Many props not only to Nick for turning out a brilliantly shot and edited piece – but to Grundy for killing it as host and to the rest of my crew & contractors for continually turning out insanely beautiful work.

So, to my Blog Cabin 2012 crew of Grundy, Angie, Sarah, Nick, Erik, Truby, Bernie, Maggie, Hoxie & Prosser – this little peek into our world of making Bath Crashers and Blog cabin is for you!

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The eve of DIY Network’s Crash Week is once again upon us and yet again we kick off the festivities with another Ultimate Crash.

Quick explanation of both of these terms with the word “Crash” in them:

1. “Crash Week” is the equivalent of “Shark Week” without the fish. It starts Monday, July 9 and runs til July 13th and EVERY NIGHT you’ll find a brand new episode of Bath Crashers (and of all those other Crasher shows) on DIY Network.

2. “Ultimate Crash” is an entire home invasion. Bath, House, Kitchen and Yard hosts crash one unsuspecting homeowner and completely change every part of their house in 3 days. You really should tune in for this. It debuts Sunday, July 8th at 11am Eastern and again at 11pm Eastern.

The Ultimate Crash is insanity. A crew of 150+ including a few new players (Alison Victoria – Kitchen Crasher and Matt Blashaw – Yard Crasher) raise the bar that was set pretty high by last year’s version. Its a rare opportunity for each of us to get a peek into how our counterparts “do their thing” by Crashing their Crash. Getting a chance to interact with each other is a blast and I think you’ll be able to tell exactly how much fun we have, as evidenced by this pic of Josh helping me demo my bath: (great photo Rich!)

Its cheesy to say, but I’m proud to be a member of this show, a part of this Crasher series, and a part of what I think is the best home improvement television happening right now. And if you’re wondering how I’m spending Crash Week… I’ll be with Josh, Alison and Matt hooking up yet another homeowner with another Ultimate Crash. Yup – it just never ends… at least, thats the hope!Rich Text AreaToolbarBold (Ctrl + B)Italic (Ctrl + I)Strikethrough (Alt + Shift + D)Unordered list (Alt + Shift + U)Ordered list (Alt + Shift + O)Blockquote (Alt + Shift + Q)Align Left (Alt + Shift + L)Align Center (Alt + Shift + C)Align Right (Alt + Shift + R)Insert/edit link (Alt + Shift + A)Unlink (Alt + Shift + S)Insert More Tag (Alt + Shift + T)Toggle spellchecker (Alt + Shift + N)▼
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insert vimeo video

The eve of DIY Network’s Crash Week is once again upon us and yet again we kick off the festivities with another Ultimate Crash.
Quick explanation of both of these terms with the word “Crash” in them:
1. “Crash Week” is the equivalent of “Shark Week” without the fish. It starts Monday, July 9 and runs til July 13th and EVERY NIGHT you’ll find a brand new episode of Bath Crashers (and of all those other Crasher shows) on DIY Network.
2. “Ultimate Crash” is an entire home invasion. Bath, House, Kitchen and Yard hosts crash one unsuspecting homeowner and completely change every part of their house in 3 days. You really should tune in for this. It debuts Sunday, July 8th at 11am Eastern and again at 11pm Eastern.
The Ultimate Crash is insanity. A crew of 150+ including a few new players (Alison Victoria – Kitchen Crasher and Matt Blashaw – Yard Crasher) raise the bar that was set pretty high by last year’s version. Its a rare opportunity for each of us to get a peek into how our counterparts “do their thing” by Crashing their Crash. Getting a chance to interact with each other is a blast and I think you’ll be able to tell exactly how much fun we have, as evidenced by this pic of Josh helping me demo my bath: (great photo Rich!)
Its cheesy to say, but I’m proud to be a member of this show, a part of this Crasher series, and a part of what I think is the best home improvement television happening right now. And if you’re wondering how I’m spending Crash Week… I’ll be with Josh, Alison and Matt hooking up yet another homeowner with another Ultimate Crash. Yup – it just never ends… at least, thats the hope!
Path:

Outside of getting asked “When are you coming to EverywhereVille, USA?”, the 2nd most frequently asked question I get is “What are some ideas for my extremely small bathroom?”. I’ve said it a million times, you probably won’t ever see a small bathroom remodeled on my show – its just a logistical nightmare. No room for homeowners, contractors, cameras, lights, tools, ME, etc. That doesn’t mean a lot of the design ideas you see on my show can’t be implemented into a smaller bathroom. You just need to have a keen eye to identify elements you like, then scale them appropriately to your own space. You may not have room for a giant double vanity made from reclaimed barn wood, but you may have room for a similarly detailed vanity built to fit the proportions of your bathroom.

That being said, here are 3 generally applicable ideas that come to mind when I get asked about small bathroom design strategies:

1) Floating Vanities: You have to use all the powers of illusion you have at your disposal. A floating vanity is one of those tools. If a vanity doesn’t go all the way down to the floor, your eye can then see your flooring material continue beyond the base of the vanity. That makes the space LOOK more gracious, when in reality, all you’ve lost out on was the bottom few inches of your vanity in storage space. This can even further be exaggerated by combining it with my next tip…

2) Lighting: Never is lighting MORE important than in a small space. Proper placement and the appropriate amount of light is critical to the space feeling inviting, despite its small size. Getting good lighting at eye level with sconces or hanging pendants at the vanity will improve your reflection in the mirror (trust me, this helps in a room of ANY size) and distributing the light evenly in the space to eliminate any dark areas will also help. If you don’t have a light above your shower/tub, install a recessed fixture designed to be in a “wet location”. You’ll be surprised how much larger a space can look when its properly lit. Getting clever with light will help too, such as accenting the floating vanity I mentioned earlier with some recessed under cabinet lighting at the toe kick. Create a glow and eliminate another “dark corner” while drawing your eye to an interesting element in the space.

3) Clever Storage: In general, if you want a space to appear larger, you want to remove as much as you can that intrudes into the volume of the space. Every bathroom needs a place to store toilet paper, cleaning supplies, toiletries – even small bathrooms. One good way to make that feel less intrusive is to remember that you have space that you can salvage located between the studs that make up your bathroom walls. Semi-recessing a cabinet in between two studs, or framing a wall to accept an even wider cabinet, can reduce the visual depth of the cabinet by 3-1/2″-4″ and that can make a huge difference in how the space feels. This includes useless soffits above tubs and vanities and clutter/shelves hanging on the walls. Just make sure you check that there are no plumbing pipes, vents, or HVAC in the way.

I fully realize that each space is different, every home has its own quirks, and perhaps not all of these ideas can be implemented into your space, but hopefully you can take some of these thoughts and maybe look at your small bathroom with a plan of attack rather than acceptance of inevitable defeat. If all else fails, do something unique in the space. Visual interest is the best distraction possible – and if you’re distracted by something cool, you’ll forget how small the space is (even for just a little bit).

This job can at times create wonderfully surreal moments. Ask yourself this: have you wished you could go back in time and share some words of wisdom with your younger self? Just a few tips to make the future slightly easier or maybe at the very least, less embarrassing? I feel like I got as close as possible to that experience last month. I had the opportunity to connect with a high school classroom of architecture/design/multimedia students taught by the brother of one my own high school classmates who has followed the show.

They actually made ‘Bath Crashers’ a part of their curriculum by giving students a design challenge involving a bathroom makeover based on the premise of the show. To kick off the semester long assignment, they asked me to speak with them and answer their questions via an hour long Skype session. Their teachers hoped that doing this would be a good way to energize the students and get the assignment off to a good start. A group of 16-18 year olds took turns sitting down in front of the camera introducing themselves and asking me a questions ranging from the design focused (e.g where do you look for design inspiration?) to TV focused (e.g. what’s a shoot day like?) to the personal (e.g how did you get on tv?).

At some point during this Q&A while sitting on my side of the camera (in my OWN kitchen) it dawned on me how amazingly bizarre this moment was for me. It was almost as if Skype had ripped a wormhole back to 1994 and I was talking to ME! I mean, the technology alone would have been mind blowing for the high school me in the early nineties. This goes well beyond the overhead projector and vis-a-vis markers Mr. Collar and Mrs. Mullen had at their disposal to attempt to communicate with me back then. But truly, aside from that, my ability to relate to them went beyond “hey, I used to be in high school”… it’s was that I used to be in almost that exact high school, in that similarly rural part of Wisconsin, and curious about the exact same stuff they were curious about. That, to me, was incredibly surreal (and worthy of a blog post).

So thank you to my old classmate Rachel’s big brother Nate Grimm and his students at Slinger High School in Slinger, WI for inviting me into your class and for unknowingly tossing me the keys to the Delorean and taking it for a little 88mph spin.

I had an amazing experience doing the pilot episode for this series. Working with Beth Stern was fantastic – she’s smart, talented and the kind of genuine person you really enjoy being around. I truly valued the opportunity to meet her and work with her on this. The show we made tested very well and the network ordered more episodes. I had really hoped to be a part of it, as I had such a great experience and saw the potential the premise of the show and those involved with it held. However, as we started to look at my schedule vs the schedule the Mom Caves team needed to pursue – we found that it was not meant to be for me. Bath Crashers has an incredibly aggressive schedule and we couldn’t make both shows work without rendering me clinically wrecked. The show has moved forward (sadly) without me, but I fully understand why. That being said – I was really proud to be a part of the beginning of that series and truly wish Beth and the entire team the best and hope that you all support her and Mom Caves when they make their big debut in May (just in time for Mother’s Day)!

Himcolin

We filmed and edited and are about to present this pilot episode on HGTV September 3rd at 9pE/8pC.  I say “we” because, as I mentioned above, I co-host this show with Beth Stern.  If Beth’s name doesn’t ring an immediate bell, her husband Howard has carved quite a successful niche for himself in the radio/XM genre. Beth was great.  It was a partnership that felt comfortable from our very first meeting… actually, she’s the kind of person that has a way of making everyone around her feel comfortable.  She’s very engaging in person and I’m confident that will come through on the show.

As of right now – we’ve filmed the one pilot episode.  I really have no idea what the future holds for a potential series.  It’s kind of being “focus grouped” to everyone watching HGTV next Saturday and we’ll see where it goes from there.  Regardless of what happens, it was a great opportunity to try something new, to meet some new and wonderful producers/crew, and to get pushed outside my comfort zone a little bit.

So, I ask you to take a look next Saturday night and maybe pop back here or on my Facebook page to let me know what you think.  I’m posting a quick look at the show’s intro to give you a preview.  Enjoy – and truly, thanks for all the support!  Its incredibly appreciated!

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I can honestly say this job never crossed my mind. I didn’t grow up secretly hoping to be on TV. Hell, I actually never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up (this includes all the years prior to the last 3 or 4 of them). But this is fun. So much so, it makes me hope I’m lucky enough to keep doing it for a LONG time. This fact shocks me. As a former mortified public speaking course student and an incredible introvert – it almost goes against my every instinct to enjoy this. It’s exciting – and not because of the reasons you might think. The whole ‘being recognized’ thing will forever be weird (at least I hope – I don’t ever want to become the guy who’s comfortable with it), so that’s not why. I think it’s just fun to both enjoy the moment and the excitement of what could be ‘next’. It never gets stale. And thats awesome.

That being said, there are exciting possibilities on the horizon. A combination of fear that these potential new opportunities are a secret (not officially sure that they are) along with the slightest bit of superstitious not-counting-your-chickens philosophy forces me to not disclose anything now. (And by ‘now’ I mean I’m writing this at 30,000 feet on my way to one of these cool new things). Hopefully in the coming months that will lift and I’ll get to write an even cooler entry here about what’s going on, but for now this tease will have to do.

Also, if this topic never again comes up… Never mind (AKA – things went poorly… don’t bring it up… just too painful).

Thanks.

A little gift for you all. I’m incredibly pumped to be able to show you this video. I probably get asked the question: “What’s it like behind the scenes of your show” most often and I rarely have a way to accurately give a glimpse. This beautiful little vid is a quick look into what its like. It was shot and edited by my uber-talented camera operator Nick Kesler (above) during our trip to Blog Cabin in Mathews Co, VA a few weeks back. (Hint for you all – when you do get your own TV show, surround yourself with ridiculously talented people. It makes your job WAAAAY easier.)

Enjoy… And let me know what you think:

Bath Crashers Invades Blog Cabin (BTS) from ClamLakeFilms on Vimeo.

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]]> http://mattmuenster.com/behind-the-scenes/feed/ 12 http://mattmuenster.com/website-re-start/ http://mattmuenster.com/website-re-start/#comments Tue, 17 May 2011 20:25:37 +0000 mattadmin http://mattmuenster.com/?p=54 It’s not exactly like I’ve been neglecting the social networking thing all together.  I’ve been doing my part on facebook/twitter, but it’s time to stop neglecting this 3rd leg of outreach.  I vow to blog more often.  Right here on www.mattmuenster.com (I am paying for the domain – for almost a year now).

So, consider this the official re-launch of this page.  I’ll be doing my best to wax philosophical, show a little behind-the-scenes and spatter in some spectacular photography (I have to justify the amount of money I’m spending on camera lenses these days somehow).

Keep checking back while I get this thing up and running.  If you can’t wait – theres always facebook: mattjmuenster and twitter: mattjmuenster where things are much more established and interactive.

Here’s hoping I actually show some resolve.  Wish me luck.

 

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