‘Trading Spaces’ Stars: Where Are They Now?
Paige Davis isn’t turning the page on Trading Spaces anytime soon. The actor-turned-TV host emceed the TLC renovation show from 2001 to 2008 and again for its revival from 2018 to 2019. And now she’s revisiting her Trading Spaces era for the podcast Revealed: Trading Stories with Paige and Butz alongside Cyndi Butz, a producer on the 2000s-era hit.
But that podcast isn’t the only job keeping Davis busy recently. Catch up with her goings-on and those of 10 other Trading Spaces stars — designers and carpenters alike — in the gallery below.
Paige Davis
Since her days hosting Trading Spaces, Davis has returned to acting. She starred in the off-Broadway play Pen Pals last month, and she guest-starred on FBI: Most Wanted in 2024. In other high-profile roles, Davis played the lead roles in a 2018 Pioneer Theatre Company production of Hello, Dolly! and a North Shore Musical Theatre production of Mame that same year.
Frank Bielec
Bielec died from complications due to heart failure at age 72 in May 2020, with Judy, his wife of 32 years, by his side, according to an online obituary. The home designer was happiest away from the camera, sketching or painting as he fought his pets for space at home in Katy, Texas, the obit added.
Laurie Smith
Smith is still passionate about home design, offering lectures at home shows around the country and highlighting other designers’ work on her Instagram page. “One of the main themes throughout my almost 30 years of practicing is that a home is a reflection of the soul of the inhabitants who are there,” she told WDIO in April. “So I can help facilitate that.”
Doug Wilson
Wilson’s LinkedIn profile shows the designer is now a partner at Gladiola Imprints — which, according to its Instagram page, specializes in kaleidoscope-like patterns for tiles, wallpaper, fabrics, and more. And in 2021, he and Davis joined forces for a virtual performance of the play Love Letters, directed by Paige’s husband, Patrick Page.
Hildi Santo Tomas
Santo Tomas has been quiet on social media lately, but on Facebook, she describes herself as a “designer, artist, and world traveler.” Her Instagram feed shows travel photos from Spain, Brazil, Thailand, Bhutan, the Netherlands. She also appeared in a 2020 episode of the reality competition series The Pack.
Genevieve Gorder
Gorder has continued her interior-designer fame on HGTV, as a judge on HGTV Design Star and the host of Dear Genevieve and Genevieve’s Renovation. But that’s not all: Gorder also starred in Netflix’s Stay Here, Bravo’s Best Room Wins, and Crackle’s At Home With Genevieve.
Vern Yip
Yip, meanwhile, makes frequent Live With Kelly and Mark appearances and has taken his interior design talents to Magnolia Network, where he’s repurposing buildings into houses in Home Reimagined. “Converting a structure that was never intended to be a home is significantly harder than renovating a home that was designed to be one,” he told TV Insider.
Ty Pennington
Best known either as a carpenter from Trading Spaces or the host of the original Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Pennington is now on the HGTV payroll, as a host of Rock the Block and a mentor on Battle on the Beach. And he survived a health scare in 2023, when he underwent emergency surgery for an airway-blocking abscess.
Amy Wynn Pastor
Wynn Pastor, another Trading Spaces carpenter (pictured here in 2002), is still doing on-the-fly construction: In 2016, she became a scenic technician and shop purchaser for the Denver Center Theatre Company, according to an online bio. Other interests of hers include vampire folklore, meditation, welding, and cross-stitching, her speaking bio says.
Carter Oosterhouse
Oosterhouse moved on from Trading Spaces carpentry to HGTV stardom, as host of Red Hot & Green, Carter Can, and Million Dollar Rooms. More recently, he has judged ABC’s The Great Christmas Light Fight. Off screen, Oosterhouse is married to Stargirl actor Amy Smart.
Faber Dewar
Dewar, pictured here with filmmaker Julia Verdin, has made a name for himself outside his time as a Trading Spaces carpenter. He owned the bioplastic company Zero Impact Packaging, co-founded of the wellness beverage brand Hydra DNA, and the founded of the beverage company Drink Up, and he now works as founder and vice president of Xstream Healthy Beverage, according to his LinkedIn profile.
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