Season 1 |
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Episode Guide
Secret Office Space Reveal
Open Concept Overhaul
Make Room For Four
Homeschool Hacks
Quadruplet Mayhem
Toddler vs. Teenager
Surprise Bedroom
Make Space for Family
“I don’t know anything about babies,” Our eccentric designer Mikel admits in episode 5, which pretty much sums up the entire series in one sentence. Hack My Home is a reality series promising to help American families utilize their home with innovative engineering jobs to save space. The trouble is, this innovation comes at the expense of basic things like child safety, hygiene and practicality.
Each episode is set-up in mostly the same way. Across the 30 minute chapters, we’re introduced to different families and the issues they’re having. They need more space, and in order to do so, there’s an expert team called in to transform their living space. Ati focuses on construction, Jessica on engineering, Brooks is the Weird-Al looking innovator while Mikel is the designer.
After spending some time looking at the different houses, the four head back to Headquarters and come up with various solutions through hand-drawn schematics, diagrams and discussions with builders or workers in that chosen field. They then get to work transforming the areas and then present that at the end of the episode. Rinse and repeat.
It’s a nice idea in theory and serves as your typical “chuck on a reality show while cooking dinner” series and Hack My Home feels designed to do just that. Why? Because if you pay attention to what they’re offering, there’s some shocking lack of safety and hygiene protocols.
In episode 4, which shows a cluttered house, the solution in one of the bedrooms is to use a pulley system, complete with string, a dangerous bunk bed with no safety bannister, and a steel spiral staircase hidden under the kitchen table leading down to the basement. Good luck when it’s freezing cold and condensation causes the stairs to become super slippery. And to top it all off? The kitchen table is left with stools with no backs… for young children. Genius.
Meanwhile, episode 1 sees some nice ideas (a quiet reading area transformed under basement stairs) muddied with “sleek solutions” like putting books in spine-first so you can’t read the titles. All the while, the play area is designed as a safe space to hang out and chill while Dad is working and mum is upstairs. On the wall within reach of the four boisterous kids? A dartboard. The camera even shows one of the kids curiously picking a dart up and examining it too!
If that wasn’t bad enough, the house in question has a massive garden completely overlooked in the grand scheme of things. You could easily install a sunroom with a play area, sort out electrics, maybe even a drinking fountain and a little fridge, and all the problems are solved in one fell swoop.
What’s particularly frustrating with this show though is just how much potential there is. There’s some nice ideas in the works here, and a few of the episodes do have some nice solutions. Shadow cabinets hiding an alcove with more storage space behind, rotating tables used for multiple purposes, but they’re overshadowed by a distinct lack of authenticity and thought with things like safety. And for a show that’s supposed to be helping families, that’s difficult to overlook.
With the exception of a few episodes, most of these spaces are actually massive too. The “innovations” they come up with are fine at best and outright dangerous at worst. Good luck to the team coming over to a studio apartment in the middle of London, or a lively family home in India, these guys would be lost. Unfortunately, this is more a hack-job than an ingenious solution. Skip this one.
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Verdict - 3/10
3/10
I’m only 5 episodes in and I’m cringing. Safety issues left and right, overly complicated “solutions” to easily fixed problems, so much that makes no sense at all. Why would you put stairs in the middle of a nursery? Ropes in an infant/toddler room? Bunk beds with no guard rails? Changing tables that probably won’t support the babies after 3 months old? I wonder how fast they will get sued.
I still would like to know where anything close to the ‘movable storage / entertainment center wall unit on tracks’ can be purchased.
Episode 4 is absolutely terrible for children. I was shaking my head thru the whole thing. Pulley and rope situation in a child’s room. Children have accidentally hung themselves on window blind cords. I could tell Mom was like ummm that will not be staying in this room. Also I don’t even feel safe on a spiral staircase let alone having children use on a regular basis. As a parent I would have had no problem walking outside to enter the school room. I agree with the author and there may be lawsuits in the future due to their faulty designs.
Wow, I would love to have some of the things used on this show. sounds like some of those reviewing it would prefer to live in a safe rubber room wrapped in protective clothing. Total fun spoilers. Real parents can teach their kids safety.
I watched for the reveals, but stayed to see just how bad the jobs were. The beds and items that fold out or pull out.. waiting for small fingers to trap. My goodness ans the plywood and rubbish paint jobs… they should be ashamed of these!