AIBU to think that Kirstie Allsop has completely lost the plot!

[EmpireBiscuit]

Watching "Fill your house for free" and can't help wondering, not only, who has the time but who really wants a washing machine drum coffee table?

BTW does anyone know if the free stuff KA's team produces is complaint with fire regulations?
I was a bit about last week's sofa made from pallets and elderly foam cushions expensively and professionally reupholstered

G plan is very much le dog's right now.

I will tell my Mum and Dad they were ahead of their time Parey.

I think the point of the programme is to point you towards different ways of furnishing your home other than identikit stuff from Ikea. They don't actually expect you to drive from Lands End to John O'Groats for your house, - they are doing this because they have to furnish a large chunk of several homes at once for a TV programme.

It's meant to give you ideas, not instructions for you to follow slavishly. If you want to follow something slavishly, go to Ikea.

On the back of her last programme (was it Vintage Home?) I have been slowly replacing my Ikea stuff with stuff from a local house clearance warehouse. My TV now sits on a beautiful solid golden oak dressing table (1940/50 or so) I have two fabulous golden oak cupboards of a similar age to replace the Leksvig book cases full of Crap and the most glorious 1950s solid wardrobe. Amongst other stuff (like a beautful pale oak dressing table with mirror and roll top [sigh]) They were all cheaper than Ikea (but not free ;)) and my house is non longer furnished like every other house within a 10 mile radius of Ikea (Apart from the children's bedrooms!)

Soupy - I totally agree with you on the recycling of old furniture - my house is full of this kind of thing, don;t think I have ever bought anything new, everything comes from charity shops, free at the side of the road etc.

My objection to this programme was the incredibly poor quality of the work they did. I don't think it gives people a good idea of what is achievable. It is possible to get beautiful results using scrap materials. But everything on here looked cobbled together in a short space of time, and I think it does a disservice to people to suggest that it is an easy task, I think if you want a decent result, then you need to be prepared to spend time and effort and work on a project. It can still be basically free (assuming you have o can borrow some tools, and can buy some sandpaper).

But yes - if it gets people thinking and they use it as a starting off point for recycling, then that is a good thing. I just think the chap I mentioned in my earlier post (wish I could remember his name/ programme name) is a much better example to follow if you want some instruction and ideas on how a job should be done.

She does have a point about the skips though.

I know someone who was working in a house who's client had a kitchen fitted, she didn't like it, ripped it out and bought a new one. This brand new kitchen was just skipped, she had it in about a week. He asked if he could have it, she said yes.

1 brand new fitted kitchen for nothing. Soild teak as well.

I do know that's rare that happens, almost never, but skips can actually be good place to look - especially if you can repair something.

She also has the very good point of a capentry or furniture making course, even just a basic DIY course can save you a fortune.

*carpentry

But that crappy table - made from fence posts and scaffolding planks with a plastic gutter for pencils - really?!?! - wasn't even FLAT - first (and pretty much only ) quality I require in a table is flatness....

Am I too late to @ poo to one side

time is money in my book

People do throw out good stuff. Our neighbour had 3weeks to get the house ready for renting out as they were moving to Dubai. They put out a two year old leather corner unit and cooker and god knows what. The cleansing department came and it went into the crusher. An absolute waste. We live about 500 yards away from Homestart.

Can you imagine the MNer's reaction when Kirstie turns up to collect the old tat valued item they thought was going to demonstrate their benevolence by freecycling to the person with the best sob story poor and needy?

Blazinstoke - last weeks tables stuck to the Walls definitely made me think of 'I saw you coming'.

It was the tacky little mirrors made out of vintage tennis racquets that made me unreasonably furious.

I know somebody who works on the kirsty shows. She does feck all....floats in, presents, leaves. And eats alone!

I love this programme because it is so utterly shite and I enjoy shouting at the TV The only real interesting part of the show is when Kirstie shows us the homes of people who have spent years skip diving & scouring freecycle and truly have an interesting and unique home.

I did laugh at the guy who made last night's kitchen table when he earnestly declared how because it had a hinged top and a bit of old guttering taped to the underneath that "it was almost like having another room because it is like an office" Erm, no not really....

Kirsty's house is full of skip tat though.

I know because I read her book seem to recall hearing about it somewhere.

She furnished her boys bedrooms with old cabin beds and a giant painting of a tiger her husband found at the side of the road.

So obviously that means everything her house was found at the roadside.

I'm totally convinced that instead of teddy bears all children of Kirtsy's acquaintance have taxidermied road-kill to play with.

I was a bit at that plastic drainpipe office though.

He had to have been taking the piss.

Oh and don't get me started on the muppet who decided that it was a really good idea to saw the legs off a bed. Okay, so the couple have a bedroom that is on the small side where storage is an issue but hey lets make the bed so low that they can't stash anything under it. Also all the gushing about how much better the bedroom looked after the makeover. Well yes, of course it looked better. All the furniture had been removed and replaced with ornamental tat while all their clothes & detritus & stuff that they actually need in their bedroom was piled in the kitchen.

Any crafstperson/builder (such as my DH) will cringe at the appalling standards of 'craftsmanship' on this show. That awful sofa made of recycled ?Dangerous flammable) cushions and a load of sharp edged pallets and metal piping. Can you imagine the teenage son's of the householder flopping down on it and smashing their skulls on the pipes? What was wrong with her previous sofa? It hadn't been affected by the flood and was being used.

That 'expert valuer'. I'd like to know what auctions she attends or the names of the clients she sells to as I have a load of old tat from my shed precious artisanal objects D'art for her to sell on commission for me.

SarahAndFuck I threw out a gouache painting of a tigers head when I was living in West London years ago painted by moi when i was a talentless aspiring artist. D'ya think it is now hanging in the Allsopp palace? Do you have a picture? Am very excited now.

That should be 'sons'. No excuse for my appalling grammar.

I dont think they did saw the legs off the bed Poutintrout they just lowered the footboard and stuck it back on again.

My MIL was once inspired by a DIY programme and FIL came home to her having sawn their kingsize bed in half and forgotten what else was meant to happen to 'transform' it. Makes me a lot to think of his face.

I love KA shows, totally crap but I don't think they really pretend to be anything else do they?

Ah, that's a relief about the bed snoopy. I will sleep easier in my bed tonight

Does anyone remember the beautiful cast iron bath that was destroyed sawn in half to make a dodgy looking (extremely) uncomfortable chair?

I stopped watching after that.

Mignonette I have no picture I'm afraid, so lets just say that it's definitely your painting, because how many roadside tigers can there be in West London?

I didn't like the programmes where Kirsty goes off to knit marmalade at a host of country shows and always seemed to win the prize because they judges didn't know it was her entry my eye they didn't, but I do enjoy the others.

Snoop I love the idea of your MIL getting the saw out and chopping through the bed before realising she'd forgotten what comes next.

I think if you go on these programmes you have to be prepared to argue a bit. There's no way I would have ended up with a wall of chopped up coffee tables as shelves. Just because you are on TV for free it doesn't mean you have to let someone glue Sylvanian figures to your ceiling, does it

I was (claim to fame) on a makeover show and had a lovely off screen scuffle with Richard Randell because he wanted to decorate my living room to look like a chocolate lime. He took it well, he was quite lovely actually. We got a blue room in the end.

Sarah

Was it painted on black paper? There cannot be that many surely.It was not a popular concept, Tigers in the 1980's! everybody else was doing surrealism.

Yes she so should not have won first prize for her Eclairs and scones as they said their bottoms were burned. What level of discernment is that WI?

Snoop that is hysterical

I would argue so much they'd chuck me off the show Sarah. It's be 'Kirsty recycles nothing because of PITA person on it'.