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Trading Spaces Cast: Where Are They Now?

TLC's president announced Tuesday the network is reviving the show

By Corinne Heller, Alessandra Mortellaro Mar 29, 2017 9:27 PMTags

After Trading Spaces ended its original run, some of its stars traded fame for...bigger fame! Others enjoyed a quieter life.

TLC's president announced Tuesday the network is reviving the show, a series many viewers consider to have made the home decor and improvement programming trend even more popular.

The original Trading Spaces aired between 2000 and 2008 and showed how neighbors redesigned rooms in each other's homes, with the help of interior designers and carpenters.

Find out what they have been up to since Trading Spaces ended its original run:

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Ty Pennington: The Trading Spaces carpenter juggled another high--profile gig; He appeared on ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition at the same time and became even more famous. He later co-hosted the short-lived talk show The Revolution and turned to food shows, hosting TNT's On the Menu and the Food Network's American Diner Revival. Pennington has also made many guest appearances on Rachael Ray.

Genevieve Gorder: The Trading Spaces interior designer went on to host her own shows, such as HGTV's Dear Genevieve, in which she helps viewers who had written in with their design problems, and HGTV's White House Christmas, in which she prepared the White House for the holidays for the Obamas for eight years. Gorder was also a judge on HGTV's Design Star between 2009 and 2012.

"Now I'm moving to a network I cannot name!" Gorder told E! News exclusively and cryptically Wednesday. "There are multiple projects going on with multiple networks so until those contracts are signed, I can't say anything but I'll say I'm launching my line of Land of Nod furniture tonight. So yeah, that's a really big one! There's wallpaper and rugs."

"And I've been a bit all over the world," she added. "I just did a show in Asia, which is airing now, called The Apartment. So I guess I've been busy!"

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Christi Proctor Hurst: Trading Spaces was her first and last reality show. Her last work in production was as an interior designer for the 2013 indie film Where We Started.

Nowadays, she focuses on her boutique in Waco, Texas, Christi's Interiors.

"A couple years ago, I decided to open a new little retail store downtown," she said. "And I have a wholesale bedding line that I manufacture here in Texas, that I sell through the markets and it's called Moon Rein. It's a custom bedding line, it's really high end, and so I thought, well, why don't I just sell my bedding as well at the wholesale market and sell other things and just have a boutique? And so that's what I started. It's downtown and so I also do my design business out of there as well."

Hurst said customers recognize her from TV and reminisce about Trading Spaces.

"People come in and they talk to me and say, 'Oh my God we just miss watching everybody together and seeing the families," she said.

Kia Steave-Dickerson: The designer quit appearing on television after Trading Spaces but continued to work in the industry as a prop master.

"For seven years I didn't work in the industry," she said. "I just did design work...before the show, I worked in the film and television industry, but behind the camera, for years before I did Trading Spaces. I told my friend Kevin (an amazing prop master) who wanted me to come work on 30 Rock at the time, 'You know Kevin, I can't come work on 30 Rock. Maybe when my son turns 7 I'll come back.' Three weeks after my son turned seven, Kevin called me and said 'Okay Kia, you gotta come work on the new Rocky movie. Your father worked on the first one and you may never get this opportunity again.'"

"I ended up working on Creed, not knowing that Rocky is now rebirthed and there's a whole new generation of fans for the franchise," she continued. "So I ended up working on Creed and from Creed that took me to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and I've just completed shooting the third season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt as the assistant prop master to Kevin Ladson. So yeah, I'm working with Tina Fey, who is also from Philadelphia, so we're having a great time."

Steave-Dickerson's son turns 10 this year.

"He's still getting used to when people ask to take a picture with me," she told E! News. "When people are like, 'Can I take a picture with your mom?' he's like, 'What?' He's just realizing it. Like the ladies at school will be like, 'That's your mom!?' but to him it's no big deal."

Barry Wood: After starring on Trading Spaces between 2004 and 2007, he appeared on the HGTV show Hidden Potential. In recent years, he concentrated on his work with his company b.wood Architects.

"I'm an architect and a construction manager so I am doing a great deal of work for the U.S. government actually on a lot of design and construction for a lot of different types of facilities like academic buildings, marine academy, a baseball field," Wood told E! News. "A lot of our clients are GSA and White House and Social Security and USDA and Department of Labor. I'm doing all kinds of large scale designing and constructing."

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Vern Yip: After Trading Spaces, the designer went on to appear on shows such as HGTV's Deserving Design, hosted Bang for Your Buck and served as a judge on HGTV's Design Star—alongside Gorder.

"My life has been a whirlwind," he told E! News. "I owe a HUGE debt to the show because I'm sure my life would be completely different if I hadn't been part of the original cast. I was on the first four seasons of the show and after I left the show went on long after. I left to be part of the HGTV family and was part of so many different series on the network."

He also writes for HGTV magazine and The Washington Post since 2011 and published his first book in September. He also has his own fabric, lighting and home fragrance collections and plans to launch a wallpaper line.

 

"I'm forever grateful because the one important thing that the show really delivered is that design belongs in everybody's homes," he said. "I think people forget that prior to Trading Spaces, design was only accessible to the top rung of the social ladder. Trading Spaces really drove the point home and it did it while entertaining people that design can change your life. Everybody deserves to have a great home."

Yip also started a family; He and his husband wed 12 years ago. They live with their two children. 

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Paige Davis: After hosting Trading Spaces, she went on to serve as a host on Hallmark's Home & Family and OWN's Home Made Simple. In recent years, she's concentrating on acting. Since 2004 and up until last April, she has appeared sporadically as Roxie Hart in the Broadway musical Chicago. In recent years, she has starred in a couple of independent comedy projects.

Faber Dewar: After Trading Spaces ended, the carpenter concentrated on acting, nabbing commercial gigs as well as small parts in movies such as White House Down and Independence Day: Resurgence, in which he played a flight commander.

Hildi Santo Tomas: The designer never worked in TV again after Trading Spaces, instead opting to move to Paris, where she lives with her husband, a French artist. She works as a florist and also spends time traveling.

Doug Wilson: The designer was also known for hosting the BBC series Moving Up. In 2008, he played Sky Masterson in a local production of Guys and Dolls in Sullivan, Illinois and also bought and renovated Jibby's restaurant in the town with his family. It closed in 2011.

"Will @DougWilson be back on TRADING SPACES?? So many of you have asked if I will be back," he wrote on Facebook Wednesday. "I cannot comment on that at this moment."

Alex McLeod: After hosting Trading Spaces' debut season, she left and went on to host the short-lived reality dating show Joe Millionaire and then became a correspondent on the TV Guide series Hollywood 411.

Frank Bielec: After Trading Spaces ended, he moved to Katy, Texas, where he works in floral design and enjoys staying out of the spotlight.

"I'm actually a real homebody," he told The Katy Times in 2015. "I paint, I cook, I drink some wine, I pet sit."

"I had my moment," he added. "I had breakfast at the White House with President Bush and Laura. But I'm at a place now where I'm content."