I was on 60 Minute Makeover – there’s a shambolic secret behind the decorators’ quick fixes
A FORMER contestant on 60 Minute Makeover has revealed how the cheap fixes used on the show were held together by tape - and soon fell apart.
The ITV renovation programme saw lucky participants have rooms in their homes completely transformed in just one hour.
It ran on and off from 2004 to 2018, with the first host being former Brookside actress Claire Sweeney, and the last presenter being Peter Andre.
However, the participant has revealed how they were a university student at the time of filming, and lived with three friends in a rented house.
Their landlord decided to apply as long as they were OK with taking part, and they appeared in an early series of the show.
The process started six weeks before filming, when members of the TV production team arrived with contractors to decide which rooms would be worked on and then take all the measurements, as well as "before" shots.
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They wrote: "Filming day rolled around, and a whole bunch of vehicles, trucks, cars, vans and more vans turn up around 7am.
"After we were "interviewed" about the sorts of changes we'd want to see, things we didn't want etc, I had to go to some lectures, and missed about 2hrs of behind the scenes stuff.
"As far as I can make out it was basically getting everything as ready as possible for the 60 minutes of actual makeover time - emptying room of stuff, excluding furniture, loosening screws, putting the new items in logical, nearby rooms, making plans etc etc."
The students were not allowed to be present during the 60 Minute Makeover, so they went to the pub.
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But they added: "The 60 minutes of makeover time lasted about three hours. I'm not sure if there was complete and utter cheating going on, or if there we stoppages for filming stuff, or time after work was done for filming or what - as I said, I was at the pub, getting slightly merry on the cheapest beer available."
While at the pub, they had a couple of visits from the host "with some sample of paint or cloth that was being used in the house to ask our opinion of it."
They continued: "One such item was a bright, lime green, furry piece of cloth. We were not overly impressed.."
It was then time for the big reveal and they said: "All in all, it was a fun, long day, and the house looked a good deal better afterwards."
But afterwards, they soon noticed things weren't quite as they seemed.
They wrote: "Everything was a very quick fix though. The old closet doors that ran the length of one wall in a bedroom had been replaced by nothing more than a curtain.
"Yes, it looked much more modern, but was an incredibly cheap fix, especially given that the rails and guides for the old doors were still in place.
"The old, nasty tiles in the bathroom had been covered with a thick printed plastic (it looked like the bottom of a sunny swimming pool). This looked very cool, but the large plastic sheets soon started to peel off of the walls.
"There were essentially held up with heavy duty double sided tape, which didn't adhere well to old, damp and generally nasty bathroom tiles. I could go on.
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"The living room was a success though, the same style of printed plastic was used on the walls, with a kind of barcode motif, which actually looked quite good, and stayed up.
"We had long light-sabre style lights in one corner in a stand, new sofa's, coffee table, TV etc."
