Picker Sisters Premieres Tonight
L.A.-via-Texas-transplants Tracy Hutson and Tanya McQueen (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition) are best friends, interior designers and stars of the new unscripted series Picker Sisters, premiering tonight on Lifetime at 10/9 CST. These girls aren’t just any interior designers, but masters at finding the most amazing “pieces of crap” (hey, they said it!) and turning them into the most beautiful pieces of furniture and accessories to ship back home to their L.A. pop-up home decor shop.
During the show, they scout out “crazy, out-of-the-box things,” and transform them into “really high-end, beautiful pieces.” Take one of the girls’ favorite finds below. It’s a chandelier they had put together from different components (the base is a wagon wheel strung with hemp rope) they found in three different locations. Their finds are so far-fetched that they tell me many times the owners they come across don’t even know the price of an item. And then they begin to recount the barn loft where they crawled into to pull out a beautiful pair of shades, causing them to nearly fall through the roof. This job isn’t easy.
For five weeks straight, Tracy and Tanya embarked on the road trip of their lifetime “laughing so hard until their stomachs hurt.” Most of their trip involved the southern states (clapping my hands!) and they went on and on about the openness of the people they met and what good people they are. “[The road trip] was really good for us…a different pace than California. It forced us to take a deep breath,” Tracy says. “We’ve both been through so much…juggling kids while on the road,” Tanya tells me. “It’s like a big scavenger hunt, and we love telling stories and the history behind [the pieces.]”
“If it makes you smile, squeal or have that crazy, ‘I gotta have it’ feel, then it belongs in your life.” –Tanya McQueen, Picker Sisters
The two remind me that if you find something cool that seems impossible to use, just remember you can always find someone to help you “give life to the pieces,” whether it’s an electrician, painter, etc. They both agree the show is “transformational” in more ways than one. Like Tanya says, “If it makes you smile, squeal or have that crazy, ‘I gotta have it’ feel, then it belongs in your life.” I have to say I def agree.
P.S. I absolutely LOVE how they look so chic the whole time they’re hunting for the next “it” items. Work it, girls. xoxo
[Photo Credits: Michael Desmond © 2011Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC; Chandelier Photo: Courtesy EMC/Bowery]