David Bromstad said his December 2025 special may have been his first and last time designing in front of America, a remark that lands as a possible turning point for one of HGTV's most familiar faces. The designer, best known to fans of his makeover shows, said the project gave him room to work on camera again, but also left him sounding ready to step back from that kind of spotlight.
That matters now because the special, My Lottery Dream Home: David's Happy Ending, put his television future into plain view. Bromstad said it was “probably the first and last time I'll be designing in front of America,” adding that it had been so long since he had done any sort of design work on camera. For viewers who have followed his work on My Lottery Dream Home, the line reads less like a tease than a warning.
The special followed Bromstad as he transformed his Florida home into the fairytale retreat of his dreams after a four-year renovation. He said the process let him flex the part of himself that still thinks like an artist. “And I'm an artist, you know? I love my job with Lottery but I am a creative through and through. So it was really nice to be able to flex my muscles a little bit,” he said. He also described the home as a direct expression of who he is, saying his design is “a sneak peek into me as a human.”
But the project was not a simple victory lap. Bromstad said a massive storm wiped out all of his progress, and that the setback came during a period when he was already struggling. In an Instagram Live with Ross Matthews, he said he had turned to unhealthy behaviors and substances after the storm, then checked himself into a trauma-based rehab to clean up his act. The home may have been rebuilt for television, but the road to that point was tied to recovery, and he said the experience pushed him to set healthier boundaries and to start saying no more often since getting sober.
That is the part that gives his television future real weight. Bromstad said he has nothing to prove to anybody but himself after working on his mental health, and that outlook makes another big design special look less certain than it once did. He said the project was creatively inspiring, but also exhausting. For now, the cleanest reading of his comments is that this special may stand as the last time fans see him design in front of America, even if he continues to appear on television in other ways.
