"I really can't believe, sometimes when I think about it, going over to [his] place. It was crazy," she says. "There were people on the couch that I don't even know if he knew. I mean, just like people hanging out, watching TV. It was just stickers and posters and things."
When the couple wed in 1999, Cox was faced with the reality that to create a home environment in which they both felt comfortable would require incorporating Arquette's eclectic taste, ranging from miniature pigs to large shoes to bobble-heads.
"He calls it 'collections.' I sometimes refer to it as 'junk.' It's just the difference in our opinions," Cox says. While she admits his tastes make their house more fun and colorful, she concedes, "I was in love, so I incorporated some things that my mother couldn't believe, like, a woman in bondage with a glass table on her back."
That item, a coffee table, was at least a collectible from the movie "A Clockwork Orange," but Cox's ability to combine her tastes with the unique ones of her husband is a prime example of just exactly what their show aims to do. "People come to us because they have a problem," Cox says. "They have a problem with their home, and they don't feel comfortable in it, and they don't feel represented. We try to fix it."
Making people happy about their surroundings -- not redecorating for shock value or "reaction" shots -- and making compromises to someone else's personal taste is a refreshing concept in the recent "Trading Spaces"-inspired home redecorating TV show craze. Cox and Arquette are hoping this is something audiences can relate to and appreciate.
"I definitely have a kind of personality that [makes me] want to bring out the best in people," Cox says. "I don't know if it's a good thing or bad thing, but it's something I can't help. I want people to be happy, so I think that's one of the reasons why I wanted to do the show in the first place ... just to see somebody, even if it's just for the day. To see their life change for that moment when they walk into the room and are that happy. It really makes you cry. It does. I hope I don't lose this feeling. It's the most exciting thing waiting for the 'reveal.' I love it so much. Just to see people happy; that's why I'm doing the show. And I love design."
Cox is no novice to the design process. She has purchased and renovated seven homes in roughly 10 years and is more than comfortable with the thought of doing it again. Does she offer advice to her fellow celeb friends like Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston? The modest Cox says, "When I go to their house, I can't believe the ideas Brad has. I learn from seeing what he does."
Learning aside, the couple is completely "hands-on" with everything to do with the show from selecting the couples and designers, to coordinating the music, to doing the finishing touches.
"Every week, it's just so amazing to see how into it she is," Arquette says. "And how she's running around wiring things and hanging things up and touching up things with paint and moving things. She's so hands-on -- wanting to help these people out."
And as surprising as it may seem, the couple is not afraid to pick up dirty laundry, polish tables or clean windows. "One day we literally cleaned up these people's rooms," Arquette says. "We went through sweaty clothes and put them in the hamper. We had friends who were visiting us on the set and they were like, 'Uh, what are you guys doing?' Although we weren't doing the bedroom -- we were doing the living room -- we wanted them to come home and feel some organization."
Arquette shrugs. He admits people are somewhat surprised to see just how involved off-camera they actually are, but says, "We're just us."
