David Bromstad won HGTV’s Design Star by keeping it real. Now he’s ready for his closeup.

By Bill Corsello ‍

Last September 10th, David Bromstad was declared the first-ever winner of HGTV’s interior-stylist-showdown, Design Star. An exciting moment, to be sure, but not a surprising one, at least to anyone who had been following the series.

For many fans, the 32-year-old, shirt-averse muscle boy from Miami with the boyishly mischievous smile and tireless enthusiasm tied the whole thing up with a pretty ribbon weeks beforehand, when he trounced his opponents in a wacky challenge involving, of all things, pet paraphernalia.

Here’s how it played out: It was the third episode of the reality show. Eight of 10 contestants were still in the running for, in a refreshing twist on the genre, not money or red roses, but a gig hosting their very own HGTV how-to program. The task at hand: Outfit a white box of a room using only items purchased from either an automotive, camping, beauty or pet store. Bromstad wound up sifting through litter boxes, leashes and the like for his materials. While some other contestants were hanging hair dryers on the wall, David’s fierce imagination yielded pieces like a soaring sculpture of hot-glued fish bowls, pillows made from hamster balls and a polka-dot rug piled out of reptile bedding and wood chips. It all looked surprisingly chic. His work was so superior that fashion designer Cynthia Rowley, one of the judges, was caused to slap her palms against her forehead chanting, “I can’t even believe it. It’s so genius.” He won the challenge. And it was pretty obvious he was going to walk away with the whole shebang. Right?

“I never thought that. I never would think that. It’s just not my character to be cocky and over-confident,” Bromstad asserts. In fact, he was in doubt about that animal kingdom up until the very last second. I knew I had the strongest room visually, but the rules were unclear if it had to be a functional room. I designed my room as non-functional. I was the only one who took that risk, and it really paid off.”

Over the past year, Bromstad has taken a lot of risks that really paid off. First and foremost, he took the advice of a colleague and tried out for the show. “I thought, ‘Oh, why not. I have nothing else to lose, and really, I need a change in my life.’” At the time, Bromstad was making ends meet by creating fantasy kid’s bedrooms for well-heeled Miamians. “I was working for myself, really having a hard time. But I was very grateful to be doing what I wanted to do, even if I wasn’t making any money.” When he earned a slot on the show, the decision to head to New York, where the series filmed, was not difficult.

Before he hit the set, he had another decision to make: Would he be openly gay on camera? “I was thinking, ‘What do I do?’ And you know what? When I got there, all I wanted was to be myself,” Bromstad says. “I’m a gay man, and I didn’t hide it.” It turned out to be such a non-issue that, with the exception of a clip in a finale-episode montage in which he made a crack about coming out of the closet again while goofing around in a large armoire, there was never any real mention of it. “I was very openly gay on camera,” he says. “They just chose to not put all that stuff in there, which I think played to my advantage in the end.” Like so many other personalities who’ve taken the “so what?” stance about their homosexuality (we’re shouting out to you, Neil Patrick Harris and T.R. Knight!), Bromstad gave America the benefit of the doubt. And it was the viewing audience, after all, who ultimately voted him to victory.

In the final outcome, he clinched the deal with his charming, always-gracious, never-catty demeanor, his creative skills and his au courant aesthetic, which he describes as “very clean, very contemporary but warm, with lots of textures.” He aced his last test by transforming a glass house in Manhattan’s Bryant Park into an earthy, Asian-inspired bedroom retreat. His televised triumph was met with not only confetti, a contract and a car, but hugs and tears from a huge coterie of parents, siblings, siblings-in-law and friends who flew in from all corners of the globe. “Having that support was amazing,” he says. “I felt very blessed.” After the win, he had three days off. Then, it was time to really get to work.

Bromstad quickly racked up the miles jetting all over the country in preparation for his series. Besides constant meetings with his new producers in San Francisco, he visited the sets of other design shows for pointers and met with all sorts of coaches to get him camera-ready (all of this was, ironically, captured by cameras for the four-part Making of an HGTV Design Star special that aired this past November). The new show, which premieres in March and was conceived especially for him, is called Color Splash. It follows the one-room-makeover-per-episode format, with a focus on happening hues. “I like to be trendy with my colors,” he explains. “Some designers don’t like to do that, because the colors are going to go out of fashion next year. I’m designing with color you can get easily and cheaply: paint, pillows, throws, accessories, glass, things you can indulge in and then just get rid of next season.”

He’ll have some much-welcome help along the way in the form of sidekick Danielle Hirsch, a faux-finish expert who has appeared on the program Design Remix. “I absolutely adore her. I chemistry-tested with six girls, and Danielle was my favorite. I’m glad they approved her; she’s like a sister that can paint and build things. I also have a carpenter, a design assistant and two paint P.A.s, so I have a whole team that will basically do all my work for me,” he jokes.

Looking forward to the further recognition that having his own show will bring, Bromstad is already enjoying his newfound fame. “I get looks everywhere I go. I’m not a Brad Pitt, let me tell you, but I get noticed,” he says. “I love it. It shows that people are watching and interested. That’s only going to do better for me in my career.” Getting pointed at when he’s at the hardware store doesn’t sound so bad, but it’s those housewives desperate to get a peek at his pecs that he has to watch out for.

“That’s one of the things I’ve gotten a really positive response on,” he understates. “Not just from gay men, but from old ladies, young ladies, married women, single women, teenagers. I went to a party that my mom and dad had for me at their adult community. This lady, she was like 85 years old, the minute I walked through the door, she said, ‘I’ve been waiting all week to get your shirt off.’ She would not leave me alone. It was kind of creepy, kind of cool.” He’s laughing about it, but still, one must give the audience what they want, and if that means more skin-baring antics on Color Splash, then so be it. “I will take my shirt off,” he promises. “Not all the time, because I think that’s a bit tacky. Maybe every other episode, or every third episode.”

He doesn’t, after all, just want to be remembered for his good looks. Good thing he’s a genuinely nice guy and a damned good designer — and someone who sets an example of how to go after the prize and win it by just being who he is. “Tell me I’m the sexiest or the best looking, that’s great,” he says. “But tell me I’m a role model and actually touching people and inspiring them to be better? I love that. I think that’s probably the most flattering thing ever, the cherry on top of the sundae.”