A State College-based interior decorator, Kate Kissell, and some other local professionals will appear in the next season of ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,’ Kissell confirmed this week.
The national reality-TV series, on ABC, features full-home makeovers, normally given to families suffering severe hardship.
For an episode based in Reading, producers asked Kissell to lead a group of interior professionals. Together they will develop a full-house plan for furniture, draperies, pillows and other interior cues, Kissell said.
She said the group will include 22 workers, eight of them from the State College area. A Penn State graduate, Kissell opened Picadilly Interiors in State College in 2003.
She also has been trained at the Custom Home Furnishings Academy, in Charlotte, N.C. One of its owners, Margie Nance, recommended Kissell to the ‘Extreme Makeover’ producers.
Kissell said she doesn’t know when the episode featuring her group will appear on ABC. Her team was introduced to the targeted home in Reading, a three-bedroom, just this week; the workers will have seven days to complete the project.
The whole process is being recorded for broadcast later.
‘It’s going to be high-energy fun,’ Kissell said. She added that ‘any of this is advertising for my business, and I’m grateful for that.’
But she’s not keeping all the attention for herself, she said. She said she’ll make sure the spotlight is shared among her colleagues in the effort, some of whom have their own businesses.
They include Anne Marshall, owner of ‘thatshouldbeonapillow!’ in Boalsburg. Other locals involved in the show include Kay King, Amy McNamara, Jackie Logue and Kissell’s daughter Kat, Kissell said.
Kissell herself, in the State College area for some 27 years, said she has been making window treatments for three decades.
‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ has reworked and overhauled 122 homes in its eight seasons on the air. The 2010-2011 season episodes will begin to air in September.
