David Bromstad takes ’Color Splash’ to Miami
The first thing you might notice when you see interior designer David Bromstad on television is that he happens to be very easy on the eyes and that includes his often shirtless, tattooed torso. However, Bromstad established early on that he is much more than a gym bunny and first showed his amazing design skills when he won HGTV’s first season of its competition series Design Star in 2006.
The following year (as part of the Design Star grand prize) Bromstad premiered his own series, Color Splash, which was set in San Francisco and became a hit for the design network. With the new Color Splash season that begins this weekend on HGTV, Bromstad, his crew and the cameras venture cross-country and move the show to Florida with Color Splash Miami.
EDGE’s Jim Halterman talked to Bromstad earlier this week about the move, the importance of listening to your gut, what part of his personal life is off limits to the press and his thoughts on when gay marriage will no longer be an issue.
Miami :: edgy and sexy
EDGE: Besides the obvious geography, what are the differences in Color Splash moving from San Francisco to Miami?
David Bromstad: We were in San Francisco, which was a beautiful city and very quaint and lovely, but Miami is edgy and sexy. I have a whole new team and I’m really concentrating a lot on personality and design and we’re really taking it to the next level. The makeovers are bigger, the colors are more crazy and it’s just a shift to a really fun show.
EDGE: Visually I know Miami clearly has its own sense of style but how does that lend itself to a designer?
DB: Miami is itself South American-influenced and it’s very international in a very different way than San Francisco. In San Francisco, everyone is traditionally contemporary but in Miami everyone is modern chic and very eclectic at the same time. People are very aware of style because we’re surrounding by amazing hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs and new architecture. Since we’re surrounded by so much design, people know what they do like and what they don’t like.
EDGE: You grew up in Minnesota, what was it like when you first ventured to Miami? They’re very different places.
DB: I went to school in Sarasota, Florida, which is on the West Coast of Florida and then I went and moved to Orlando and worked at Disney Universal for nine years [as an animator] and in those nine years I was down in Miami several times and I always wanted to move down there. You have to be really strong to live [in Miami]. It’s a party city so it’s easy to get caught up in that. When I first moved down here and made that decision I was ready for the diverse culture and ready for all the designers and artists and all the great architecture so there was no shock to me.
