HGTV ‘Decorating Cents’ Host Joan Steffend Reacts to Show Going Viral Years After it Ended

Joan Steffend is enjoying the moment as her old HGTV show, Decorating Cents, has experienced a resurgence online, becoming a viral TikTok sensation.

The hit show originally ran from 1997 to 2007, with Steffend narrating the action and assisting the designers as they were given a $500 budget and a few hours to transform rooms. With Discovery Plus making five seasons of Decorating Cents available to stream, the show has caught on with TikTok users, including stand-up comic Rob Anderson, who shares clips from the show and adds playful, mocking commentary.

Steffend, now a 70-year-old grandmother of four, spoke with EntertainmentNow about her show’s newfound popularity, explaining how friends and family keep texting her about it. “They were saying, ‘It’s an honor to go viral’ and ‘You should take advantage of it,’ but it’s all just kind of baffling to me,” she told the outlet.

The former HGTV star was a good sport when it came to the snarky comments about some of the wild designs featured on the show, saying, “I get it. I mean, it’s from the late 90s, early 2000s, and the designer’s job was to be as wildly creative as they could be.”

“There were hits and there were misses,” she continued. “And it didn’t matter to HGTV. If it didn’t look quite like we all thought it was going to, it didn’t matter — I still needed to, you know, be encouraging. It was still gonna air.”

@heartthrobert Replying to @amawebs 🇨🇦 The worst thing I’ve ever seen on this show. #decoratingcents #homedecor #decor #decorating #homeimprovement #design #hgtv ♬ original sound – Rob Anderson

However, Steffend said she hopes the mocking doesn’t put people off from being creative. “I loved [the show] because it was about not listening to the playground talk,” she explained. “In design, sometimes it feels like at certain points in time, everybody changes to this color and this style and this way of doing your home. There’s an invitation of shame with a lot of it. We’ve gotta stop pointing and laughing at what people think is pretty, what people love at that moment in their life.”

She added, “Some of our stuff, it was like, we did the best we could at the time. So I understand (some of the criticism), but I don’t want to take away people’s joy in creativity. You can make fun of me all day long. I don’t care. It’s lovely somebody’s paying attention, you know? But the idea that we have to separate by what we think is attractive or creative is another kind of judgment we just don’t need in this world right now.”

@heartthrobert Replying to @Andrew Full binge happening here. #decoratingcents #homedecor #decoration #hgtv #homeimprovement ♬ original sound – Rob Anderson

In one clip featured on Anderson’s TikTok and Instagram, a designer named Peggy comes up with a creative alternative for a living room rug. This includes painting a bold rug design onto the wooden flooring. Another clip sees Peggy “free-handing stripes with a dishcloth” onto a child’s bedroom wall.

Anderson said he agrees with Steffend’s sentiments, even if he does enjoy poking fun at some of the show’s more out-there designs. “I think Joan’s right that it’s easier to be a critic than it is to be a creator,” he told EntertainmentNow. “We’re living in a stale creative climate where we recreate things or pay homage – in fashion, design, film – rather than start something fresh.”

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He added, “I think that’s why a lot of people are revisiting the ’90s, myself included, to enjoy a time where people weren’t so afraid to try something new.”

Anderson noted that he understands where Steffend is coming from and doesn’t want “to take her hard work away from her.” He continued, “But from my perspective, there’s a difference between discouraging something new and playfully poking fun at a home decor show from almost 30 years ago. It’s sparked excitement around the show!”

As for Steffend, she stepped away from TV after the end of Decorating Cents and focused on her family. She also became an author, writing two books called Peace In, Peace Out and …And She Sparkled. For her next project, she is working with her husband, filmmaker Joe Brandmeier, to secure funding for a documentary about former Minnesota Twin Joe Mauer’s life, based on the children’s book and new play The Right Thing To Do.