When Antonio Ballatore won the fourth season of "Design Star" last fall, it was a controversial choice. For starters, the scruffy, tattoo-covered New York native looked more like a biker or a rock-'n'-roll roadie than a professionally trained interior designer (which Ballatore is the first to admit he isn't). And viewers tended to love or hate his unconventional style statements, which included scattering hot-pink ducks across a living-room wall and creating a boldly green master bedroom that was "just shy of being offensive," according to judge Genevieve Gorder. Now Ballatore gets his own design show, "The Antonio Treatment," which premieres Monday at 9 p.m. on HGTV.
Q When you were on "Design Star," Candice Olson called you "the bad boy of design." Do you feel pressure to live up to that?
A "The Tony Soprano of design" -- the whole thing is a trip. I guess I'm just the first guy on HGTV who's a little different. I don't feel pressure. ... I'm not trained to be a designer. I'm just doing what feels right, feels cool.
Q How does your background in set design influence your interior designs?
A As a set designer, you're always under the gun. You're doing major rebuilds in two or three days. I'm used to working under that pressure. I've had to think outside the box, and there are a lot of those tricks I'm bringing in, along with a lot of my guys.
Q You like taking design risks, but risks, by definition, sometimes fail. What's a risk you took that didn't work?
A They all work in one way or another. In each job, I'm growing as a designer.
Q Those pink ducks you put on a white wall on "Design Star" became your signature. What inspired them?
