Frank Bielec of "Trading Spaces"

Aug. 20, 2002

By Kyra Kirkwood

This teddy bear of a man is as content to spin humor-rich theories on life as he is splattering someone else's wall with a leather-like paint finish.

The "Frankisms" don't stop there. Bielec, who looks a bit like a cleanly shorn Santa Claus, teaches life lessons with the same aplomb as he rips off kitchen countertops.

"I hope I get people to stop apologizing for [how things are]," he said. "This is the now. Deal with it. Go with the moment. Live each day as if it were your last, honey, because tomorrow just might be."

This past week found the effervescent designer out West, chatting to packed crowds at the 48^th Annual GMC Southern California Home and Garden Show at the Anaheim Convention Center. The event, which runs through Aug. 25, features more than 750 exhibitors offering gadgets, ideas and professionals from the gardening, home-improvement, cooking, decorating and remodeling arenas.

From painting vines on walls to dishing trash on his "Trading Spaces" coworkers, Bielec became one of the show's biggest attractions.

Bielec is the first to admit how unlikely a pick he was to star on the hit decorating series featuring two neighbors, two rooms redecorated in two days, a designer, a carpenter and $1,000 budget.

Since the beginning of "Trading Spaces" three years ago, Bielec has been on the front lines. Although the show was a hit in Europe (as a 30-minute production called "Changing Rooms"), Bielec never thought the longer American version would last six weeks.

"I've eaten my words since then. I'm just amazed by it."

As the crowd gathered for his first production of the week at the Home and Garden Show, Bielec bantered with the group, stopping only when a newcomer screamed in delight at the sight of this Texan in red-flame shoes.

"Frank!" shrieked Yogie Weinmann of Long Beach as she clapped her hands and jumped up. "He's so talented! He walks into a room and he can do anything."

To be honest, Bielec said, he's amazed people let him and the other designers into their houses to completely revamp one room–without the homeowners present.

"I wouldn't have anyone under God come into my house and do a room," he gasped in feigned horror. "What a nightmare!"

Quickly shifting gears, Bielec elucidated his admiration for his co-workers.

"They are all so amazing," he said. "We're all like family. It's like summer camp for bad adults. Hilda [Santo-Tomas] is there for the room, Doug [Wilson] is there to wreck carnage. Hilda [has been known to] stand on a kitchen stool and pound a nail in the wall with the heel of her $800 Prada mule. I love her for that."

He wove more bits of "Trading Spaces" trivia into his conversation: Laurie (Hickson-Smith) gave birth to a baby boy named Gibson, two more designers will join the show next season, Ty (Pennington) is beautiful and talented–and practical jokes flourish on set.

"I have been known to Superglue [Ty's] drill bits to the case," Bielec snickered.

But the fans, who love Bielec for his down-home wit and common-sense designs, made it clear he's their hands-down-favorite designer.

"The techniques he does are just unreal," said Mary Veatch of Orange, who let out a huge victory whoop when Bielec signed her t-shirt. "I love that man!"

"He gave me the courage to do my room like old leather," said Cheryl Goddard of Colton. She drove an hour to the show so her daughter, 10-year-old Kelsey, could get Bielec's autograph and present him with a hand-drawn picture book. "We love him; he's our favorite."

As do most of the show's participants, who often wait a year to see if they are selected. Bielec remembers one neighbor in particular who screamed when he saw Bielec standing on the front porch the day before the filming commenced. However, unlike his Orange County fans, this gentleman was not screaming for joy.

"He said, 'Please don't paint farm animals on my wall!' I've only done one chicken in the history of 'Trading Spaces' and now I'm labeled a procurer of fowl," he said, referring to one episode featuring a kitchen revamp spiced up with an egg-layer. "My God! You'd think I put an entire farm scene on the wall."

In fact, kitchen remodels are Bielec's favorite (although he hasn't done another with chickens).

"Look at me!" he exclaimed. "I'm fat–why wouldn't I want to do a kitchen? And I'm 65. A bedroom is just someplace to sleep now."

For the most part, designers and team members bond during those two-days of backbreaking labor while giving birth to a new room.

"That stuff coming off me isn't Georgio–it's sweat, honey," said Bielec. "You share everything from body fluids to ideas."

Bielec doesn't wait with baited breath for the homeowners' reactions as they see their room for the first time (like we viewers do).

"If [the team members] like the room and they've worked real hard, I'm okay with that," he said. "I don't even judge my rooms as beautiful or not. I just judge if I've had a good time with my team. I don't get a buzz from decorating as I do from working with the people."

Decorating isn't brain surgery, he says. Anyone featured on the show can do it, even if they aren't blessed with a designing flair.

"You work with their strengths," said Bielec. "I like it if they're not Martha Stewart; they don't have any preconceived notions."

They learn to listen to their "inner decorator," following what it tells them to do, instead of what glossy, upscale magazines dictate.

"Just do what you like and go with it. You don't have to listen to trends, you don't have to follow the herd to be eaten by wolves in the end," said Bielec. "Anything goes. Color color color!"

He admits he adores color, despite living in an all-white home. People should use hues to accessorize, and those hues should flatter, he said.

"So when you sit in that room or on that couch, you look good," Bielec drawled. "If you go into a room and can't think of conceiving a child in there, something's wrong."

SIDEBAR

<I>Bielec Answers Some Top "Trading Spaces" Questions</I>

• "Do you really wear the same outfit both days?" Yes, the team wears the same clothes for continuity purposes when the film footage is edited.

• "Is it really two days?" Actually less than that. It's about 16 hours, with a Day 0 for the neighbors to meet the designers and for all the shopping to get finished.

• "Is Ty really that sexy?" How would I know?