'Windy City Rehab' Star Alison Victoria Wants to Transform Chicago, One Street At a Time
HGTV star Alison Victoria officially has Season 2 of Windy City Rehab in the works and while viewers may have to wait until early 2020 for new episodes, there’s a lot to learn about the 37-year-old home reno expert. Not only has she busted down walls while flipping houses, but she’s also broken barriers throughout her successful career. Her latest project has her joining three other phenomenal HGTV women for the competition series, Rock the Block, and it’s clear that she’ll be a fierce competitor given her amazing path thus far.
Here are eight reasons why Alison Victoria is a woman to watch in the design and house flipping world.
She's a Chicago native, born and raised.
Before Windy City Rehab premiered, Alison shared that it was her dad who inspired her admiration of Chicago homes. While growing up, he would take Alison and the rest of the family on long car rides around the city. "I would see all these houses and I just would like dream of living in one of them one day," she told Roku. "It's an even bigger dream to be rehabbing a ton of them now."
A post shared by alisonvictoria (@thealisonvictoria) on Aug 16, 2018 at 11:18am PDT
She flipped the historic, run-down home she once lived in.
After restoring the Wicker Park property, which everyone once ignored, Alison told Roku that passersby would actually stop and take photos of it. From there she knew renovating homes was in her blood and she wanted to continue doing this "on every single street in Chicago."
She was the youngest designer at Christopher Homes.
In 1999, Alison moved from Chicago to Las Vegas to attend the University of Nevada. Once she graduated, she began working at Christopher Homes in Las Vegas, becoming the youngest designer there. She created interior designs for "affluent, semi-custom residences."
Two years later, she launched Alison Victoria Interiors.
A post shared by alisonvictoria (@thealisonvictoria) on Jul 13, 2014 at 7:56am PDT
The consulting firm had two locations: one in her home city of Chicago and one in Las Vegas. The 37-year-old had a mix of clients that ranged from boutiques to resorts to private residences.
She was the first female host of DIY Network’s Crashers franchise.
The Crashers franchise included House Crashers, Bath Crashers, Room Crashers, Yard Crashers, and thanks to Alison, Kitchen Crashers was founded. She was originally a ghost designer for House Crashers, which meant she designed episodes but didn’t appear on-camera. The HGTV star recalled seeing her logo on screen for "one split second."
This, however, was an important stepping stone because it eventually allowed her to pitch her own version of the show, Kitchen Crashers, and then went on to become the franchise's first female host.
For those of you who didn't watch the DIY Network show, Alison would go to home improvement stores where she would convince unsuspecting shoppers to let her go home with them and remake their kitchens for free.
She had immediate success with her HGTV show, Windy City Rehab.
Though her kitchen designs in Kitchen Crashers were seriously to die for, Alison's dream of transforming the city of Chicago one street at a time officially became a reality on Windy City Rehab. In the hit HGTV show, Alison and lead contractor Donovan Eckhardt buy and renovate vintage fixer uppers in historic Chicago neighborhoods to sell for a profit.
She often decorates with the fan-favorite Anthropologie mirror.
If you're an avid Windy City Rehab watcher, or even if you just decide to pop into an episode out of the blue, chances are pretty high you'll catch a glimpse of the coveted Gleaming Primrose Mirror from Anthropologie. Honestly, though, who can blame her?
She loves to binge-watch HGTV’s House Hunters International.
Like most of us, Alison also enjoys binge-watching HGTV and when she does, House Hunters International is her go-to show because she dreams of living in Paris one day.
A post shared by alisonvictoria (@thealisonvictoria) on May 5, 2019 at 12:09pm PDT
Follow House Beautiful on Instagram.
You Might Also Like
