(Photo by Ian Levasseur)
David Bromstad is one of the biggest stars on HGTV. The interior designer first made a name for himself in 2006 by winning the first season of “HGTV Design Star,” and has been a staple on the network ever since, appearing on “Color Splash,” “Rock the Block,” “Design at Your Door” and “Design Star All-Stars,” to name a few.
In 2015, he started hosting HGTV’s “My Lottery Dream Home,” a show that “takes recent lottery winners on over-the-top house hunts for their new dream homes.” Bromstad is now in his 15th season of the show and shows no signs of slowing down.
It is worlds away from where Bromstad began, born in 1973 in a small Minnesota town of about 2,000 people. With dreams of being a Disney animator, Bromstad enrolled in the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, and the Minnesota boy became a lifelong Floridian.
Brostad has a passion for tattoos and is a self-professed Disney fan, settling down in his own dream home in Orlando, which has been featured on his show. He was named one of Come Out With Pride’s 2024 Grand Marshals, as the Pride organization celebrates its 20th year.
Bromstad chatted with Watermark ahead of this year’s parade about being bestowed with the honor as well as his thoughts on Pride, tattoos and living in the Sunshine State.
WATERMARK: You were born in Minnesota and went to college in Sarasota. When did you finally decide to move to Orlando and settle down here?
David Bromstad: I was living in Orlando years ago, working for Disney, and then I moved down to Miami and that’s when I got on the show (“Design Star”) and did all that fun stuff. After being in Miami for a while, I realized that it just wasn’t the environment that I wanted to spend my time in anymore. All my friends are still up here, my parents live in The Villages. So, I moved back to Orlando in 2016 and I’ve been back ever since, and I never want to leave again. I love it here. Orlando’s a great, easy town to live in, easy to travel in and out of. The people are nice, the club scene is popping. There’s so much to do here. It’s just a great place to live.
How did you get started on “My Lottery Dream House”?
I actually got on the show because there was nothing else going on [laughs]. I was still in my contract with HGTV and design shows had just died. They asked me “Hey, do you want to do a pilot for this show called “My Lottery Dream Home”? I was like “sure, I have literally nothing else to do.” Now the show that should have never been is now one of the biggest shows on the network.
It’s crazy. It didn’t start that way. It was one of those things like, they’re never gonna pick this up, it’s barely hanging on by a thread, and then around season three, things started to pick up and then season four just blew up, and it’s just been crazy. Each season just gets stronger and stronger and stronger, and the ratings go up and up and up.
What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen a lottery winner request when looking for their dream home?
You know, we really don’t get a lot of weird requests. The weirdest thing was probably a guy asked for as many bathrooms as we could possibly find, but nothing really odd. It’s funny, I get asked this question a lot and I’m like, the winners on my show are pretty nice. That’s the most powerful thing about the show is that we’re taking regular people who didn’t have a lot, and they’re not asking for a lot, they just want to have a nice home and I love that.
You are known for having a bit of an obsession with tattoos. How many do you have now?
I don’t really count by tattoo number, I prefer to go by percentage of my body covered, and I’m at, I would say 35%.
Have you always had a passion for tattoos?
I’ve always had the passion; I just didn’t have the finances to back up my passion. Tattoos in general are expensive. Even when I was a kid, I was like “I want a tattoo.” I always had planned to get them even though my parents were like, “You’re never getting tattoos.” I was like, “Yes I am.” That’s the first thing I did when I graduated college. I saved up my money and I got my first tattoo right out of college.
You are one of this year’s Grand Marshals for the Come Out With Pride parade. Tell me what went through your mind when they told you that you were selected.
It is huge to me. As someone who’s been in the public eye for a long time, there’s always these bucket list of things you wanna be a part of and being a Grand Marshal in Orlando’s Pride parade has always been on that list for me. … To be recognized by the community here as a Grand Marshal, it’s ridiculous. Like it’s the coolest thing ever. It was on the top of my bucket list, and this will be one of the most beautiful and memorable experiences to be able to represent the community.
What’s your earliest memory of Orlando Pride?
I’ve attended several of them. One year I was actually in the parade with my friend who did [the app] MyRadar, so he always has a bus. The last time we were doing it, we’re on the bus and I’m seeing all of these people and all of these supporters of our community, all of these allies. I’m just looking at their faces, everyone is so happy, there’s such a passion for the community here and to see them cheer and love everyone who’s in it, around it. It’s the most magical feeling when you can get a group of likeminded individuals together and just show all the love. There’s nothing like that on this planet.
Why do you think Pride celebrations are still important today?
It’s beyond important. I grew up in a town in Minnesota of 2,000 people back in the ‘80s. Talking about being gay was not even a thing that you would do. Growing up like that back then, the only thing that we heard about being gay in the ‘80s was AIDS. To have these Pride celebrations and to know that there’s kids who are like I was in these tiny little towns, now knowing that there are like-minded people around, it just shows this incredible heartbeat that we have around America, that we’re everywhere.
I think it’s the most amazing thing. And I love that these celebrations are in the smaller towns now. I think it’s the most important thing to have them in the smaller towns, so people don’t feel like they’re alone. Small-town living is very different than large-town living, so to have that awareness is huge, massive. It’s so important.
Growing up in a small town is tough for LGBTQ+ folks. In those days there was no internet and we weren’t represented well, if at all, on TV. Do you remember what your understanding of being gay was back then?
Back in the day there was no such thing as LGBTQ where I was. There wasn’t even a term, so there was no community to look for. I’m 51 years old and that was not even talked about. It was not a thing. I never went to the big city. I was too far away, and it was a very religious area too where I grew up so there was none of it. To even go back there and try to answer that question, it’s an impossibility.
It just shows how far we’ve come, even just over the last three decades since I came out versus now, it’s insane the amount of accessibility and awareness that we have to our community. It’s amazing that we’re colorful and we’re beautiful and we’re different. I’m obsessed, absolutely obsessed.
I just realized talking about it how lonely life was back then because I didn’t even know who I was. It was not an option to be gay back then and now to see that in my lifetime, I never thought it would even happen.
Do you remember how old you were the first time you even heard the word gay?
The first time I heard gay it was as a slur term. It was not said as a positive thing, as something to be proud of. That took me years and years to wrap my head around, it’s something that was ingrained in me to be something not to be proud of.
Going from that to now a Grand Marshal in a Pride parade is quite a journey. What are you hoping to see when you are riding along that parade route?
I don’t have to hope for it, I know what I’ll see. I am going to see screaming, smiling, happy faces. I’ll see people who feel safe and people who are supporting our community. The allies here in Orlando are like no other place in this nation. There’s no other city that has bigger, more intense allies, and I’ve been all over the country, in big cities and to big prides, and there’s nothing like Orlando. So, I know exactly what I’m gonna see. I’m gonna be seen and I’m gonna be heard in the most positive and wonderful ways, and I f*cking can’t wait.
Do you think you will be getting a tattoo to commemorate this honor?
[Laughs] Hell yeah! I mean, I do have a Pride flag on my leg, but I’ll get lots more. Any excuse to get into the chair. Are you kidding me? Yes, please.
