"Changing Rooms" is the do-it-yourself show for people who are into that sort of thing as well as people who have no intention of ever lifting a paintbrush.
While the British series, seen on this side of the Atlantic on BBC America, offers helpful redecorating hints, the show is as much about people as it is fixing up homes. The premise of the show is actually quite simple -- two couples trade houses for two days and, with a budget of only 500 pounds (about $800) and the assistance of an interior designer, each couple completely redecorates one room in the other couple's house.And the owners don't get to see what's going on until it's all over and done with.
"It has a lot to do with human nature as opposed to DIY (do it yourself)," said Carol Smilie, the oh-so-charming host of the program. "You're never quite sure how people are going to react. And so many times I'm talking to someone saying, 'What color would be your worst nightmare?' and they say, 'Green.' And (the other couple) is doing it green. And it's just gob-smacking that they haven't discussed this beforehand. I mean, what are you, stupid or what?"
And the fact is that some of the most entertaining moments on "Changing Rooms" come when the neighbors and/or the designers have seriously misjudged their counterparts' taste and created a room the homeowners hate.
"It's perverse, really, how much we love it when it goes wrong," Smilie said. "And I don't care what anyone says -- everybody loves it when it goes wrong."
Smilie first came to fame as the letter-turner on the British version of "Wheel of Fortune." But she's always done projects around her own house.
"I was quite interested in DIY anyway but actually never thought it would ever have the kind of prominence it has now in this country," she said. "I mean, at home, I'm not really (excited) about stripping walls and the big heavy, messy, sweaty stuff. But I do love kind of small makeovers on pieces of furniture, and I'm quite nifty with a sewing machine.
"I just couldn't image it translating into anything remotely sexy for television. Nor could anyone else, to be honest, at the time. . . . It's turned into something huge here, really."
There's no small amount of pressure in trying to get these huge projects done in 48 hours with only the help of the designers and Handy Andy, an amazing (if occasionally surly) handyman who seems to work magic (while only occasionally mismeasuring).
"It really is in two days. It's amazing," Smilie said. "I think also because we're now getting so slick at it that they know the order of doing things. They never do a floor until the last thing on the first day so that it dries overnight. (Designer) Graham (Wynne) has had a huge disaster where it (the paint) didn't dry overnight and we had to throw paint-stripper on it and get it all up. That was the first series, and he's never really recovered from that.
"Yeah, sometimes disasters happen, but all the better for it. We just let the cameras roll and say, 'What you going to do about it?' Nobody's going to jump in and save them. That's their problem, and the designer's."
And the host is sympathetic, but only to a point.
"It only goes wrong if there are certain factors, i.e., people have lied about saying they're really good friends," she said. "And in fact they don't know each other really well and have made a complete mess of it because they didn't understand the friend's taste. Or they're just not very nice people who just want to be on TV and don't ever stop to consider the fact that we might completely trash their house. But that's always great telly."
The disasters may be horrible for the homeowners -- it's up to them to fix anything they don't like at the end of the two days -- but they're fabulous for the show.
"I think that is what has made it so successful," Smile said. "People who are not remotely interested in DIY just watch it for pure entertainment."
(The show, which premiered in 1996, is in its sixth eight-episode series on the BBC; BBC America is airing older episodes.)
Smilie is, in many ways, the voice of reason in "Changing Rooms." She's not afraid to look askance and speak her mind when the designers do something especially strange.
"I just always try to think if I was at home watching this I would be screaming at the television -- 'What are you doing?' " she said.
And sometimes the designs are pretty out there -- wild colors and strange furniture and almost unbelievable theme rooms. None of what Americans might think of as traditionally British.
"It's not typical of what most people have, I don't think," Smilie said. "Although since this program has come on the air and taken Britain by storm, I have to say more people are doing it this way now. We have been blamed for it."
No longer are all British houses painted the same boring off-white -- magnolia, as they call it over there.
"They're much more willing to have a go and be braver with color then they ever were. But, still, we are a nation of Mr. and Mrs. Magnolia at the end of the day. And most houses we go into are predictably like that," Smilie said. "But occasionally we go into other houses and we know they're huge fans of the show because they've rag-rolled and they've stenciled and they've done everything. It's even more horrible than a magnolia house because they've had a go at everything. They've tried to make over every single piece of furniture and it looks a mess. And you think, 'Are we responsible for that?' "
However, you can actually learn a few things and pick up a few decorating ideas while you're being entertained.
"Generally, I just watch and laugh," Smilie said. "But it's great because I'm genuinely quite interested in that sort of thing I have learned a lot myself. I can now reupholster a three-piece suite (couch, loveseat and chair) in a day-and-a-half.
"Of course, I have trashed lots of three-piece suites on my way. All across Britain, there are terrible three-piece suites in a mess because of me, but I've learned."
And the freedom of working on someone else's house for a TV show can be liberating.
"There's something very kind of exhilarating and uplifting about being able to freehand paint writing across somebody's wall," Smilie said. "You'd never do that in your own house. You'd go, 'Oh, no, I've made a mistake!' But because it's not your own house and you know if you don't do it somebody else is going to do it, and the designer's standing there going, 'Go on! Go on!' It's really quite exciting."
Asked if she would ever consider offering up a room in her own house to "Changing Rooms," Smilie burst into laughter. "Don't be ridiculous," she said.
"In fact, I would let any of the designers do my house but not with 500 pounds and two days. To be honest with you, the problem is what people don't see and what the camera doesn't ever really pick out, is sometimes it can be really sloppy."
(Which sort of explains how they manage to pull off some of the huge projects they undertake in only 48 hours.)
The show has been translated into various countries around the world -- from Germany to Sweden to Australia to New Zealand. It's somewhat surprising that no one has Americanized "Changing Rooms" yet.
And an American version hosted by Smilie would be a kick.
"Oh, that'd be nice except I don't know how I could get over there and hold down some kind of home life here," said Smilie, who's the mother of three children under 5.