MikeyV.com: The Blog

Mikey V & Emmitt Smith

2008-11-03T23:03:00.005-05:00

Last week just before Halloween, I flew out to Dallas for another episode of the LG and PointClickHomes.com commercial. This time we did a room for Emmitt Smith and his daughter.

I had such a great time in Dallas, met a lot of really cool and fun people, many who were also involved with the shoot. Emmitt was really cool and laid back and his wife was really sweet. Also for this episode I will be flying out to New York to meet up with LG's techorator Doug Wilson from trading spaces. So that will be happening in a few weeks.

This episode will be going live sometime in January, and it will also be featured in Elle Decor and Home Metropolitan magazines. So check it all out.

Mikey V

Mikey Verdugo Interviews

2008-10-07T11:21:00.003-04:00

I've been meaning to post these for a while now, but I haven't gotten around to it or I had something better to post. These are all the videos of interviews and commercials that I did to promote Design Star 3 before it had aired. Some cool videos in there, and you can check out how far I've come with my on camera skills.

Mikey Verdugo on Channel 10 Morning Show 6/15

Mikey Verdugo: Channel 7 @ Premiere Party 6/8

Mikey Verdugo Channel 7 Interview 6/6

Mikey Verdugo Channel 4 Interview

Design Star Commercial: The Competition Begins!

Design Star 3: Design Star Online

Design Star 3: Mikey V Bio

Commercial: Design Star is Back

Design Star 3: Guts, Glory, Glam

Design Star 3: Joust Fight Commercial

FINALISTS REVEALED FOR THIRD SEASON OF ‘HGTV DESIGN STAR’

LG Commercial #2

2008-10-01T19:22:00.024-04:00

Mikey Verdugo, Peter Facinelli and Jennie Garth

Just got home from my second shoot for LG and PointClickHomes.com's entertainment living series. This time we designed for celebrities Jennie Garth & Peter Facinelli, from "90210" (as I'm sure you all know) and "Fastlane". Like the last shoot, I was brought in to revamp and update their media center in their game room, and merge that with the existing design they had throughout their home. Jennie & Peter were great to work with, very professional, and genuwinly nice.

I must say that I have gotten much more confident with my developed hosting skills. The shoot actually took a fraction of the time it did last time. And I think I surprised the crew, director, and even myself with how smooth it all went.

The rest of the trip was mostly relaxing and enjoying LA. I was able to catch up with Matt Locke again from Design Star, we went out to dinner with my buddy Michael Hitchcock and Tim Bagley

Mikey Verdugo, Tim Bagley, Michael Hitchcock and Matt Locke

Also took some time to do the nature thing and hike up Runyon Canyon to check out some amazing views. The hike took us about an hour and wasn't as easy as I expected, but the scenery was well worth it.

Hollywood in the palm of my hand.

Climbing up Runyon Canyon

Views from Runyon Canyon

Overall, it was another sucessful LA trip. I'm really starting to like the city, the weather is absolutely beautiful compared to the humid miami heat. However, the next episode will be taking place somewhere on the east coast, I will give everyone more details when I find out which celebrity home we will be designing next. Until thenbe on the look out for my first commercial starting Oct 3rd of this week, there will also be a spread of it in Elle Decor and Metropolitan Home magazines. I will post details and links when I get more information. Thanks for reading.

Mikey Verdugo

New Commercial

2008-09-16T03:34:00.010-04:00

Gabrielle Union & Mikey V

So I recently headed back to LA to follow some of the opportunities the show has brought me. This most recent project is going to actually be a series of commercials for pointclickhome.com and LG. I actually got asked to host (yes, host) some commercials where celebrity homes were renovated and designed with the latest technology hence the term "techorators". Since this was the angle of a design show I would have taken had I won Design Star, it was completely my thing.

So the first up celebrity was Gabrielle Union, we redesigned her living room and updated it with some new LG products. Gabrielle was actually extremely laid back and cool, the shoot went well and I had a lot of fun hanging out with her. Surprisingly the hosting went real smooth and I felt a lot more comfortable in front of the camera this time around.

I should be heading back to do the next shoot in a few weeks, this time with Teri Hatcher, so check back here for pics from that. Until then, the first commercial should go up on oct 3rd on pointclickhome.com, I'll add a link to it when it goes live.

My New Sister

2008-09-01T19:06:00.011-04:00

My sister & I after we just met

Its been a few weeks since I last updated my blog, mostly because last week I spent out in Los Angeles. I flew out to visit my brother Chris so we could both finally meet our sister Michelle. I actually found her about 6 months ago on myspace, yeah of all places I found her on myspace. I had known since I was younger that I had a half sister named Michelle but I never knew how to find her until I did a search for her. Thats her in the picture above, she may only be a half sister but she definitely looks and acts like a Verdugo, so she fit right in with the family.

the whole family at dinner

And she literally got to meet the whole family, we all flew into LA last weekend, I guess you could call it my version of a reunion. My cousin and Ryan came out with me from Miami, we dragged Nigel out of New York for the weekend, Michelle and her boyfriend Nick actually came out from New Jersey, and if you noticed Trish in the background, yes, she flew out too for a little LA fun. My brother Chris and other cousin Frank both live out in LA already, and Matt (way in the back) came out with his boyfriend Heath to join us all. The picture above is all of us at dinner the first night we flew into Los Angeles.

Chris, Michelle, and Mike

Here is the 3 of us together, think she looks like us at all? She definitely has all the Verdugo features, and she got along great with the whole family which can be a rather extreme experience most of the time.

Design Star Reunion

Matt invited us all over to his new loft which is looking really cool. Stephanie drove up from the OC to hang out with us and we had a mini-design star reunion, too bad Jen, Michael S., and D Rock couldn't make it.

My cousin Tony & Steph

I think my cousin Tony was more excited than anyone to meet Stephanie from the show.

Trish, Preston, and Mike

Talk about a small world, while out in LA we found out one of my best friend's friend is business partners with a designer named Preston. Preston is actually one of the finalists for the Bravo version of design star called Top Design, and it will be premiering in September so check it out. We got to have brunch with him and trade "reality show" stories, it was really cool to actually hear how other reality shows operate in comparison to Design Star.

So thats a lot of what happened over the past two weeks, LA was a lot of fun, weather was beautiful, so I can't wait to go back. I have a few more posts I will be adding over the next couple days about more events that happened on the trip. As for now, its back to work.

Mikey V

Unaired Clips

2008-08-13T18:54:00.008-04:00

From literally hundreds of hours of footage that HGTV took they only ended up using about 8 hours worth for the actual show. A lot of the funniest moments got left out a lot. But here are a few clips I found that they had floating around the HGTV site. I thought these were pretty funny as well.

Here is Stephanie and I screwing around with the limited free time we had on the Sara Evans suite. Each suite was on a different floor and we were supposed to stay on our floors but the producers convinced me to go up and harass Stephanie while the others were out shopping.

I think we all know by now I had a rough time on the hosting aspect of the show. Well, here Jen and Trish help coach me on my hosting skill. Maybe if they allowed a few drinks before the hosting challenge I would have been as relaxed as I was here in the jacuzzi.

Next video was after the final challenge with Jen & Matt, they took us back and we had a huge dinner with just the 4 of us. Yes, it was really weird with all of us sitting only on one side of the table. But they had plenty of liquor to help us forget about that and loosen up lol.

The last one isn't really a funny moment but its the extended version of myself after I got the boot from Design Star. So I thought some of you would like to check it out, its quite a tear jerker lol.

Mikey V

Design Star Finale

2008-08-07T01:22:00.012-04:00

First of all let me start by saying sorry for the delay on this blog, a lot of people have been writing me, but I have been so busy getting www.mikeyv.com launched that I didnt have the time. So, now that the site is finally up I have a few minutes to catch you all up to speed.

Let me ask you, have you ever gone out with a huge zit on your face hoping that if you ignore it then maybe no one else will notice? Only to have your friends point it out and notice it even more. Well, this past Sunday I was that zit that was trying to be ignored, but the crazy thing is more people than ever noticed my absence. My websites got more hits in one day than a whole week when the show was airing. Yet again I've been flooded with supportive emails and comments, which makes my days so much better. For everyone asking where I was at the finale, without saying too much, I think you already know why I wasn't there. I wish I could give you a better explanation but I'm not allowed to right now. Trust me when I say not being there was no choice of my own.

Anyways, on to the actual finale, congratulations Jen you completely deserve this. She is one of the most honest and real people I have met in a while, and she always kept me laughing throughout the whole show. So everyone be sure to keep an eye out for her new show when it comes on, I'm sure it will be kick ass. Oh and Jen, if you do any drywall in your show, don't forget who taught you J.

Of course Matt was just as deserving, but I guess there can be only one winner. However, I have no doubt he will get picked up fast by someone and move on to bigger and better things. He's got a lot of talent and always kept me on my toes during the show, cause we both had a similar modern style.

What sucks the most about the finale for me was not being able to see everyone again. We aren't allowed to have contact for 2 months, so it sucked to see everyone together again and not be able to be a part of it. Maybe we can all plan a real reunion on our own sometime. At least now we can all contact each other again, and I'm sure you all guessed that I've talked to Trish almost every day since, it's like we just picked up right where we left off in the New Orleans final challenge. What can I say, she is like the sister that I never had. Well, turns out I did find a real long lost step sister of mine who I was supposed to meet for the first time at the finale, but that obviously didn't happen. Anyways Trish along with everyone else will definitely all be good friends of mine for years to come. Other than that everyone looked great and made good impressions at the finale, all the clips they played were hilarious. Trish got diamonds, which is exactly what that girl needs…..more bling lol.

Overall the show was great, it was a nice recap on the entire season, cause there is so much that they didn't air that I wish they had. Keep an eye out for everyone from Design Star season 3 cause I'm sure they'll all be going places.

Mikey V

And Then There Were 3

2008-08-07T01:05:00.014-04:00

I must say this week I was completely shocked to see Trish go home. Perhaps I am a little biased but I defiantly thought she had the most drastic before and after shots. As everyone knows I am not exactly the biggest fan of the traditional style, but I have a great appreciation for it. Michael S always said that you need to be the style of your client, and it was very apparent from the get go that Trish's parents loved the traditional look. Unfortunately, I believed Trish was ultimately punished for her parent's style. I always got the feeling that HGTV never really encouraged traditional furniture, but I didn't really mind at all while I was on the show, considering modern is totally my style.

For people claiming that traditional was actually Trish's style, I would defiantly have to disagree. Out of all the episodes the room that reminds me most of Trish is defiantly the living room from our very first challenge. That room just screams Trish, and is very modern and fresh with a little traditional influence, which is where I think she completely excels.

I was so frustrated watching that carpenter lay down that wood floor. It's sad that she had to take over and show him how to do it. HGTV should really provide the contestants with their own carpenters, or me, lol. It's honestly just not fair to pick and choose random carpenters, and I've noticed this from the very first season.

Jen's room I defiantly also liked, those big graphics she paints are just way too cool for school. Again this was another room I was frustrated watching. When she said dark wood floors, I thought great call, and I was so mad when she didn't have the budget or time to incorporate the idea. I think that dark wood floors would have completely finished off that room so nicely. If I was there or if she had a better carpenter I'm sure we could have gotten it done for you Jen.

With Matt's room I defiantly felt kind of sorry for him considering I think he got that hardest room to work with design wise. Not that I don't like doing kids rooms (designed my own God Daughters room) but it's just not the ideal room I would have wanted to show off my style. So I defiantly commend him for taking on that challenge.

So overall I thought everyone did great, but still think that HGTV got it wrong by sending Trish home tonight. Like I said, maybe I'm biased but I really think she designed for her clients and had and overall HUGE impact on the room. Booo at HGTV for punishing Trish for giving her parents the traditional look, which is what they wanted. Although, I'm sure I wouldn't be saying that if I was in the final 3 with her, instead it would be more like, "send her the hell home!" LoL! Just kidding, Trish.

Great job tonight to all 3 of them, but they sure are lucky I wasn't there cause I would have just built my family a new home and sent you all packing J. LoL. Nah, you all did great

Best of Luck to Jen and Matt in the finale!

Mikey V

Yes, I Got the Boot!

2008-08-07T00:19:00.011-04:00

Wow, is all I can say. What a rollercoaster this past few weeks have been for me, so many highs and lows its almost too much to absorb at once. First let me start off by thanking all of the people who have supported me throughout this whole thing. Today especially I have been getting slammed with mail, I appreciate it all and keep it coming, I promise when I get a chance I will get back to all of you.

So on to the episode, this challenge was a rather strange one for me. It starts with all 5 of us working in the same kitchen on the same design. Hold on a second, I thought this was a competition........who are we competing against if we work on the same room? At the very least I would have liked to have gotten the chance to show off my style by at least presenting a design board to the family. I'm very pround of my design boards and would have no problem showing them off on the show. But sometimes you dont always get what you want.

Now for the challenge Tracee was the team leader, I know they make it look like we are complete asses to her by just walking away while she was talking. However, what they arent showing is that after two hours of trying to make a design plan she wasnt allowing us to make any concrete decisions. She seem to have a gift of running in circles. So we slowly one by one started demo on the room, and told her its too late to make a group decision at this point. She was team leader so make the final decision and get to work.

The rest of the day I had so much fun tearing everything down and building back up. What can I say? Demo is the most fun part of construction. The rest of the day was just chaos, with drywall going up.... cabinet doors coming down and a whole lotta mess in between.

Coming up on the second day, which was the day I got to sit around and wait for my backsplash to come. What HGTV didnt show is that we DID have a blacksplash at the house already. It was this cool expensive green glass tile which would have added a great pop of color in the all white kitchen. However, out of respect for the leader I didnt put it up because she didnt like it. So out of good faith I waited for her to return with an alternative backsplash in time for me to install it. Obviously that never happened, and by the time we realized she wasnt coming back, it was too late to even start tiling with anything.

Excluding the backsplash, I was really happy that we just finished the kitchen, which is rather weird now that I think about it. Shouldnt we be more excited about how the design turned out than "just finishing it". This challenge definaly was more of a mini "Flip this House" than any sort of design show. Given only 24 hours to do this, we had no other option but to choose the quick & simple fixes. Vern actually stated to us that adding design elements wouldnt have taken any extra time, and I have to disagree with that. Color? Sure that wouldnt have taken any time to have picked a different color for cabinets and walls. But To me that isnt true design, true design is about more than just painting over things, its about changing structure & layouts. Its about changing the cabinets completely instead of just painting them. Its about real window treatments, not just hanging napkins. All of that which would have added lots of time that we didnt have. The next kitchen I do, I will be proud of its design and not "just finishing" thats for sure.

What next? HOSTING! LoL Yeah, I knew I wasnt very good. In fact I knew going into this competition that was going to be my weakness. The ironic part is that this whole experience has completely changed that. After coming home and doing newspaper interviews, and morning shows, and live interviews like crazy for the past 2 months. The camera doesnt scare me at all anymore! I feel very comfortable and confident now, sure I probably still have a few kinks to work out, but for me it feels like night and day. I owe a lot of that thanks toTrish and Jen's coaching back at the design star house, those are some really cool girls.

Trish & I Working on Cabinets

I'm sure you all know by now that Trish turned out to be my very best friend. She is such a great person, which is obviously why I backed her up when Tracee tried to bring up that whole ring situation in front of the judges. Very out of line if you ask me, the poor girl just had her wedding ring cut off, and HGTV forced her to do it on camera in the middle of the competition. I think that would be enough trama for her in one day, but Tracee obviously likes to poke open wounds. So that is why I backed up Trish in front of the judges. To those people that think I hate Tracee, I dont. Everything I've said was always to her face. Im not a gossip person, I just dont take shit from anyone and will tell someone to their face when they cross that line.

Same thing with Matt, in the green room I felt as if he were attempting to pin the missing backsplash on me. So I stood up for myself, and made sure he knew the backsplash would have been done if the tile had arrived on time. I still like Matt and think he is an extemely talented individual, its just sometime people confuse me saying whats on my mind as being mean. I'm just a very straight forward person.

So anyways this week, Tracee got the boot. Then so did I. I knew it was coming, so there was no shock at all. The one thing that just frustrated me most is that I never got to do a high end modern room that I was really really proud of. On the other end of the spectrum, I learned TONS, even styles I wouldnt have even attempted otherwise. Thanks to that, I feel like I have grown a lot as a designer and believe this to be one of the best experience of my life. While many people try to take you down because they see you in the spot light. There are a million others lifting you back up and showing their full support. Those are the people who keep me doing this job, and loving every second of it!

Thanks again!
Mikey V

Sara Evans Suite

2008-08-06T18:27:00.005-04:00

I finally decided to start up with my blog on the episodes, especially since so many people seem to be checking out my myspace page after each show.

So what to say about this episode, it was our job to design a suite for Sara Evans. I find it kind of funny how excited they made me look because I honestly had no idea who she was. Well, it turns out she is a big time country singer and a HUGE shabby chic fan. As all you guys know, shabby chic is not my most favorite style to pull off. Anyone who has been to my house I'm sure knew that already though. But, its all about pleasing the client and thats what we were sent there to do.

One thing I was really excited about was working with Trish on this project, we had become really close throughout the challenges and this was finally our chance to work together and show our stuff. On the other hand we also had to deal with Tracee who definatly got on my nerves shopping with her, she always wanted some other option or accessory. Luckily Trish and I kept it together and worked great together. Working with Trish is so easy and we were constantly on the same page. Oh and Trish.....its POA not POV lol.

Back to the room, I think its so hilarious how both teams picked the same exact color. At the end of the day I was really proud of the room we had made for Sara Evans. I had really stepped outside my comfort zone (once again) and I think we definatly pulled it off. I loved watching Sara's reaction to it, nothing gives you a better feeling than when someone is that happy with the design you gave them. I must say its those moments that keeps you going to the next challenge.

Oh and then there was the hosting challenge, not much to say here except I know I need to soften up a lot. Its just so hard with a camera glaring at you eye to eye. I guess most people would figure that I would be comfortable around a camera by that time, but when you dont look at them you completely forget they are there most of the time. Eye to eye with a camera is much different than one following you around.

Here are some pictures of the final project.

Living Area

Bedroom

I hope your all ejoying watching the show as much as I am, these past few weeks have just gone by so fast. So keep on watching and keep the emails and support coming, cause they are definatly much appreciated. I'll be catching up on the previous episodes soon, as for now its time for bed!

Mikey V

Now Launched: MikeyV.com

2008-08-06T16:56:00.004-04:00

So now that I have finally launched mikeyv.com, its time for me to start working on this blog of mine. The reason I am starting this up is because my myspace page is always flooded with questions as to whats happening with me. So hopefully this will give people a place to get updates as to whats going on, and keep up with what kind of jobs/designs I've been working on.

What you will eventually find on here will be updates on work I've done and new stuff I'm working on. Any new projects that are in the works will get posted here first. I also plan on adding as many pictures and even video as possible, to keep away from those never ending text posts. Trish will hopefully also be posting blogs on here so people can easily keep up with both of us.

Thats it for now, be sure to be checking back often as this will be going through lots of updates over the next few weeks.

Mikey V