In the midst of all the success of "Good Morning America," lifestyle anchor Lara Spencer is on a roll. She’s now the creator, executive producer and host of a new show, "Flea Market Flip," debuting Friday at 9 p.m. on HGTV, and her new book on bargain hunting is a New York Times best-seller.
“I came up with the idea years ago. I’ve been passionate about it because it’s something that I do in real life with my little antique business,” Lara said about the new show, in which two teams get $500 and an hour to search a flea market for a treasure that they transform and flip. “The viewers get the full package. They get the hunt and get to go along for the journey of finding diamonds in the rough. Then you get the do-it-yourself aspect of watching the transformation. You also get the competition when they flip them.”
Spencer, who first thought of the idea when she was hosting "Antiques Roadshow," said you should never judge a book by its cover. You have to get past the stained fabric or chipped paint and look at the bones of a piece, said Spencer, who has given advice to everyone from Kathy Griffin to Sam Champion, the weather anchor for "Good Morning America."
“A surprise about Kathy's home is she is a complete neat freak," Spencer said. "Not a single piece of furniture has been moved from the day I decorated the house two years ago. She’s completely obsessive about perfection.
“The thing that surprised me most about Sam's apartment is, as comfortable and as cozy a person he is, he didn’t have a cozy place to hang out. His apartment is much more formal than his personality is. So I went to a flea market and found a massive coffee table and moved his chairs to create a sitting area. It was like a museum."
And it's no surprise that the interior of Robin Roberts’ apartment is as warm as the lady herself.
"Robin's apartment is exactly as you picture her. Warm, cozy, you just want to snuggle up to it and talk for hours," Spencer said. "It just needed accessories. She's so busy, she asked me to buy her a pair of stools to place underneath her hall table so when she comes in and takes off her shoes she has a place to sit down.”
So what celebrity couple's home would Lara most like to see?
“I would really love to peek into the private residence of Will and Kate," she said. "I’m dying to know if they are living amongst all those portraits of ancestors and 450-year-old furniture. Or, do they have furnishing that represents how young and adorable they seem?”
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