While her taste has refined since her days at UMass-Lowell, where she decorated her dorm room with a sunflower theme, Nayak’s passion for design hasn’t waned.
If you’re an HGTV or Food Network fan, you may know Nayak from shows including HGTV’s “Designed to Sell,” “Build It Forward,” “House Hunters on Vacation,” “Urban Oasis,” and “HGTV Showdown,” as well as Food Network’s “Restaurant: Impossible.” Now the Weymouth High School ‘91 alum is on season 4 of HGTV’s “Battle on the Beach.” Streaming on Max, it premiered June 3 with new episodes airing Mondays at 9 p.m.
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The competitors are three duos, each assigned a beachfront property in Oak Island, N.C., to renovate with the ultimate goal of raising its property value the highest. Nayak and fellow HGTV personalities Ty Pennington and Alison Victoria mentor the teams; the winning team takes home $50,000. (Spoiler alert: Nayak’s team — Samantha and Sean Kilgore of Michigan — won the Main Suite Challenge in episode 2.)
Nayak runs the Boston-based design firm Taniya Nayak Design. She and her husband, Brian O’Donnell, co-own several area restaurants, including Lower Mills Tavern in Boston, Madre Osteria & Bar in Milton, Moonshine Alley in Providence, and Yellow Door Taqueria, with three Boston locations — and a fourth planned for Providence.
I called Nayak — who lives in Milton with her husband and English bulldog, Flynn — to talk about her journey from South Weymouth kid to Boston designer/HGTV regular.
Q. Growing up, you wanted to be an architect. But you majored in business marketing at UMass.
A. My dad was a small-business owner. He felt I should go into a business type of program. After I graduated, I worked a few different jobs, but they weren’t for me. I needed to follow my heart. I went back to school, to Boston Architectural College, for my master’s in interior architecture. That’s where aaallll the gates opened up. I followed my heart and I’m glad I did. My dad is glad, too, in hindsight.
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Q. How did you get started with HGTV?
A. At BAC, the dean sent an email to everybody: “Hey, there’s a TV show casting for designers.” It was for a new show on ABC Family, “Knock First.” I thought, “That sounds fun.” We had to do an audition with teenagers, to design their room. I ended up getting the gig. It truly changed my life because I got bit by the bug: I fell in love with television.
Q. How did it snowball from there?
A. When it ended, I was devastated. I wanted to do TV for the rest of my life. But I didn’t know how that world worked. Somebody told me to look on Craigslist. There was a posting: “Looking for a young, urban designer for an edgy new series on HGTV.” I thought: “I’m young. I’m urban. I’m edgy. Let’s do this.” I emailed and got a call within 30 minutes.
Q. Wow.
A. I know. It was unbelievable. Thank goodness it was real. [Laughs]
Q. Right! And what was it for?
A. A show called “FreeStyle.” They had me first in New York. They wanted me to commute; it just wasn’t paying the bills. I asked if I could do it in Boston. They agreed.
Then they asked if I wanted to be HGTV network talent. When you become network talent, you’re really a part of the HGTV family. I moved out to Washington, D.C., for a [primetime] show “Designed to Sell.” That was a big career-booster.
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Then it was show after show — until suddenly, we had a halt. I thought, “Oh, man, now what?” I was designing restaurants for my husband here in Boston, and one of my [HGTV] producers said, “I’m going to work on ‘Restaurant Impossible.’ They need designers. Would you be interested in auditioning?” I said, “I’d love to.” I ended up doing 23 seasons.
Q. Wow. So it was 23 seasons, but over 11 years.
A. Yeah, we cranked them out.
Q. How did you start designing restaurants?
A. Restaurants are my husband’s world. He went to Johnson & Wales. Our lives merge because I design his restaurants.
Q. How’d you meet?
A. I was a bartender; he was my manager at Pravda in Boston, which turned into Whisky Saigon [around 1999]. We’ve been together 23 years now, married 17.
Q. You also have your design group in Boston, that you started In 2005.
A. We design restaurants all across the country. We do high-end residential, condos, marketplaces, hotels. We designed [Boston Bruin] Patrice Bergeron’s home. We worked with Robert Irvine, host of “Restaurant Impossible” on his home. We did [chef and cookbook author] Ayesha Curry’s office and test kitchen — Steph Curry’s wife.
Q. I read you worked with Aerosmith’s Joe Perry?
A. That was “Knock First” — it was his son’s room we did on the show.
Q. So this is your fourth season of “Battle on the Beach.” What do you like about it?
A. Everything. We’re on the beach, building houses — what else could you ask for? It reminds me of an HGTV version of “The Voice.” You’ve got mentors coaching teams for a win, but viewers will have their own opinions.
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Interview was edited and condensed.
Lauren Daley can be reached at ldaley33@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @laurendaley1.
