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AE: What are your thoughts on the judges so far? Have you agreed with all their decisions?
GA: [Long silence, then nervous laughter.] Erik?

EK: I struggle with the judges. I love Margaret Russell. I adore her. I take her criticism to heart and I really think about it. Kelly [Wearstler] and Jonathan [Adler], I just don't know. I haven't really determined how I feel about them yet.

GA: For me, I like all the judges. I think they come from very different perspectives. Margaret is an editor, so I'm not really in that world, so her criticism is different from what I'm used to in my field. Kelly and Jonathan are both designers, and I can see where they're coming from a little bit more than Margaret.

EK: It's funny, because for me as a designer, the last thing you ever want is another designer to critique your work, because no matter what …

GA: But I think that's the hardest judge. They're the toughest ones.

EK: Exactly. With Margaret, I feel she's giving the consideration to the profession that the other two should be. Kelly knows what it's like to be on a job and have a chair not show up and have a client chew down your throat. You would think you would get a little more sympathy, where Margaret is usually involved in the process after it's finished.

GA: Margaret tends to look at the end product …

EK: Exactly.

GA: … and Kelly and Jonathan take into consideration the process because they know what it's like and what sort of obstacles we have to face and how we have to solve those obstacles.

EK: A great example is the cabana with this paint color thing. I'm sure that Kelly in her career has chosen a color before that has not been ideal. The great thing about paint is that it's very easy to change. All you do is paint over it.

GA: I have to say that I liked your cabana. It had an indoor and an outdoor strength, and it was the only one that gave shade, including mine. Mine really wasn't a good shading device.

EK: But yours was sexy as hell. I would have easily killed 15 people on that beach if I tried to cantilever something.

GA: We architects, we know how to erect. [Laughs.]

EK: Whoa, whoa, whoa! You leave your bedroom life out of this.

AE: Do you feel the judges have been contradictory in their decisions? A lot of fans were bothered that Carisa won last week's challenge, yet her client was very disappointed in the room, then the judges sent Felicia packing for the same reason.
GA: Yeah, they are.

EK: Yeah.

GA: But you know, you have to see the judging. There are three judges, and two of them are always ganging up on the other one. They're not really acting as one body. Sometimes Kelly wins, sometimes Jonathan wins, sometimes Margaret wins. You can just never tell who has the final say.

EK: The great thing about my face is that I can not hide my emotions. Like I instantly turn red and they can't hide that, so every time we were in that position, I'd just get so confused. You'd hear one thing, then it would be a totally different answer. I think most of us feel like we could just not target exactly what they were looking for as a unit. Every challenge you think: "OK, I've finally got this figured out now. Last time, I wasn't supposed to do this." Then you get in front of them and they're like, "OK, you did this, goodbye."

GA: See ya!

EK: Why? But last week that was good!

AE: Not to be mean, but what happened to Kelly's hair last week? It looked like the losing entry from Top Hair. Did you want to vote her out of the judge's panel for it?
GA: Kelly's hair is fabulous! I don't know what people are talking about. When you see her walking down the hallway with that hair, I thought it was really fabulous. I liked the fact that she changed her silhouette every week.

EK: I think the most amazing thing, which a lot of people didn't get to see like we did, is when you're standing in the construction zone, and you have all the sawdust and the dirt and all that stuff laying around, and then you have Kelly Wearstler walking the hallway with her little sashay and her fabulous little outfits. I think you have different appreciation for it. Not everyone is brave enough to do those sorts of things.

GA: And a lot of her outfits look better when she's standing up.

EK: Exactly!

AE: Talk about the carpenters and how influential they are. John got eliminated in part because his floor went over budget and didn't get completed. Last week Carisa and her carpenter had a conflict over her table. Carisa … really seemed to think she would lose because of it. Do you feel at the mercy of the carpenters?
GA: I don't know about you, Erik, but I do.

EK: Absolutely. The thing about this business is that no one person can do everything by themselves. Whether you own a practice or whatever you do, you're relying on other professionals to do what you expect them to do. When you're in a situation where you've just met someone, you don't know how they're going to react or if you can rely on them.

GA: See, I have my own technique. On the first day, I was able to size them up by looking at their tools.

EK: [Laughs.]

AE: What's been your favorite challenge so far?
GA: I liked the children's room. I thought that was a lot of fun.

EK: Me, too. Well, obviously. [Editors note: Erik won the children's room challenge.] I loved the children's room.

GA: I liked the children's room because when I met my client we actually didn't talk about interior design. We just sat around … well, no, actually, we ran around. I realized that he was a little bit of a hyperactive person, and I made a room based off that. It was a lot of fun.

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