Amy McGeachy and Danisha Drury are ready for prime time and, oh yes, there's going to be shopping.
The Victoria design mavens got a big thumbs-up from a fashionable crowd of athletes, real estate agents, creative types and construction experts Thursday at the Strathcona Hotel's Clubhouse during the launch of Design District.
The show that began life as a web series premi猫res Monday at 9 p.m. on CHEK, marking the media group's first complete in-house HD production from design to editing, said Michael Woloshen, who directed and produced with Ted Kuzemski.
Notable as much for its cool graphics as its striking visuals of redesigned living spaces, the weekly series features host/co-producer McGeachy and collaborator Drury working their interior design magic with input from real estate experts Jason Binab and John Byrne.
In the first episode, the stylish gal pals shop at Monarch Furnishings and Modern Living for pieces to "stage" a beautiful penthouse unit at Townline Ventures' Hudson complex. With the help of contractor Troy Thompson and electrician Mori Kick-bush, their challenge was to take a blank space and make it appealing to buyers from first-timers to a downsizing couple.
The pressure is on as Danisha and Amy each take on a bedroom to design and style before the big reveal for Townline's Chris Colbeck. Despite the design differences - one romantic and chic, the other sexy and modern - both had the wow factor.
Design District features considerable homegrown talent, including Irene Jackson, who did the music.
"I got the work because I slept with the producer," joked Jackson, who is married to Woloshen.
While McGeachy and Drury were hard to miss, Byrne almost upstaged them. The realtor and renovation junkie wore a "Tangerine Tango" shirt matching the colour of the show's logo.
"I ran around to every store in Victoria with a sample until I found the right one," he said.
Although Design District was a labour of love, there were some freaky moments, Thompson recalled.
When he tore down a View Royal home's ceiling to soundproof it, he found a huge wasp's nest.
"It was twice the size of my head," said the contractor who also unearthed a Volkswagen hubcap and a vintage five-cent can of shoe wax.
His biggest challenge, he said, was trying to fit in filming on tight deadlines between other jobs.
With six episodes shot in two months, it got "pretty insane" with all the renovations, McGeachy added.
It came as a surprise when Drury, perky and playfully assertive on camera, revealed she's always been shy.
"It's an adjustment," she said. "But you have to put your best foot forward."
McGeachy agreed with Woloshen that Design District goes "way beyond local" and has wider potential.
"Most interior design shows seem to be filmed in the east, and they're niche shows," she said. "We wanted to highlight the West Coast with renovations, real estate and design. We have a different climate, a different way of doing things."
