John Gidding returns to “Trading Spaces” for its 2019 season. (Photo courtesy Marketplace Events)
John Gidding first appeared on television in 2003 in ABC Family’s “Knock First,” a teenage bedroom makeover show, after graduating from Yale and Harvard with bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture. Today, this native of Istanbul, Turkey, is a veteran of design TV, having appeared on HGTV’s “Designed to Sell” and “Curb Appeal” and as a regular design expert on numerous daytime TV programs.
Gidding joined the original cast of “Trading Spaces” for the show’s 2018 reboot, appearing on one episode with original cast member Genevieve Gorder. He returns to “Trading Spaces” for its 2019 season, debuting March 16, and will visit Richmond March 1 and 2 for the Richmond Home + Garden Show at Richmond Raceway Complex.
We spoke to Gidding by phone to talk interior design, “Trading Spaces” and his visit to Richmond.
R•Home: What was it like to be one of the new kids on “Trading Spaces?”
Gidding: For the newbies, it was intimidating. The original cast had their own sort of family. There had been a 10-year hiatus, but when we got back to shooting it seemed like they hadn’t missed a step. ... It was like seeing a family reunion come together.
R•Home: What did you find most challenging about the format of the program?
Gidding: I don’t know if you know this, but on TV we sometimes make things up and fake things. I know that it’s surprising to hear [laughs], but with “Trading Spaces” there was no artifice. We had a $2,000 budget that was not only very strict, they gave us the money beforehand. That’s all we had to spend. That includes shipping costs, so you had these major established designers carrying stuff in their luggage to the shoot to avoid shipping costs.
Also, the schedule — usually on TV shows you will have a buffer of a day or two to make sure everything is complete. With “Trading Spaces” it is truly a day and a half of work and you’re out.
R•Home: How did you get cast on the show?
Gidding: The fact that I am very good friends with Genevieve [Gorder] helped. She is one of the OGs of “Trading Spaces.” The other thing is that I have been doing television for so long. I’m a known entity. I have a certain quirky style, which I think is very helpful for a show like this where you are trying to show different styles juxtaposed against one another.
R•Home: How do you and Genevieve know each other?
Gidding: We met a long time ago on “HGTV Design Star.” I was a guest judge, and she was a regular judge. She lives and breathes design. Coming from an architecture background [as I do], we had a lot to talk about.
R•Home: How do you describe your design aesthetic?
Gidding: It’s true that all the “Trading Spaces” OGs have their own design sensibility and they are easy to put into a bucket. I’m less easily identifiable, but the artist approach is a trademark of mine.
The way I approach my designs ... is I try to identify problems first. By responding to those problems, I don’t have to wait to be inspired. I’m a solution-minded designer. I call it “constraint-based design.” First, identify the constraints and then solve the problems. The most challenging design for me is one where there is no budget or space constraints. I don’t know where to begin!
R•Home: How does your training in architecture inform your work as an interior designer?
Gidding: I think my first approach to any space is from an architectural perspective: space planning, moving walls, thinking about it in a three-dimensional way. That is a strength and a weakness in a way — my decorative touches only appear at the very end. I really compartmentalize. In the beginning it’s sculptural, and then it’s decorative.
[When I was] an architecture student we were taught modernism above all. In the beginning, my approach to interior design was very strict and formal because that’s what we were taught. ... But that’s not how people live. I learned that through HGTV and the various shows I was on as I was going into peoples’ homes and realizing how important it is to incorporate comfort into the design.
R•Home: Does your childhood in Turkey influence your design?
Gidding: My Turkish background definitely plays into how I decorate and how much ornamentation I bring in. Even when I was studying architecture and trying to be a modernist, the decorative nature of my upbringing, where I was surrounded by geometric design, ornamentation, carpets — it does inform me. When you are trying to design more from the heart you have to incorporate cultural details and local artisans where possible.
R•Home: How did you first get into TV?
Gidding: My first job out of architecture school was a TV show, a show called “Knock First” on ABC Family. ... I actually auditioned for “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” They were thinking about me either as the culture guy on “Queer Eye” or for this new ABC Family show. Once you do a little bit of television, it stays in the ether. Right after that show I worked for a landscape architecture firm … but sure enough, with a little bit of TV out there, I soon got a call from HGTV.
R•Home: Do you do any design work off-camera?
Gidding: Yes. I am currently walking through a construction site of a three-story Victorian we are building in San Francisco for clients I have been working with for years. I take on a few large-scale projects like this every few years. It is just me — I like to be very hands-on. I have been based in San Francisco as of last year to build this. I also do some bespoke furniture as well. That has always been a side hustle of mine.
R•Home: What will you be talking about at the Richmond Home + Garden Show?
Gidding: I talk about art from the perspective of interior design and how you can live within a space that is an artistic expression of yourself. I also talk about art itself: what it is, how to buy it, how to hang it, how high to hang it, and how to incorporate it in your space to have intent and purpose. ... People really start to think about their wall space as having huge potential rather than something they have to fill up with family photos or another poster.
