Dear Genevieve

Dear Genevieve to the Homeowner Rescue

TLC fans recognize Genevieve Gorder as the barefoot, soulful designer on Trading Spaces, but the interior makeover maven has found a new home on HGTV with her own show, Dear Genevieve. The series, which kicks off with a preview New Year's Day at 1 pm/ET before moving to its regular time slot on Mondays at 8:30 pm/ET, welcomes homeowners to submit emails, seeking Gorder's expert advice. Lucky online users get an in-person response by Gorder's design team. "We got about 100,000 emails in five days and crashed the server," she said. According to the Trading Spaces alum, many of the issues homeowners face are very common and often involve emotional reasons — be it a moving for a new job, new parents being overrun by children or inheriting a home from relatives. Of all the dilemmas she has come across, Gorder finds the biggest challenges to be that the homeowners can't let go. "They almost sabotage themselves before making any decision because they're so fearful of making the wrong one with all their so-called design rules of what you can and can't do," says Gorder. "My job is to push them out of their little design box." ...