TEEN Mom Chelsea Houska’s HGTV show Down Home Fab ratings have spiked by nearly 200,000 viewers after the season premiere brought in disappointing numbers.
Chelsea, 31, and Cole’s new show Down Home Fab premiered on January 16 on HGTV.
Chelsea Houska’s HGTV show Down Home Fab premiered with disappointing numbersHGTVHGTVBut nearly 200,000 more viewers tuned in for the second episode[/caption]
The series premiere brought in a disappointing 678,000 viewers after the stars were slammed for their “ugly” decor decisions.
But The U.S. Sun can exclusively reveal ratings have skyrocketed to 850,000 for the January 23 episode.
‘COZY SOPHISTICATED’
On this week’s episode, the couple renovated clients Jenny and Neal’s entryway, dining room, living room and kitchen.
They opted for a “cozy sophisticated” aesthetic.
Some design choices included turning their brick fireplace into a double-sided one with a stucco finish and painting the wood window trim white.
They also converted the dining room into a mud room and kitchen pantry.
As for the stairs, they added a white and gray chevron carpet with a modern black metal staircase.
The kitchen featured a waterfall island, marble farmhouse sink and chevron backsplash.
Cole also redesigned the floor plan by removing the walls that had previously blocked the cooking area from being open to the rest of the house.
VIEWER BACKLASH
But fans weren’t impressed, as one person commented: “So they removed the character? Definitely, you could lighten some of those areas with a few white walls but the blue wasn’t bad?!”
A second commenter exclaimed: “THEY PAINTED THOSE GORGEOUS WOODEN WINDOWS WHITE?! I would sob on television if this was my house and I [saw] this. It’s awful.”
Another said: “I absolutely loathe the trend of painting over beautiful natural wood fixtures.”
A fourth stated: “The furniture is nice, but the all-white walls just make it feel so soulless and boring. The original color was bad but white everywhere is too much.”
While a final commenter added: “From cozy to sterile and boring.”
BOLD MOVES
The premiere episode featured the partners using their decorating expertise to remodel several rooms in the nearby home of another Sioux Falls couple, Jessica and Nate.
With a budget of $100,000, they transformed their client’s kitchen, dining room, living room, seating area, and foyer, giving it a similar flare to Chelsea and Cole’s South Dakota farmhouse.
Some design choices included butcher block countertops for the kitchen, painting the original off-white cabinets black, and cooper wrap for the kitchen island.
For the sitting room, Chelsea used peel-and-stick black alligator print wallpaper for the accent wall, antelope print for the carpeting, and yellow chairs.
As for the living room, they painted the fireplace stone with whitewash and painted the wood ceiling a green color.
DESIGN BACKLASH
Though the clients seemed thrilled by the remodel, viewers on social media weren’t as pleased.
One said: “It was actually embarrassing how bad this went, they have 0 sense of style the house looked awful when they were done with it.”
A second agreed: “It looks horrible! Also, Chels kept saying the room was too dark, then proceeded to put down dark floors, and paint the walls AND ceilings dark green.”
A third wrote: “The whole design seemed to hang together except for that horrendous fireplace. Maybe it was different in person but it seemed like a gigantic white-ish blob amidst earth tones and black. Just awful. Also, would’ve 100% left the ceiling unpainted.”
Others thought the designs were “hideous,” harshly calling the entire project “a huge waste of money.”
New episodes of Down Home Fab air at 9pm EST Mondays on HGTV and are also available on Discovery+.
The former Teen Mom 2 stars left the MTV show in 2020.
HGTVThe couple got backlash for painting the wood trim white[/caption]
HGTVOne design choice included a double-sided fireplace[/caption]
HGTVThe clients, however, loved the finished product[/caption]
