For the finale, three designers got to decorate an entire house each, and they did some cute stuff - but two points totally sparked my creativity in a big way.

First up was the use of black and white wallpaper. I have really, really, really been wanting to wallpaper a room in black and white, but I just can't get past the commitment factor of wallpaper. Even though it's so pretty and I love the retro flair that it instantly adds. (These two rooms were by Brooklyn-based contestant Ondine, whose style I just loved.)

However, in a recent stroke of pure genius I came up with a pretty good commitment-free alternative: wall stencils!

I ordered this beauty from the UK company Stencil Library about a month ago, planning to do the design in black paint over white walls. The stencil arrived and has been waiting patiently for me to get around to applying it. I am now resisting the urge to start those walls right now and stay up all night stenciling.

Exciting thing number two is this painting that winner Nathan made (the stripey piece on the left in the photo above). It looked like it took him all of 5 minutes to literally dump cans of paint onto the edge of the canvas while he held it at a 45-degree angle. I need a really large piece of artwork to go over the couch and I've been exploring DIY options, so this immediately piqued my interest.

But when he hung the painting so that the drip lines were horizontal, it was pure genius. Would I be a total loser for blatantly ripping him off?