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This week Marianne has a candid conversation with artist and designer David Bromstad. David has been an HGTV fan-favorite for over a decade, and he was the winner of the very first season of Design Star. Since then David has gone on to appear in at least 10 other HGTV shows and specials — including Color Splash, The White Room Challenge, Flipping the Block, Beach Flip, Bang for Your Buck, HGTV Urban Oasis, and Rock the Block, and he is now currently working on the 10th season of My Lottery Dream Home.

David opens up and talks about how being gay was never an issue with HGTV. The network has always embraced him and let him be himself; he said he had never felt so accepted in his life. “They’ve never asked me to be anything but my authentic self,” says David. (However, there are two minor things the network asked David not to do, you’ll have to listen to this episode to find out what they are.)

David joined fellow Design Star winner Tiffany Brooks for season 2 of Rock the Block. He talks about how they didn’t quite follow the design brief, but they did put their own stamp on the home and made it the most fun and colorful house on the block. David also gives us a little insider info on why he and his fellow contestants wear the same outfit every day of the taping, and why he chose to make his one outfit a pink tracksuit.

David talks about growing up in Minnesota, finding his style and going to Ringling College of Art and Design, then later working for Disney. Today, David lives in Orlando; he loves the small-town feel he gets there and how the city embraces and celebrates the LGBTQ community. He also mentions that he recently bought a new house and is putting on an addition just so he can turn one of the bedrooms into a closet to hold his extensive, kaleidoscope-like wardrobe.

When asked about how he celebrates Pride month, David says he celebrates it every day and one of the ways is with his rainbow tattoos. When asked about how he’d like to see the future of equal representation, David replies: “In the ideal world it’s just not going to be a conversation, it’s just going us, all of us.” He goes on to talk about how acceptance has improved over the years but still may be really hard on kids. That's why it's important to him to work for the organization It Gets Better. There, he talks with kids to let them know that the difficulties they are facing are only temporary and that there are plenty of people out there who will help. “For me to be my authentic self and explain to them [kids] that this is only a moment. I just explain that they need to give it a minute, give it a breath, it’s going to go away, you’ve got to be cognizant that it is just going to get better.”

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