Just how good is HGTV's David Bromstad (Color Splash)? We'll find out Sunday night, when he takes on rival color diva Constance Ramos (Color Correction) in a mega-gay episode of Summer Showdown. It's kind of like reality competition television but featuring the network's hosts and stars instead of desperate understudies clawing their way up the ladder hoping in search of their fifteen minutes in the spotlight.

David will be joining forces with carpenter Jared Walker Dostie (from Rate My Space, pictured at left), who, like so many in the building trades, is a former actor and model.

David and Jared are going to do a makeover on the tragic bedroom of a young woman who went a little crazy with the maroon paint and lace accents. Will she like David's design best, or Constance's? David told me she liked them both, even though they were worlds apart in design vision.

"Both designs were great, but very different, even though they had similar color stories," he said. "It's amazing what we did with similar color palettes, and how completely different the two designs looked. It was night and day -- which makes for really good TV."

David's not responsible for Summer Showdown's entire gayness factor, though. Not only was Josh "Sparkle" Johnson a judge on the series' first episode, but out gay design team Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams are judging for the rest of the season's challenges. It's like Project Runway, yo, but with furniture and paint.

David thrives on competition, so he didn't mind the tight timeline and other constraints inherent in these types of challenges. "I was scared, I was going into it like I was going to throw up, like it was Design Star all over again," he told me. "But it was just fun. I had a great time doing it. I love competition. I love things on a time limit. I love the Olympics! I love anything that has to do with competing."

He also didn't mind working with Jared. "He's adorable. He's a hottie. I called us 'Team Hot,'" David told me. I'm sure our readers will agree.

Team Hot

David's fans will be seeing a lot more of him soon, too. Not only has HGTV renewed Color Splash for a fifth season, but he just got signed as a spokesperson for Mythic Paint, a line of house paint aimed at those of us who want our walls pretty but without all the volatile organic compounds and various toxins and annoying oderiferous things that make painting so unpleasant.

Unless we can somehow get David to come over and paint the place. Which given that I live in San Francisco, where Color Splash is filmed, I'm working on. 

Design Star's Matte Locke and Michael "Mikey V" Verdugo

In the meantime, be sure to check out my new, revealing interview with Design Star's Mikey V, who discusses why he wasn't introduced to the press as gay when the season started.

Summer Showdown airs Sunday, August 17, at 9 PM Eastern/Pacific on HGTV.