"Design Star" 3 recaplet (Ep. 5): A little bit country

Mikey V nails it

Everyone has things they like, and things they know. I know a lot about Xena: Warrior Princess, shoes, dogs, politics, and alt/indie music. Country music, not so much. So when I'm told that Sara Evans is a superstar, I believe it, without actually having heard of her before.

Sara Evans, this week's design inspiration

This matters because Sara Evans is the inspiration for this week's Design Star challenge: to design the Sara Evans Suite at the Opreyland Hotel in Nashville, using her preferred design style of shabby chic.

The designers obviously keep up better than I do and were excited and impressed with the challenge. They all went off to meet with Sara Evans at her home, and to the hotel to see the suites.

The living room of the suite, before

This isn't quite my idea of the perfect blank canvas for the faded florals and overstuffed sofas of shabby chic design, but hey ... that's why it's a challenge.

The designers formed two teams, each with an identical suite. Team captains were Jennifer, who chose Matt (first pick, of course) and Stephanie, and Trish, who chose Mikey V and got stuck wtih Tracee as last pick.

Matt gave us a glimpse of what he'd be like as a host -- and the answer is, not bad at all:

Finally, Clive came in and blew his "time's up" air horn, which didn't faze Mikey V at all but sent Tracee around the bend:

Take a moment to let the fact that I'm about to say something nice about Tracee sink in. That wall behind them? She did it, and I liked it.

Find out who went home and who might be joining Team Gay, after the break!

The designers gathered in the judging hall to watch Clive Pearse give Sara Evans the big reveal on the room done by Team Trish:

Team Jennifer unfortunately did a terrible job on their living room. That brown leather sofa, which I'm sad to say Matt signed off on, was all wrong -- something Sara Evans noted when she saw it, too.

The living room of the losing suite

But the bedroom was great, particularly Matt's re-purposed armoire. And just like Sara, I wanted nothing more than to crawl under that huge fluffy comforter and curl up with my cat and a good book.

Which I think is the whole point of shabby chic.

The bedroom of the losing suite

Team Trish won the challenge on the strength of the stunning living room, and a bedroom that, while its best view wasn't as good as the losing team's, was more finished in its entirety.

The living room of the winning suite

Team Trish -- Trish, Mikey V, and Tracee -- were all safe, and deservedly so. The judges singled out Matt, saying his "contribution was obvious" (guess they didn't know about the sofa), scolded Jennifer for letting her team fall behind, and sent Stephanie home for one stated reason, and one unstated.

First, she screwed up by buying a sofa that couldn't fit into the room, leaving a big blank area in the design. Possibly more importantly, although they didn't mention it, when each contestant did their impromptu hosting gig, hers was really terrible. So was Tracee's, but her place on the winning team probably wiped that out. This week, I have to agree the judges did the right thing, even though I like Stephanie and can't stand Tracee.

As to Mikey V's hosting attempt, I'll let judge Vern Yip describe it for you:

"Mikey V, I'm scared of you! You know, you're such a nice person and we need to see more of that, I guess, softness come out. I feel very much like it's, this is shabby chic, you're gonna love it, and if not, I'm gonna hurt you."

Speaking of Mikey V, according to the Broward-Palm Beach New Times in his home state of Florida, he's not only a cop, he's an out gay cop. (Thanks to reader cakeOrDeath for the link.) HGTV told us they were checking with Mikey V to see if he'd like to talk to us about that.

So Team Gay didn't just survive, it might have brought in reinforcements. We'll let you know!