Gird Your Loins: The “Trading Spaces” Revival Will Include Its MVP
Put down Instagram, y’all, because TLC is gracing us with a true Throwback Thursday. In case you couldn’t tell by the flurry of fever posts regarding the return of Trading Spaces, we’re pretty fucking stoked that TLC is going to shove the Duggars to the side for a smidge of air time and bring back the gem of all reality shows. While Paige Davis was confirmed to return as host back in July, it wasn’t clear if the floodgates would open to allow the rest of the original Trading Spaces hot mess express of designers back in. The gods are shining upon us, as it is confirmed many of them are back on board…including DListed favorite HILDI SANTO-TOMAS!!!
In case you don’t know who she is, let me give you a walk down memory lane. During the Bush years, it was a toss-up whether waterboarding or threatening to have Hildi to come redecorate your living room with a $1000 budget was a better way to coax secrets from war prisoners. At one point, Hildi’s Wikipedia page said she was living in Paris (which her Eiffel Tower shot seems to confirm) and “rarely seen in public.” Why, you ask? Maybe it was because she was in exhile because us silly Americans used to use terms like freedom fries and couldn’t appreciate the profound art that was coating a wall in real hay or adorning a room with a mural of herself. Oh, Hildi. So avant-garde AND humble!
TLC released this video today featuring HILDI (and the others):
The video also announces the return of other past cast members like Ty Pennington, Laurie Smith, Carter Oosterhouse, Doug Wilson, Genevieve Gorder and my favorite pocket gay Vern Yip will be back to wreak havoc on America with low-budget DIY projects. Joining them will be newbies Brett Tutor, Joanie Sprague, John Gidding, Kahi Lee and Sabrina Soto.
Even those goody two (four?) shoes Chip and Joanna Gaines probably swore like sailors this morning realizing their shiplap empire will crumble now that Hildi is returning from Paris armed with nothing but wild ambition, a glue gun, and discarded bubble gum she’s been gathering over the years from Metro stations. What? Piece it all together, and you could have a really interesting end table!
Pic: TLC