Married real estate developers Brian and Mika Kleinschmidt know a thing or two about building a home under pressure—having spent five seasons renovating and designing custom dwellings in three months or less on their popular HGTV reality series, “100 Day Dream Home.”
The concept of the show presents the couple with many challenges, chief among them is the incredibly tight construction timeline.
However, many aesthetic considerations also must be taken into account, meaning that Brian and Mika have to stay on top of all the latest design trends, offering an expert ear to their clients about what will (and won’t) work in their abodes.
The process gives the couple fascinating insight into the latest and greatest trends taking the housing market by storm—as well as the fads that are fast being forgotten by house hunters and homebuilders.
Now, ahead of the Season 6 premiere of their show, which will air on Tuesday night, Brian and Mika have revealed to Realtor.com® one surprising home feature that appears to be fading in popularity: ceiling beams.
“Beams, ceiling detail,” said Mika. “We haven’t had as many requests for that.”
“Maybe two this season? Maybe zero?” confirmed Brian. “Everybody wanted beams, but I think beams might be a thing of the past.”
Ironically, while ceiling beams may be waning in popularity, they’re still very much present in the Kleinschmidts’ own family home.
“I’ll be removing these this weekend,” teased Brian, while sharing even more formerly coveted interior design details he and Mika have in their home.
“Basically, everything inside of our current house, which is white, blue, and gray,” said Brian. “I mean, we still love it, but it’s probably outdated even though it’s only been, like, four years.”
Because the HGTV hosts often shoot parts of their show in their personal abode, and since they’re exposed to the latest design offerings in the industry, they admitted it’s hard to resist wanting to change things up for themselves.
“We just filmed a reveal two weeks ago, and Mika fell in love with their shower,” shared Brian. “It was like a spa, and she wants to use those exact tiles in our current shower.”
“It’s very challenging,” added Mika. “Every season we see new products available that may not have been available to us when we were building our home four years ago. So, heck yeah, we’re always thinking of new ideas and ways to just add some character.
“Plus, look, we film a lot in our house and I’m like, the viewers are going to be, like, ‘Ya’ll need to do some new stuff in there!’”
As it turns out, home designs previously featured on the show often appear on new clients’ wish lists.
“When we do something on a previous season, the next batch of clients and seasons, they seem to want that,” explained Brian. “So, like, we did our first hidden pantry back in Season 1, but 1758037661 everybody wants a hidden pantry. It’s like whatever they see on the top HGTV show, they want that.”
Right now, requests seem to revolve around bespoke modifications.
“What people are wanting now is customization,” revealed Mika. “You want a new house to feel like it’s got some kind of character and it tells a story, so just having those little moments—and it can be built-ins or a wall detail—just adding that extra layer of ingredients to make it feel really special.”
Keeping designs fresh is a priority for the Kleinschmidts. This season, they’re maintaining their tradition of completing a unique project within each traditional home build. They’re also taking on design and construction challenges they’ve never dealt with before.
“We’re doing some shipping container builds,” shared Brian. “We’re partnering with Habitat for Humanity. And we also have a house that starts getting built in Georgia, but finishes in Florida. It’s a modular build, and we truck [it] in from Georgia.”
There’s also a very serious element to their projects this season, which covers reconstruction efforts after Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit Florida hard in fall 2024.
“Our area was devastated by hurricanes last year,” explained Brian. “So you’re going to see three, maybe four projects where we are helping homeowners get back on their feet, where we’re elevating a house or knocking down a flooded house. A lot of storm damage you’re going to see is in Season 6.”
Storm-related issues are among the few reasons the “100 Day Dream Home” stars have ever missed one of their 100-day deadlines. While the forces of Mother Nature are out of everyone’s hands, the Kleinschmidts believe other important variables can be controlled to keep timelines on track.
“Communication is so crucial, and I mean that from a construction and a production standpoint,” said Mika.
“Making sure that your contractors are staying on top of giving you updates, but also that the homeowners are checking in every week making sure things are right, they weren’t misordered. Like, those things can happen, and if you’re not on top of it, it can really domino-effect a timeline.”
“Also, having your decisions made and sticking to those decisions,” added Brian. “A lot of timelines get out of whack because clients, they change their mind along the way, and then they change their mind back [to] the original, so it’s a huge circle.”
Between building and production timelines—and absorbing any unplanned delays—it takes “about a year” to do a season’s worth of homes for their show, Mika revealed.
“They’re all staggered on their start dates, so at certain points in production, we have, like, eight or nine houses that we are trying to bounce back and coordinate not missing any of those moments since we’re trying to show it from the ground up,” she said.
“A lot of days, I’ll be bouncing back and forth between construction sites with four different shirts in my car and trying to figure out where I’m going, what I’m talking about, what I’m doing,” added Brian. “There’s a lot of juggling that goes on.”
Filming the show while running their business can be hectic, but Brian and Mika are grateful that fans are excited for the return of “100 Day Dream Home,” especially following the news over the summer that many popular HGTV shows were being canceled.
“We are truly blessed to still do what we love with the ones that we love,” shared Brian. “So, yeah, you know, seeing all those comments that people still like watching us, it means a lot to us.
“It really started out as a dream, and looking back, it’s just amazing. It feels like we shot that audition tape yesterday. We took that risk many years ago, and it’s paid off.”
“Ditto to everything he said,” added Mika. “I think we pinch ourselves sometimes because, you know, we do get to do what we love and it doesn’t feel like work, and we’ve been lucky enough to almost have the same crew on the production side for the last several seasons, so they’re definitely family, and that makes it so much more fun.”
The fun this season extends to Brian and Mika’s family, with Brian’s dad appearing on the show and their daughter, Jade, taking on a more prominent role.
“Jade is now a junior in high school, so she’s grown up on the show,” said Mika. “Now, she’s dabbling in two designs, so you’re going to get to see wallpaper that she designs that’s going to be on one of the episodes. It’s just been real cool to see her flourish in this light.”
“Jade was a very tough negotiator,” joked Brian. “She said she’ll come back for Season 6 under some certain circumstances, so the network met those.”
As “100 Day Dream Home” evolves, and the general HGTV lineup changes, it’s clear the Kleinschmidts are drafting plans to build their future on solid ground.
“I would love to educate a little bit more, give some resources to people that are in their homes to where, yes, they’re watching the show for entertainment, but maybe there’s an aha moment that’s something that can help them,” shared Mika. “We always have our creative wheel spinning. We’ve got some ideas in the works that we hope to stay around for a long time.”
Season 6 of “100 Day Dream Home” premieres on Sept. 16 at 8 p.m. on HGTV.
