Rapid Fire

When Wanda Colón, host and designer on TLC’s Home Made Simple, and her manager met for dinner in February, the pair kicked around ideas on how to extend her career in the Latin market.

Colón — born in Pennsylvania to Puerto Rican parents — decided to make a short film called Salt, which she calls “dark, funny and about the fact that if a Latin woman is making you a meal, make sure you taste it before you add salt!” Five days later, the film had been written and shot, and in April it won a prize at the WorldFest International Independent Film Festival in Houston.

Colón is used to working quickly. She was part of the team on HGTV’s 24 Hour Design and since last year has taped three seasons of Home Made Simple. On the makeover show — which returned this fall — Colón has three days to meet with each episode’s homeowners and create and execute a design plan.

“[The short time] allows me to be as creative as possible,” says the Los Angeles–based designer, whose private clients have included Cher and Kelsey Grammer. “I don’t know where I come up with some of the ideas — it’s the pressure!”

One of Colón’s favorite episodes involved a boy with a firefighter dad. She redid the child’s room as a fire engine, with red paint, hubcaps on the walls and a fire hose as a chair rail element. “Viewers could use a rope instead of the hose,” she notes.

A more poignant show revolved around a father of two whose wife had died suddenly. “As a designer and artist, I was inspired,” she says. “We prefer to do families who need us.”
At such times, her Latin heritage comes to the fore. “I wear my heart on my sleeve. And I’m hardworking — my parents taught us that.

“There are times I see a vision of something, and it has to be this way,” she adds. “That’s the Latin fiery part of me.”