Joe Imel/Daily News

Lights. Camera. Action. Designs. It was all part of what Hugh and Stacey Sims experienced this week during the filming of the HGTV show Designers Challenge in their Bowling Green home on Quail Run Drive. Its been very interesting and eye-opening into what goes in to 22 minutes of show, Stacey Sims said during a filming break Friday. The Simses became part of Designers Challenge earlier this year after Hugh Sims wrote an e-mail saying he and his wife would like to be featured on the show, which has three designers create design proposals for a room in a familys home. The family then has to choose one of the designs and pay to implement it. Marisa Tambornini of Pie Town Productions, the North Hollywood company that produces Designers Challenge, said earlier this year that the Sims familys warmth made them someone wed love to work with, and the familys basement, which they wanted to have transformed, was different from rooms that have been the focus of Challenge in the past. Pie Town, with help from Sunrise Entertainment of Nashville, filmed in the Sims home Wednesday for about 10 hours. On Thursday, Pie Town and Sunrise filmed interviews with the designers who are working on the Simses project. Tammy Brumley and Betty Dils of Bowling Green were among the designers and said they have loved working on the project. The Simses are incredible to work with, Dils said. Theyre lovely and animated. It was definitely challenging for the space. But it has been fun. Brumley and Dils, working together, presented their design to the Simses on film Friday. So did Beth Jones of the INTERIOR collection in Hendersonville, Tenn., and Baylor Bone and Gail Cook of Baylor Bone Interiors in Hendersonville and Nashville. The designers were chosen by Challenge staff from the American Society of Interior Designers directory. Jones, who has been president of the Tennessee Interior Design Coalition and chairwoman of the Nashville Association of the American Society of Interior Designers, found the process exciting. The biggest challenge has been finding placement for furniture, she said. That, and incorporating every component that they wanted warm tones, wrought iron, stone, leather, a pool table, a big-screen TV and classic comfort. Stacey Sims earlier this year called her wide-open, mostly white and nearly bare-walled basement the big ugly. She was thrilled that the designers on Friday brought ideas that showed her basement in a rich, cozy, family-friendly light. Still, the Simses havent chosen a design yet. They have a week to think about what they want. Then, theyll let Pie Town and the lucky designer know, and work on the big ugly will begin. Dils and Brumley said they hope their design is chosen. I just got a rush, a chill, just thinking about it, Dils said. Being chosen would rank right up there as the most exciting thing Ive ever done. But the Challenge experience isnt just exciting for the designers and the Sims family. The Simses baby sitter, Beth Ludwiczak, a Western Kentucky University senior marketing major, worked as a Pie Town production assistant this week after Pie Town show producer Shawn Power asked the Simses if they knew anyone who would be good at the job. Stacey volunteered me, Ludwiczak said. Ludwiczak of Owensboro enjoyed getting paid to take notes on what the Simses said and asked during filming. Ill look at shows differently now, she said. So will Stacey Sims mom, Brenda Sprague, and Stacey Sims sister, Trisha Holbrook of Morganfield. I was so overwhelmed that theyve gotten chosen out of so many, Sprague said. She and Holbrook watched the filming up-close Friday and helped greet designers as they arrived. And Holbrook did some filming of her own with Hugh Sims video camera. She also made sure Stacey Sims watched her words. Dont say cool anymore, she said. Youve said cool four times. Stacey Sims laughed, as did the film crew. There was a lot of humor on the set. When Power asked Stacey Sims if shed touched a leather swatch on film a little while earlier she said, I did not touch the leather, but I will now. Should I smell it, too?As she rubbed the leather, Sunrise cameraman Robert Swope, who is also the companys president and chief executive officer, quietly hollered out, Nice hands!There were lots of close-up shots and lots of do-overs. Once, Hugh Sims was asked to touch a stone again. Hugh, pet the stone, touch the stone, love the stone, Swope said. Cameraman Ricky Reale and the rest of the film crew laughed. Its been an adventure, a lot of fun, Power later said. This was the first Challenge filmed in Kentucky. And everybody has been so nice since the second I landed. He said hes looking forward to returning to Bowling Green for the final filming of the project in the late spring or early summer. Its beautiful, he said as he stood on the Sims front lawn, hoping to get a photo of an albino squirrel for his daughter. I love the scenery and the little white albino squirrels. You dont see those anywhere. The completed episode about the Sims basement will air this fall on Insight Cable Channel 55. Designers Challenge airs several times each week.