These "Christina on the Coast" Clients Committed the Biggest HGTV Faux Pas

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When it comes to HGTV canon, most shows follow a similar format: After a client shows a less-than-stellar room to one of the channel's top talent, the designer spend weeks brainstorming, pitching, and executing the perfect solution for their customer's biggest pain points. And, in true HGTV fashion, the clients are amazed by the final result. But on last week's season premiere of Christina on the Coast, something weird happened: Christina Hall's clients went rogue and started calling their own shots on their project. And, honestly, we're still trying to wrap our heads around the whole thing.

Let's back up, shall we? At the beginning of the season's first episode, Hall was approached by a fellow "soccer mom" named Amy to have the HGTV star renovate her kitchen. Everything was going great—Hall had big plans for bifold doors, a spacious island, and fresh wooden floors—until Amy asked Hall to redesign a fireplace in another room. Fortunately, Hall and design partner James Bender said it was an easy fix they could likely complete for under $3,000—and promised to look into tile samples.

All was well until Hall and Bender returned back to the project—only to find out that Amy and her husband Scott had already had their fireplace refurbished. "So I have some contacts of tile guys," the client explained. "It just so happened he stopped by, gave us a bid, and then he was like, 'Can I start at four o'clock on Saturday afternoon?' And I said, 'Okay.'"

The cringey situation became even more awkward when Hall and Bender spotted tile samples for the hearth hiding in plain sight—and the couple then proceeded to fess up that they're also looking to add a home bar to the room. After Hall and Bender asked what they could do to help, the design duo circled back with tile samples later in the episode—only to see Amy and Scott had, once again, already pulled their own tiles. Yikes.

Admittedly, hiring an interior to decorate a room—let alone a $191K kitchen—can be expensive. (And, at some point, you might think you've made enough big design decisions to take on a renovation on your own.) However, taking design matters into your own hands and hiring another professional without cluing in your interior design isn't the best move—not to mention it totally contradicts basic HGTV protocol.

We're not the only ones annoyed here. "I was shocked and appalled that the homeowners had designers and contractors working in their home and went behind their backs on a job that they already asked Christina's input about, and had it done by a different guy," one fan wrote on HGTV's post promoting the episode. "And guess what? It shows. Christina was graceful." "The clients choice of fireplace tile ruined the look," another person wrote. "Trust your designers, they know best."

Though Hall and Bender were certainly bummed about the ever-changing plans—we mean, how could you not be?—the Christina on the Coast star took the awkward situation in stride."It's not the first or last time a client went rogue," Hall told the camera. "It could be a lot worse." Instead, Hall suggested to her clients, "In the future, let's all communicate." We couldn't agree more.

Want to check out the drama for yourself? You can stream Christina on the Coast on Max or Discovery+.

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