A Sacramento ‘Mash Up’: Land Park team blends styles and aesthetics on new HGTV show

If you’ve ever watched an episode of a home renovation show with a couple talking about what they want to do to a house, you’ve seen the couple on seemingly different pages. One wants something modern farmhouse and the other wants traditional Spanish style, for instance.

You can’t imagine how it’s going to work out but it always does. A Sacramento-area couple addresses that issue head on with their new HGTV show, “Mash-Up Our Home,” a show dedicated to designing for couples who have differing views.

Kele Dobrinski and Christina Valencia founded Colossus Mfg., a design, marketing, and development studio, in 2018. The Land Park couple started to work on hospitality-focused design, like Airbnb properties. They also worked with Canon, an East Sacramento restaurant, to help reframe their brand and make sure the space matched the aesthetic of the restaurant. That’s what they were working on when a producer from High Noon — a production company with shows on Food Network, Netflix, Animal Planet and TLC — contacted them about a show for HGTV.

Dobrinski and Valencia decided to go for it. The concept behind the show is that they will guide two people with different ideas of what they want into a blended version of styles. The show was greenlit in March of 2020, then delayed by the pandemic.

From April to November of 2021, they filmed the series working on different houses in the Sacramento area.

“It’s fun to take on a project with wildly different styles. The real-life conflict can lead to interesting solutions,” Dobrinski said.

In one episode, they are tasked with blending a “Sopranos”-styled kitchen with California Bohemian aesthetics.

“You have to get to the bottom of the design choices,” Valencia said.

Dobrinski and Valencia suggest writing a list of your design wants, and then going through it again to ask yourself why you want those things. That’s where you can often find common ground.

Renovations are stressful anyway, but in filming this show the couple dealt with extra delays because of supply shortages.

“Sometimes we had to pivot and make choices based on what was in stock,” Valencia said.

Each project lasted around four months, and they were staggered throughout the eight months of filming. At one point in the middle of filming, they had five projects going on at once.

Filming was a family affair, just like the business, with the couple’s three sons, ages 3, 6 and 8 making appearances.

“It’s cool to have your kids watch you work hard,” Dobrinski said.

Dobrinski’s dad also got involved from time to time. The couple loves being able to include their children in the show.

On “Mash-Up Our Home,” Dobrinski and Valencia also enjoyed working with local artists and crafters. They worked with Julian Sandpaper for CNC routing the hotel suite in the backyard bungalow in episode one. They worked with Thomas Cannell of Block and Bowl for almost all of their projects. Echeri Ceramics made a custom green-and-blue kitchen light fixture in episode three. They visit Stephen Ropp’s wood shop, Repurpose, to get some salvaged wood that we make into a fireplace mantle and headboard. Dobrinski and Valencia also visit Green Acres in a few episodes for plants.

In addition to hosting and designing on the show, Dobrinski also used his graphic design background to create graphics for the show. He had a hand in the show’s logo, title design, and motion graphics.

One thing they love about the show is how relatable it is.

“In the show we are dealing with very common issues, and make sure each person is able to be heard,” Valencia said. Everyone has different opinions, and their challenge is to make sure both are represented and blended in the final designs.

Dobrinski and Valencia have been in the Sacramento area for five years. Dobrinski has family in the Grass Valley area, and was born and raised in Sacramento. Valencia grew up in San Diego. They chose to move their family to Sacramento for the family life it offers.

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You can find “Mash-Up Our Home” on HGTV on Saturday nights at 9 p.m. or on HGTV Go. The show premiered on March 12. Find out more about their design firm Colossus Mfg. on their website, bycolossus.com. You can also follow them on Instagram @colossusmfg.

This story was originally published April 6, 2022 at 8:29 AM.