John Gidding Biography
John Gidding is a Turkish-American designer, television personality, and former fashion model. He started his modeling career in the year 2000, when he was a graduate student, performing runway shows for Armani, Gucci, and Hugo Boss before being represented by Wilhelmina Models in New York City.
Initially, Before entering the design profession, Gidding was the spokesmodel for Jhane Barnes in 2004 and 2005. He has also appeared on several covers of many romance novels.
He was voted for as; one of “Yale’s 50 Most Beautiful People” in 1999 by Rumpus Magazine, one of “Boston’s 50 Most Eligible Bachelors” by The Improper Bostonian in 2002, one of “Atlanta’s 50 Most Beautiful People” by Jezebel Magazine and as one of Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles’s “Emerging Talent: Twenty Under 40” in 2008.
John Gidding Age
Gidding was born on January 7, 1977. He is 42 years old as of 2018.
John Gidding Family
Gidding was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, to an American father and a Turkish mother.
John Gidding Education
He lived in Turkey and later moved to the U.S. where he went to college after attending Leysin American School in Leysin, Switzerland. He went to Yale University and graduated in 1999 with a BA in architecture, then the Harvard Graduate School of Design with a Master’s in architecture.
When he was in Yale, he sang a cappella with The Society of Orpheus and Bacchus and choral music with the Yale Glee Club, and at Harvard, he sang with the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum.
John Gidding Wife
Gidding dated Damian Smith. The duo grew their relationship until he asked the famous question. The couple has been together since 2013.
John Gidding Design
Gidding worked as a designer for Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates for 2 years but when he relocated to New York City, he started John Gidding Design, Inc.
John Gidding Career
He has been married to ballet dancer Damian Smith since 2013
Speaking of his career, Gidding made his debut in television with the ABC Family TV show Knock First, where he and three other designers took turns making over teenagers’ bedrooms. He had a show called Designed to Sell (2006-2011) which was canceled in early 2011 but still airs repeats on HGTV, and Knock First is still running in syndication internationally.
He is popularly known as the designer on Curb Appeal: The Block where his team spent $20,000 on improvements to the exterior and landscaping of chosen homeowners. Less expensive touch-ups were done for 2 or 3 nearby neighbors’ homes to improve overall neighborhood property values.
In 2015 portrayed as one of the best judges on the Fox TV show Home Free (2015 TV series). He joined the cast of the reboot of Trading Spaces, joining the cast alongside Paige Davis and Vern Yip.
John Gidding Net Worth
John Gidding has an estimated net worth of $16 Million.
John Gidding Photos
John Gidding Videos
John Gidding Twitter
Tweets by JOHNGIDDING
John Gidding Instagram
John Gidding Facebook
John Gidding Interview
John Gidding first appeared on television in 2003 in ABC Family’s “Knock First,” a teenage bedroom makeover show, after graduating from Yale and Harvard with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture. Today, this native of Istanbul, Turkey, is a veteran of design TV, having appeared on HGTV’s “Designed to Sell” and “Curb Appeal” and as a regular design expert on numerous daytime TV programs.
Gidding joined the original cast of “Trading Spaces” for the show’s 2018 reboot, appearing on one episode with original cast member Genevieve Gorder. He returns to “Trading Spaces” for its 2019 season, debuting March 16, and will visit Richmond March 1 and 2 for the Richmond Home + Garden Show at Richmond Raceway Complex.
We spoke to Gidding by phone to talk interior design, “Trading Spaces” and his visit to Richmond.
R•Home: What was it like to be one of the new kids on “Trading Spaces?”
Gidding: For the newbies, it was intimidating. The original cast had their own sort of family. There had been a 10-year hiatus, but when we got back to shooting it seemed like they hadn’t missed a step. … It was like seeing a family reunion come together.
R•Home: What did you find most challenging about the format of the program?
Gidding: I don’t know if you know this, but on TV we sometimes make things up and fake things. I know that it’s surprising to hear [laughs], but with “Trading Spaces” there was no artifice. We had a $2,000 budget that was not only very strict, they gave us the money beforehand. That’s all we had to spend. That includes shipping costs, so you had these major established designers carrying stuff in their luggage to the shoot to avoid shipping costs.
Also, the schedule — usually on TV shows you will have a buffer of a day or two to make sure everything is complete. With “Trading Spaces” it is truly a day and a half of work and you’re out.
R•Home: How did you get cast on the show?
Gidding: The fact that I am very good friends with Genevieve [Gorder] helped. She is one of the OGs of “Trading Spaces.” The other thing is that I have been doing television for so long. I’m a known entity. I have a certain quirky style, which I think is very helpful for a show like this where you are trying to show different styles juxtaposed against one another.
R•Home: How do you and Genevieve know each other?
Gidding: We met a long time ago on “HGTV Design Star.” I was a guest judge, and she was a regular judge. She lives and breathes design. Coming from an architecture background [as I do], we had a lot to talk about.
R•Home: How do you describe your design aesthetic?
Gidding: It’s true that all the “Trading Spaces” OGs have their own design sensibility and they are easy to put into a bucket. I’m less easily identifiable, but the artist approach is a trademark of mine.
The way I approach my designs … is I try to identify problems first. By responding to those problems, I don’t have to wait to be inspired. I’m a solution-minded designer. I call it “constraint-based design.” First, identify the constraints and then solve the problems. The most challenging design for me is one where there are no budget or space constraints. I don’t know where to begin!
R•Home: How does your training in architecture inform your work as an interior designer?
Gidding: I think my first approach to any space is from an architectural perspective: space planning, moving walls, thinking about it in a three-dimensional way. That is a strength and a weakness in a way — my decorative touches only appear at the very end. I really compartmentalize. In the beginning, it’s sculptural, and then it’s decorative.
[When I was] an architecture student we were taught modernism above all. In the beginning, my approach to interior design was very strict and formal because that’s what we were taught. … But that’s not how people live. I learned that through HGTV and the various shows I was on as I was going into peoples’ homes and realizing how important it is to incorporate comfort into the design.R•Home: Does your childhood in Turkey influence your design?
Gidding: My Turkish background definitely plays into how I decorate and how much ornamentation I bring in. Even when I was studying architecture and trying to be a modernist, the decorative nature of my upbringing, where I was surrounded by geometric design, ornamentation, carpets — it does inform me. When you are trying to design more from the heart you have to incorporate cultural details and local artisans where possible.
R•Home: How did you first get into TV?
Gidding: My first job out of architecture school was a TV show, a show called “Knock First” on ABC Family. … I actually auditioned for “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” They were thinking about me either as the culture guy on “Queer Eye” or for this new ABC Family show. Once you do a little bit of television, it stays in the ether. Right after that show, I worked for a landscape architecture firm … but sure enough, with a little bit of TV out there, I soon got a call from HGTV.
R•Home: Do you do any design work off-camera?
Gidding: Yes. I am currently walking through a construction site of a three-story Victorian we are building in San Francisco for clients I have been working with for years. I take on a few large-scale projects like this every few years. It is just me — I like to be very hands-on. I have been based in San Francisco as of last year to build this. I also do some bespoke furniture as well. That has always been a side hustle of mine.
R•Home: What will you be talking about at the Richmond Home + Garden Show?
Gidding: I talk about art from the perspective of interior design and how you can live within a space that is an artistic expression of yourself. I also talk about art itself: what it is, how to buy it, how to hang it, how high to hang it, and how to incorporate it in your space to have intent and purpose. … People really start to think about their wall space as having huge potential rather than something they have to fill up with family photos or another poster.
Adopted from: richmondmagazine.com