Lighting It Up on Bravo's Top Design

I don't know if any of you guys are Bravo TV junkies...but I honestly don't know how I ever lived without it! From Project Runway, My Life on the D-List, and Top Chef to newer favs like Shear Genius, Make Me A Supermodel and Tabatha's Salon Takeover - Bravo TV definitely satisfies my reality TV craving and then some! Last year I got into another newish Bravo show called Top Design. Top Design does for interior decorators what Project Runway does for fashion designers. Each week, up and coming interior decorators compete in a variety of design challenges and "Pop Design" quizzes, all in the hopes of winning fame, great prizes and the title of 'Top Design.' You have your panel of judges: Interior decorator India Hicks is your Heidi Klum, pottery/textile designer Jonathan Adler is your Michael Kors and Margaret Russell, the Editor and Chief of Elle Decor Magazine is your Nina Garcia. Finally add in quirky designer Kelly Wearstler as a final judge and designer Todd Oldham as your friendly neighborhood Tim Gunn.



In this past Wednesday's episode (episode 8), called "Light It Up" the remaining 5 contestants had to design a room around an upscale chandelier from Swarovski! As the beautiful India Hicks introduced the challenge, I immediately recognized the stunning, $20,000 Swarovski Blossom Chandelier hanging there in the showroom, just glittering away. Anyway, the "Pop Design" challenge winner from that day, Eddie Ross, Senior Style Editor of Martha Stewart Living Magazine (and publisher of his own blog, EddieRoss.com) got to pick the order the designers chose their chandeliers. The order was as follows:











The end results were a mixed bag. For those of you who haven't seen the show, I won't spoil it, but needless to say some drama went down with contestant Andrea Schroeder, wife of actor Ricky Schroeder. Back to the stars of this episode...the beautiful lights. I knew Swarovski made lovely things, but I had no idea about some of these other light fixtures they designed. As part of the Swarovski Crystal Palace Collection, some of these chandeliers are destined to be timeless classics. Still others are just bizarre. Pricing is not available online but you can visit the Swarovski website for more information. Most of the collection will be available starting in January of 2009. Top Design Season 2 airs every Wednesday at 10:00 PM eastern, 9:00 PM central on Bravo. You can purchase past episodes on iTunes.