“Decorating Cents” was a hit for the network in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. TikTok had thoughts. The host’s emotional journey after the surge of snarky online buzz is a lesson in resilience and positivity.
Watching Joan Steffend talk about the sudden viral afterlife of Decorating Cents was a full-circle moment for me. Long before social media turned clips from the show into a new conversation, Joan had already become a memorable part of HGTV history, hosting more than 300 episodes of the budget-friendly design series over a 10-year run. Show that I myself watched, in part inspiring a career path that eventually led me to the network as an executive. Now, with a new generation discovering the show through TikTok and Instagram, I wanted to talk with her about what it feels like to see this work resurface, how she’s processed the (sometimes negative) attention, and why the creativity at the heart of it still matters.
Watch the interview or read the transcript below:
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BRIAN:
Joan Steffend!
JOAN:
What?
BRIAN:
I mean, first of all. (He gestures both arms and hands down in a “worship” gesture)
JOAN:
Oh, come on.
BRIAN:
I am beyond, beyond excited that you were willing to take the time to talk to me today. Suddenly on TikTok and Instagram, Decorating Cents and you and these designers have exploded. You cannot get away from it. And first of all, would you ever have imagined it, but also how did you find out that this was becoming a thing?
JOAN:
First of all, never would’ve imagined it. I mean, I don’t even think that much about Decorating Cents. I’ve been gone for 18 years, so it was a far off memory. And then all of a sudden I hear this murmur from people around me who are slowly telling me that people are talking about it, but they’re not saying how they’re talking about it. So it was one of those, well, that’s lovely because I know it’s on Discovery Plus and all that. And then it started getting louder. And then some people who were brave enough said, “Have you watched any of the things they’re saying about Decorating Cents?” And then I turned on one clip from Rob Anderson and it was like, oh, it’s like my heart, it’s the big one.
“I hear this murmur from people around me who are slowly telling me that people are talking about it, but they’re not saying how they’re talking about it.”
BRIAN:
Have you had a journey from your initial reaction to now?
JOAN:
Yes, definitely. The first thing was just like, I mean, it hit me in the heart because I have such deep respect and love for what we did for 10 years. I mean, we created a family, we just joyfully created and sometimes not, but most of the time. And then I think I froze and I just thought because people would say like, “Well, you got to take advantage of this.” And it’s like, I don’t even know what taking advantage of this would be.
So I just kind of sat still for a couple of weeks. And then on the 4th of July, my family was sitting around and we started just spitballing things like, “Well, let’s have fun with it. I don’t want to go to war with anybody. I just want to have fun with it.” We put my website back up and we redesigned it and drew on some merch that we all had a part in designing, my whole family. And then we just decided to have fun. And I sent Rob two T-shirts. I think he should have gotten them yesterday.
BRIAN:
Love it. And Rob, he’s very funny, very talented guy.
JOAN:
Yes, he is.
BRIAN:
I do think his heart is in a place of love. He’s irreverent for sure, but I also think he genuinely loves the ’90s and the 2000s.
JOAN:
Yeah. But no, he’s actually been quite lovely to me. We’ve gone back and forth on text a fair amount and we’ve decided we’re friends.
BRIAN:
Good. I love that. I was an avid HGTV watcher so much. And watching Decorating Cents, you did over 300 episodes of that show.
JOAN:
Yes, we did. And at one point we were on, I think, six days a week and sometimes a couple of times a day. It was like, do they have any other programming besides Decorating Cents? Somebody once told me that I was similar to Hitler on the History Channel. It’s like I was always there.
BRIAN:
My God, that is not the comparison you expect to get. Here’s the thing, you don’t get 300 episodes if people don’t love it, and they loved the show.
JOAN:
They did. They did. And I think it was all about just bringing them back to that sense that they could still be in kindergarten if they wanted to. They could still be creative and crazy and try things instead of having to be an adult all the time. I mean, we did adult things, but we also… well, sorry, that was the wrong way to put it. But we did do things that were just creative. And you have failures sometimes when you’re creative.
BRIAN:
Right. This was before Pinterest, this was before Houzz, this was before Facebook. HomeGoods was around, but there were not unlimited resources for supplies or ideas at that time. Am I right?
JOAN:
No, not at all. I was just in awe of what our designers were coming up with on their own because it was on their own. They were scavenging through alleyways and in dumpsters and antique… We started to notice that we were popular because the prices started going up at the antique stores that we were going to.
BRIAN:
How did HGTV happen for you?
JOAN:
Well, first of all, I was in news for a long time and it doesn’t suit my personality particularly well, other than the fact that I’m doing something different all the time. It was too dark. It was too tragic. I’m an empath. I take those things home. So I started two years before just thinking like, here’s what I want to do. I want to do something joyful. I want to do something where I get to hug people. I want to do something where I get to be creative and I need more time with my kids who were then eight and 13. So this is not what I suggest for most people trying to get into HGTV, but I went to a book club meeting one night that I had never been to before and I’ve never been to since. And somebody said, “Steve Edelman is trying to put a couple of shows on the Home and Garden Network.”
“One’s a gardening show.”
BRIAN:
A big producer in the area, right?
JOAN:
Yeah. And no, I’m not a designer. I grew up in the home of people who made rag rugs and had two kitchen tables in their kitchen. And so I thought that wouldn’t be for me. But they told me that it was for cheap people, people who are interested in keeping a budget. And I thought, well, maybe I could do that. And they offered me the job and I turned it down a couple of times because I just thought I want more time with my kids, not less time.
BRIAN:
Was the schedule tough?
JOAN:
Well, no, it wasn’t. But I didn’t want to add it to being an anchor because I was working full-time. But Edelman convinced me. He said, “It’ll only go 13 weeks. So just play with us for the summer and be done with it.” And then it went for 10 years.
BRIAN:
The benefit of it being $500 makeovers is that you’re not knocking down walls. It’s not going to take weeks. You did those things in a day or two, would that be right?
JOAN:
One day. Always one day. We didn’t test anything out. We just did it. The only time we took two days was when we did the governor’s mansion. We did a giant room in the governor’s mansion when Jesse Ventura was governor.
BRIAN:
So…
JOAN:
That one, we got kicked out and so we had to come back the next day.
BRIAN:
Oh, okay. Good for time. It wasn’t because of what you were doing.
JOAN:
They were just tired of us. They just wanted us out of their basement.
BRIAN:
Getting back to the viral explosion.
JOAN:
Yeah.
BRIAN:
What I loved about the show and you on the show is you were the consummate cheerleader. You sometimes would express like, “Oh, are we going to do that?” Or like, “Oh, really? I don’t understand.” But you never ever judged harshly, you never, I don’t think once. But were there times, and I’ve said you may have been biting your lip a little till it bled occasionally, but were there times when you’re like, “Oh, I’m not so sure about this one.” There must be some where you’re like, “All right.”
JOAN:
Yeah, for sure. For sure. But the thing is, I could always cheerlead the creativity that went into it. And yes, I was there in my mind to be an encourager and an enthusiast, but inside my head it was like, “I could never do this in my home.” I just knew. But designers are designers. They all have their own sensibilities.
BRIAN:
Exactly.
I could always cheerlead the creativity that went into it. And yes, I was there in my mind to be an encourager and an enthusiast, but inside my head it was like, “I could never do this in my home.” I just knew. But designers are designers. They all have their own sensibilities.
JOAN:
And it fit in some people’s homes.
BRIAN:
We did not see the homeowners react most of the time, is that right?
JOAN:
Most of the time. Towards the end, we started bringing them in.
BRIAN:
Reactions that were like, because you weren’t taping them, but they were like, “Oh, oh boy.” Or anything like that?
JOAN:
Well, there were flat lines and there were enthusiasts. And then the one that really stands out for me was a man who, this wasn’t on camera, but he walked in and he goes, “Put it back.” And so that was a long night as well. We had to put everything back the way it was and just leave the premises, carrying all of our junk.
BRIAN:
No, you’re kind of on the other side, a little bit, of the explosion of the virality of it though. And you are about finding meaning in things. What do you think is the message of the show or maybe the message that you’re taking away from the experience?
JOAN:
Okay. A couple of things. I think that a burst of creativity is long overdue. The idea that you have to live in someone else’s house, you have to live in an influencer’s house or you have to live in a magazine house. I think that that’s lovely. And if people find joy in living in that house, awesome. But I also think it’s time to just remember that part of being human is being creative.
And we need to play with color sometimes. And it may not be in your house. Maybe it’ll be in something else. But I think creativity is the thing that reaches into your heart and tells the world, this is who I am. So I think that’s one of the things. And on a personal level, I’m really grateful for it, not for any other reason than it allowed me to take a look at how better to deal with people’s opinions of me because I worked in television for a long time and you get people’s opinions regularly and very often they will write in to tell you what they really dislike about you and how you should change and please don’t hold a pencil again or whatever. It’s all these little things. And it used to bother me. Somebody wrote in and said I was Satan once and that one really kind of bothered me.
I think that a burst of creativity is long overdue. The idea that you have to live in someone else’s house, you have to live in an influencer’s house or you have to live in a magazine house. I think that that’s lovely. And if people find joy in living in that house, awesome. But I also think it’s time to just remember that part of being human is being creative.
Satan, really? But it used to bother me and I used to spend time with it. It used to hurt and I would try to convince myself that I had value and there was nothing to be ashamed of in being who I was. This came at me with such a rush. It was like a tsunami that you couldn’t respond individually to what was happening out there.
So it allowed me the opportunity to just go, “No, I’m good with who I am.” And we did our best. We tried. We had a blast. It was a gift to me. So it’s given me a greater sense of ease with just knowing who I am and it doesn’t… I’m not going to war with it. I’m just closer to knowing who I am and that I have my own value.
BRIAN:
I love that.
JOAN:
Yeah. So it’s been a gift. It was wrapped in some weirdness,
BRIAN:
But…
JOAN:
It’s a gift.
BRIAN:
Well, and I don’t know if I said it earlier, but me watching that show with my mom then led me to go and then my passion for TV led me to go and ultimately then work at HGTV and be a director and work on HGTV shows. So there is a connection between what you did and forging my life. It’s a really wild journey that we’re all here on. And so I appreciate it. Best job you ever had?
JOAN:
It was absolutely Decorating Cents. There was no question in my mind. Yeah, it was exactly what I had dreamed of. I hugged people all the time. We laughed all the time and we got to be so creative and we got to make mistakes and we got to laugh about them together. And I got time with my kids because it wasn’t as demanding a schedule as working in news. It was everything that I asked for.
BRIAN:
I love it. Everything. Joan Steffend, the legend. It rhymes. Steffend the legend!
