EXCLUSIVE Host of Decorating Cents reveals what she really thought about the outrageous makeovers... and the one design a homeowner demanded she change
Now almost 20 years later, Joan Steffend has reemerged as the face of the show's viral internet fame.
The beloved show was known for its zany design ideas and off-the wall execution. With an experienced designer leading the way, Steffen would help make over one room in each contestant's home from $500 or less.
The results were, well, mixed.
Decades later people have taken to TikTok to rehash some of the more controversial DIYs from the show, and Steffend is taking the heat in stride, categorizing the internet's reactions as 'happily horrified'.
'I just don't want people to think I'm offended,' she told Daily Mail. 'I'm completely baffled by it, but I'm enjoying it.'
Among the designs getting the most attention are a cowboy themed bachelor pad, a makeshift mosaic end table, and a rug painted directly onto the hardwood floor.
Even at the time, Steffend admitted that not everything was in her taste. 'It was part of my job to be enthusiastic about everything,' she said.
So no matter how out of the box the designer's ideas were, she happily went along. For every idea she was unsure about, there were many she loved.
'I think if you look at the book of what we did, some of them were wildly creative and transferable in people's homes,' Steffend said.
But one of the ones that horrified her the most was when she had to get down on her hands and knees and paint on fresh hardwood floor.
'I was shocked by it. I think it was pretty near to the start and I was shocked by a lot of the things that we would do. I'm the daughter of a construction guy,' she said.
'My dad would come back and haunt me if I did that.'
She said she might consider recreating it, only if it would never see the light of day.
'I would do that but I would only do it in certain circumstances, like the wood was about to be redone, just to be creative,' Steffen added.
Commenters online were with her on that one. As one viewer said, 'Those poor hardwoods didn't deserve that.'
Another creation which raised eyebrows is a mosaic end table comprised of jagged pieced.
More than one user on TikTok made fun of this masterpiece for being, 'difficult to clean and a little dangerous', concerns which Steffend shared.
'I was thinking it was dangerous for sure, because I had young children at the time,' she noted.
'We did a lot of those kinds of mosaic break-up things. We definitely got better at them.'
For the most part, she remembered people being happy with their redesigns, even if Steffend herself found them questionable. However she revealed there was one at the very beginning that went completely sideways.
Steffend and her crew were tasked with a cowboy-themed bachelor living room. They created the manliest space they could, complete with cow-hide rugs, printed throws, and a hand mod-podged TV stand adorned with ancient Native American prayers.
Over the years, that particular piece had gotten a lot of flack and it turns out, the contestant wasn't the biggest fan either.
'I do remember that was one of the few times the homeowner came home and said put it back,' she said.
'We had worked a really long day and we stayed and put it back. If they don't love it we still feel like they're in their homes and we'd change it.'
Another design a lot of TikTok commenters expected the owner to hate was an Italian-themed kitchen.
One of the more heinous decorating choices was a hand-painted, wall border made from sheets of yellow paper adorned with Italian words and phrases.
The design saw comparisons on TikTok to everything from an 'an English classroom,' to an Olive Garden.
Despite the backlash from modern day viewers, Steffend said the contestant, a friend of hers, loved it.
'The guy was really Italian,' she said. 'He loved his Italian heritage.'
Steffend revealed that the whole project was almost thrown into jeopardy however.
After a long day of work, they accidentally spilled a bottle of red wine all over their new design and had to stay through the night to it all over again.
Steffend revealed was often surprised when makeovers she wouldn't consider for her own home became favorites among the guests.
'I would look at it and go, okay not for me. But some of the stuff where I thought it wouldn't fit in my home, they would get the best responses,' she said.
Some contestants were choosier than others. Production did a lot of hard work figuring out what would work for the space, according to the former host.
Steffend said the process was longer than a lot of people realized. The design team would go into the home weeks before filming and do measurements and planning to ensure even just the camera crew would fit in the space.
Only then, would they ask the potential contestants what they were hoping to have done with their space, even then, the designers had to make sure they could find what they were looking for all while keeping it under $500.
'You can say that you want a room a certain way. The truth is they wanted to follow both what they wanted and what we could find,' Steffend said, adding that she and her team were real sticklers for the budget.
They refused to take discounts or donations, because they wanted each makeover to be truly attainable for the viewers.
So they searched dumpsters, discounts, and thrift stores to find pieces that would best fit within the budget and what they were looking for. Steffend said there was, 'a lot of serendipity'.
'We never got the chance to try anything out beforehand. We would show up at like 9 AM and we had to just do what we had,' she explained.
Steffend said that's part of what she loved so much about the show.
'It was all about being frugal and really being wildly creative. '
Steffend is now retired, occasionally doing appearances in her home state of Minnesota. She said she hasn't thought much about the show over the years, but she loved it so much at the time and has been completely delighted by its resurgence.
'It was really a gift to me,' she said. 'If it [going viral] leads anyone else to try and fail then I'm all for it.'
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