Was watching HGTV (I thought I never watch those kind of shows, but apparently I do – once in a while!) yesterday while putting away groceries.

Here’s what I saw – a room makeover for a young girl. She hated her country-style bookcase, she’s a more modern young thing.

So the decorator paints out the bookcase, so far so good, right? WRONG! The decorator didn’t even scuff sand the old finish, much less prime out the piece, before applying hip red paint. Guess what? That trendy red is going to look tacky in no time. The poor kid can end up scratching the paint simply by dragging a book across the surface. What happens if she accidentally bangs into the corner of it? She may even be able to PEEL off the paint in large strips if she sees a tempting corner just waiting for her bored little fingers to give a tug.

It will take SOOOOOOO much more work to strip the entire piece, prime it, then repaint it. I lay money that it would never happen, instead it will just sit there looking crappy until it gets junked.

Why put so much work into transforming a space but take stupid shortcuts?

Maybe “horrified” is too strong a word, but I felt bad about the stupidness of it all. And the fact that people will see this episode and think they can do it that way, too.