HGTV host and historic home devotee Paige Rien has tackled an array East Coast renovation and restoration projects.
The Brown-educated designer toted that experience along to Denver recently when she and the crew from “Hidden Potential” filmed one young couple’s trials strategizing the perfect family nest.
The series, which also features real estate specialist Brandie Malay and modern-minded architectural designer Barry Wood, aims to illustrate how different rundown houses can be transformed into dream homes. The process ultimately reveals the way buying a home is so much more than a financial decision.
The Denver Post reached Rien on the telephone after filming in Colorado to hear about her experience and impressions.
Describe the “Hidden Potential” episode filmed near Denver.
In each show, we have a family with specific needs who is either looking for another house or debating whether to stay in their current house…
In Colorado, we worked with the Hannas. They have a baby, and a baby on the way. They don’t love where they live (in Douglas County), and their house is too small. They want to live in Centennial, Greenwood Village or Littleton. So we showed them one house in each of those areas.
The other designer on the show, Barry Wood, has a more modern, contemporary sensibility. I’m an old house buff. I love to take old houses and restore them. (Barry) showed them what could be done to a house from a purely modern standpoint. I took a house and did a traditional aesthetic.
What were your impressions of Colorado homes?
Having the mountains as a backdrop is beyond what I could possibly imagine for a house on the East Coast. I thought having a mountain view would be a premium, but in Denver that’s a drop in the bucket. Having a view didn’t seem to affect house prices.
During filming, the wife wanted a more classic fixer-upper and her husband wanted new construction. On the East Coast, that is a very clear distinction. But the houses we looked at were neither. You couldn’t call them new because they were all built in the 60s and 70s, but they weren’t fixer-uppers, either.
I also noticed that a lot of (Colorado) homes reflect the natural environment. In one neighborhood, the entire development had cedar shingles. From a maintenance standpoint, they can be problematic. But they suited the setting.
What house-hunting advice can you offer given your work on “Hidden Potential” and with private clients?
A lot of people are not able to see past very simple barriers, for instance wood paneling. Some people see that and immediately turn around and walk out of the house. Now, it’s not the easiest, quickest fix, but you can cover it, paint it, or take it out.
My biggest piece of advice is to ignore the décor.
People also get very dismayed when they see dated kitchens or bathrooms. I often coach my clients to realize that if they don’t have the money to do a full-scale renovation, there are small changes they can make to open up the space. Buying a slab of concrete for the counter, investing in new flooring, painting or switching out cabinet doors or even sometimes just changing the hardware, can radically change the look.
Episode no. 411 of “Hidden Potential,” dubbed “Classic Versus Contemporary,” was filmed in Colorado. It airs on HGTV (Comcast channel 39) in early December 2007. Paige Rein also studies design and architecture software applications at the Art Institute of Pittsburg. Read her blog, and more about her work at .
