Dive Into Color With David Bromstad

You’re an accidental designer?
Oh yes, I’m an artist grad from Ringling with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Illustration. Becoming a designer wasn’t what I had in mind, but it’s great! After I graduated, I moved to Orlando and worked with Disney as a kind of a private artist on contract. When Disney was having troubles after 9-11, my contract wasn’t renewed so I started working with an interior design friend of mine. He didn’t like doing kids’ rooms so that became my thing. And I loved it.

Until Design Star you’d never worked on adult rooms?
No! And some people look down on kids’ rooms, but I love working on them. They’re a lot of fun because you can think outside the box. There are no boundaries when it comes to children; imagination is the only thing that limits you so you can really take it to another place. In all of my rooms I try to create a fun and engaging environment. For adults, too. Every room starts as a blank canvas.

And now you’re an HGTV host of your own show. Why a show on color?
People are afraid, very afraid of color. So Color Splash is focusing on how to get people comfortable with color so that they can actually use it. It's a cool show because it's very cinematic; we shoot all over San Francisco and there are some really sweeping shots. And there’s a shopping segment, a sketching segment. It's really personality driven, which I love.

You've become quite a personality yourself with your own fan base. Do you take off your shirt in your new show?
Well, it’s San Francisco and its coooooooooold here. Not like Miami. Doesn’t make a lot of sense for me to shed my shirt while working if I’m going to freeze. I’m used to getting into the work and being hot and taking off my shirt. I’m a hardworker and on Design Star you do all of your own work and I’d break into a sweat immediately. So off comes the shirt. Who knew it would become such a big deal?!

Rats. So, you don’t take off your shirt in Color Splash?
I’ll just say that I do want to keep my fans happy. Without looking too stupid. So there are lots of great rooms on Color Splash — and may be a few shirtless moments.