Style, Represented

Mikel finds a large-scale ottoman and reupholsters it with a distressed shower curtain to exemplify his "vintage chic" style.

Designers in the Middle

This cohesive space earned Mikel and Britany a spot smack-dab in the center of the pack. Both were safe during the elimination round.

Guest Bedroom: Miera and Jordan

This odd couple (Ms. Coastal Casual and Mr. Clean and Modern) seemed like they were headed for conflict at first, but they pulled together to create a modern coastal oasis.

Hand-Painted Walls

Miera mimics a pattern featured on her personal item, a blue-and-white ceramic urn, as a large-scale graphic on the wall.

Original Artwork

For a finishing touch, Jordan creates simple, graphic artwork that contrasts with the room's blue-and-white color scheme.

Headboard Snafu

The designers hit a speedbump when they find out their alligator-printed headboard is actually on small, unevenly-shaped hides. The uncertainty gets to Jordan: "It's freaking me out, man," he says to David. David quips back: "Welcome to Design Star.

Before: Small and Dark

This tiny room doesn't have many details of note, and it's also devoid of natural light.

After: Handmade Modern

Miera and Jordan seamlessly blend their two styles to create a sophisticated, relaxing room.

From: Miera Melba Interior Design

Custom Headboards

Instead of creating one large headboard piece, the designers stretched the individual hides across small pieces of wood and batting.

From: Miera Melba Interior Design

Yellow Accents

This yellow memo board serves as both a splash of bright color and a functional workspace within the bedroom.

From: Miera Melba Interior Design

Modern and Global

Jordan's personal item, a custom lucite table, provides contrast to the room's global accessories.

From: Miera Melba Interior Design

Den: Hilari and Rachel

Queen of glamour Hilari and naturally-inspired Rachel are teamed up to work on the designers' lounge.

Addicted to TV?

Hilari is adamant that the lounge feature a television: "I really want a TV for this space. It's a den and we can't talk all the time. Plus, I'm addicted to reality TV," she says. She also wants to create architectural detail on one wall with molding.

Custom Cocktail Table

Rachel takes a risk by designing a custom coffee table with a chic curved-leg detail. "Let's hope that it turns out looking as good as I draw it," she worries.

Before: A Blank Slate

Beyond a built-in cabinet, this room is a clean slate for Hilari and Rachel.

After: Natural Glam

The two designers flawlessly blended their two aesthetics to create an inviting, visually interesting lounge.

Modern Taxidermy

Rachel's personal item, a high-gloss moose head, pops when paired displayed atop a painted black square. "I am over the moon in love with the white moose head on the black," Vern gushes.

Tiny Television

The room's budget only allowed for a pint-sized television, and the judges aren't impressed with Hilari's attempt to mask its miniscule size. "The molding isn't fooling me into thinking the TV is big; it's actually drawing attention the fact that it's so small," Genevieve says.

The Perfect Sofa

Hilari took charge of finding a sofa, and she delivered with a comfortable, contemporary couch that's big enough for a crowd.

Cocktail Table Success

The judges are super-impressed by Rachel's custom-made cocktail table.

A Successful Space

Despite Hilari's TV misstep, the judges loved the overall feel and details in this room. Rachel is this week's winner!

Designer Lounge: Stanley and Yuki

Stanley and Yuki are both artists by trade, but their aesthetics (and mediums) are very different. They struggled to create a cohesive space in the designer lounge and workroom.

Hard at Work

Stanley's personal item is a handmade metal sculpture, and he adds to it in the workshop to create a focal point large enough to fill a window.

Collage Trouble

Yuki works with paper and collages at home, so she agrees to take charge of a second focal point, but feels rushed to complete her work. "I'm super concerned about how this is going to look in the end," Yuki says.

It Gets Worse

Stanley is unimpressed by Yuki's collage effort: "It's got to be the most God-awful thing I've ever seen in my life...I'm ready to throw it in the pool," he says. To "improve" it, he adds on 3-D frames and crumbled paper.

Before: Basic Box

This room didn't even have a finished floor before the designers' started their work.

After: Color Overload

The judges aren't fans of Yuki's color choices. "Did you ever think...bright purple with a bright orange sofa...maybe not?" Genevive asks.

Make It Go Away?

"This wind-swept collage...I want it to just blow right out the door. Just keep on going. Go away." Vern says.

Two-Tone Floor

A rare bright spot in the room: The judges adore the two-toned bamboo floor Yuki chose for the space. They also appreciated Stanley's metal art piece.

Goodbye, Yuki

Yuki made two mistakes — the collage and the paint colors — that were too agregious to ignore, and she's the first designer to be sent home. See what she has to say about her elimination.

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HGTV Design Star

Design Star Season 7: Photo Highlights From Episode 1

Related To:

12 New Hopefuls

Guest Judge: Daisy Fuentes

Sizing Up the Competition

The First Challenge

Master Bedroom: Bex and Kris

Neon Accents

Spinning Her Gears

Tension Until the End

Before: Strange Details

After: Bold Bedroom

Cohesive Woodwork

Neon Niches

Bex's Finished Collage

Great Room: Danielle and Luca

Before: Cold and Cavernous

After: Warm and Inviting

Oversized Artwork

Architectural Details

Safe For Now

Guest Bedroom: Mikel and Britany

Mikel Searches for His Style

Before: A Great Place to Start

After: Bold and Comforting

Global Accents

Geometric Pattern

Mikel's Signature Style, Represented

Designers in the Middle

Guest Bedroom: Miera and Jordan

Hand-Painted Walls

Original Artwork

Headboard Snafu

Before: Small and Dark

After: Handmade Modern

Custom Headboards

Yellow Accents

Modern and Global

Den: Hilari and Rachel

Addicted to TV?

Custom Cocktail Table

Before: A Blank Slate

After: Natural Glam

Modern Taxidermy

Tiny Television

The Perfect Sofa

Cocktail Table Success

A Successful Space

Designer Lounge: Stanley and Yuki

Hard at Work

Collage Trouble

It Gets Worse

Before: Basic Box

After: Color Overload

Make It Go Away?

Two-Tone Floor

Goodbye, Yuki

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