Talent Show: Up Close With Our Favorite HGTV Hosts

Once a year we have the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of our fave HGTV faces. At this year’s HGTV Wine and Design, we managed to squeeze in a few moments with some old friends like David Bromstad and Vern Yip, but also powwowed with HGTV newbies like our fave NYC neighbors, the Novogratz, and party planner Dina Manzo. We picked their brains to see what makes them tick and like their designs, personalities peeked through. 

Fill in the blank: Wine is to cheese as ______ is to design.

"Color."

What super power do you wish you had when creating a room?

"I don't know if this is a real super power, but if you could just snap your fingers and have what lives up here be down here. My problem is that what goes on in my mind doesn't exist in the real world and I have to build it."

Have you ever had room envy? If so, where and why, and most importantly, whose?

"I would say it was Oprah's closet...until I built my own!"

If you could trade spaces with a design blogger, which one would you choose?

"I don't know many design bloggers. They work me so hard, I don't have time to look at anything but my design plans!"

What's your design pet peeve?
"When people pick like room #3 from Ethan Allen instead of making it their own."

Fill in the blank: Wine is to cheese as ______ is to design.

"Travel."

What super power do you wish you had when creating a room?

"I wish that I could build everything that I can imagine."

Have you ever had room envy? If so, where and why, and most importantly, whose?

"Cote Sud, Cote Ouest, all of the Parisian design magazines drive me wild! There are a couple of things that Mary McDonald has done...Wearstler has a couple of moments...but I usually just go back to ancient history, I love Moroccan, northern African, Middle Eastern, architecture and design."

If you could trade spaces with a design blogger, which one would you choose?

"I'll be you guys!"

What's your design pet peeve?

"I have so many! Shying from color, thinking that beige is the only color in the world—it makes no body happy. A little beige...but beige needs friends."

What super power do you wish you had when creating a room?

"The power of time and money."

Have you ever had room envy? If so, where and why, and most importantly, whose?

"Her, her, her, her, him," she says, pointing out all of her fellow hosts in the room. "All of them!"

If you could trade spaces with a design blogger, which one would you choose?

"I don't really do computer stuff. I'm all about furniture."

What's your design pet peeve?

"Shiny gold. I hate shiny gold door knobs, fake brass — ugly!"

Fill in the blank: Wine is to cheese as ______ is to design.

"I come from a different world. To me, design is like doing your own thing, and being creative, and making it personal, not a formula. Everything I do comes from experience and the heart, so that's kind of hard -- especially when I love wine and cheese. I do think food and design go together though."

If you could trade spaces with a design blogger, which one would you choose?

"I like The Selby a lot because true, really good interior design is personal...it's about stuff that looks like it's been there, like it has a story."

What super power do you wish you had when creating a room?

"I think I got it!" he says, pointing at us.

Fill in the blank: Wine is to cheese as ______ is to design.

Courtney: "Art."

What super power do you wish you had when designing a room?

Bob: "X-ray vision. Your eye is the most important thing in design."

Have you ever had room envy? If so, where and why, and most importantly, whose?

Courtney: "Anything in Europe."

Bob: "Paris...cuz they're cool."

If you could trade spaces with a design blogger, which one would you choose?

Courtney: "I like Coco + Kelley."

What's your design pet peeve?

"When things match and there's no reflection of who you really are, the homeowner."

Fill in the blank: Wine is to cheese as ______ is to design.

"Scott! Just kidding."

What super power do you wish you had when designing a room?

"Mind control is the key. Believe it or not, I'm already using it...to keep my viewers watching."

Have you ever had room envy? If so, where and why, and most importantly, whose?

"Sometimes I do have room envy, I won't lie. When I see something awesome -- immediate room envy. But then I go home and build it for myself; that's what keeps me inspired."

If you could trade spaces with a design blogger, which one would you choose?

"Oh, with you guys. Then people would think I was cute and nice..."

What's your design pet peeve?

"When people design too emotionally and not fundamentally. That means that they don't think about being thrifty or savvy -- they just say 'Ooh...I just want this,' they don't care what it cost and they do it. That's an emotional decision. I like a practical, fundamental one -- 'This is my budget, this is what's going to give me a great return on investment, this is a smart move for the house..."

Fill in the blank: Wine is to cheese as ______ is to design.

"Happiness. I think your personal happiness comes from design."

What super power do you wish you had when designing a room?

"I wish I had that 'I Dream Of Jeanie' blink thing. That would make me very happy."

Have you ever had room envy? If so, where and why, and most importantly, whose?

"Well, because I'm doing this new show House Hunters on Vacation, I have room envy at every single house!"

If you could trade spaces with a design blogger, which one would you choose?

"I love Apartment Therapy. I go to that a lot for inspiration and reference points."

What's your design pet peeve?

"When someone does something just because they think it's the right thing to do...because it looked good in a showroom — I like to see personality."

Fill in the blank: Wine is to cheese as ______ is to design.

"Attitude."

What super power do you wish you had when designing a room?

"Patience."

Have you ever had room envy? If so, where and why, and most importantly, whose?

"Yes! Do you know an architect called Winka Dubbeldam? She's amazing! She did her own apartment in Greenwich Village -- apartment envy!"

If you could trade spaces with a design blogger, which one would you choose?

"I am a big fan of My Favorite and My Best."

What's your design pet peeve?

"People are getting too pop-y. Just because you're contrasting blue and orange, doesn't make you a good designer. Just because you did a whole room in white...There's this trend now to get super graphic and think that just because it's graphic, it's good design. Graphic does not equal good design."