This month, sophisticated designer Doug Wilson is hailing the publication of his first book, Doug’s Rooms: Transforming Your Space One Room at a Time. And, even while sitting for A&U’s photo shoot, he took a working-lunch break to finalize a deal—by phone—for a new line of home lighting that will bear his name. Still, he took time to tell our writer, B. Andrew Plant, that “groundedness” is as important to him as creativity and challenging himself professionally. Case in point: He devotes much of his energy to creating ways to make a difference in the lives of children with cancer and people living with HIV/AIDS.

You might say it is because of his work on behalf of HIV/AIDS that Doug Wilson is the design celebrity he is today. You see, the man who you know as the quintessential showman on TLC’s hit television series Trading Spaces worked on a decorator’s showhouse several years ago that benefited Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. (Broadway Cares is the nation’s leading industry-based, not-for-profit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organization.)

“That showhouse got me the exposure in House & Garden [magazine] that led to [my opportunity with] Trading Spaces,” Doug tells me during a break from a photo shoot he was doing for this magazine in New York City. And, as is often the case with the designer-turned-television-personality-turned-author-turned-entrepreneur, his delivery of this bit of information is matter-of-fact. Not that he trivializes this or any of his many other noteworthy accomplishments; rather, for all of his many obvious blessings, he is very down to earth.

Fans of Trading Spaces may not think “down to earth” and “Doug Wilson” belong in the same sentence. After all, on that show, which has friends or neighbors redecorate a room in each other’s homes over a period of two days, Doug is the consummate pot-stirring bad boy designer. He has thrown furniture out a window, literally, on one episode, and one of his favorite makeover rooms on another episode was a yellow-and-black dining room.

“The show is about entertainment first,” Doug told me, “and decorating next. I hope people like the rooms we help their friends or neighbors create, but we also want to challenge people in both houses and push limits and have fun.” Most participants love the results. Others have, well, cried….

But upon meeting Doug, you see rather quickly that he is indeed likeable; he also, at forty (this month, complete with a celeb-rich party at a fave Manhattan nightspot he helped decorate), has maintained model good looks and a physique that likely don’t hurt his appeal with viewers. At the same time, people also “get” his “groundedness,” as he calls it.

That quality most likely has to do with a Midwestern upbringing that included a practical approach to life on a working farm that has been in the family for 125 years. “That kind of commonsensical upbringing helps me see that everything is intertwined,” he says.

The “heartland” facets of Doug are a theme we’ll touch on sporadically throughout our afternoon together, but he was here to talk about AIDS…and to vamp for the camera. And he did both with the courtesy and grace of someone mostly unaffected by his own celebrity.

“The first up-close experience I had with HIV/AIDS was living in New York, going to acting school,” he tells me. “I saw AIDS and [AIDS actions] firsthand. I’ve been fortunate that I still don’t have close-close friends who have passed away [from AIDS-related causes], but I have friends who are positive, certainly.

“Being in the design industry, I’ve tended to meet more people who are affected by HIV and AIDS,” he says. “The design industry…and of course my theater background…have been my main connections to the AIDS crisis.” Doug originally moved to New York City to be an actor, studying at the National Shakespeare Conservatory.

Eventually, his theatrical pursuits gave way to his aptitude for and love of design, and Doug developed an impressive interior design career, working with such clients as Barbara Walters and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He also collaborated with top-name designers, seen regularly in the pages of Architectural Digest.

“Whether it was working on theater sets or stage lighting, I didn’t realize most all of the skills I was exposed to were going to come in handy later on when I became a designer,” he says, again connecting to a favorite theme—that most everything in life is somehow intertwined. “It all always seems to come full circle…but you have to be open to that and look for it and make the most of it.”

Indeed, Doug’s design mastery led to his involvement with a number of AIDS-related charities, including The Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA), the oldest and one of the largest funders of HIV/AIDS service and education programs in the country. “For a DIFFA event, I created a mask that won top honors,” he says, impishly relating that “I beat out [professional artist] David Rockwell in the fundraising art auction; I was so pleased about that. It was great to create something for a great cause, then win! I really felt like I was doing my part.”

One major project to which Doug recently gave a significant amount of his time is not directly AIDS-related, but it certainly affirms his intent to “give back” and will ultimately benefit pediatric AIDS patients: He is part of a one-year partnership between TLC’s hit show Trading Spaces: Family (an extension of the Trading Spaces show and brand) and the Ronald McDonald House Charities. At the heart of the project is the donation of a room makeover to the Grand Rapids Ronald McDonald House in Michigan. Doug, of course, designed the room.

As you likely know, Ronald McDonald Houses are located near major medical centers that include pediatric units. The houses serve as a home-away-from-home for families dealing with major pediatric health crises.

The idea to do something for the Ronald McDonald House Charities “started with my nephew’s illness,” he says. “My family benefited from the Ronald McDonald House in Chicago. I saw that families going through things like this must often go to another city and find a place to stay and stomach the hotel bills and that kind of thing for significant periods when they are away from home. That can be daunting when you are already dealing with a health crisis.”

Doug’s nephew, Tyler Wilson, died this past year at age five after a two-and-one-half year battle with a rare cancer called rhabdoid cancer. Losing the “angelic” little boy has further shaped Doug’s philosophy around illness and death.

“Tyler had flu-like systems, then it turned out to be this rhabdoid cancer,” he says. “My experience is that kids with [serious illnesses] often seem to be the kids who are bright and have such spunk and energy. And, again, it may sound corny, but it’s almost as if they have such a short time that God has given them that special gift….Tyler always commanded attention; people were drawn to him. He was funny.

“The Ronald McDonald House [in Chicago] provided them with a place to stay and, more importantly, a broader family of sorts to support them during their stay,” Doug tells me. “It is a great support mechanism for a lot of people out there who could otherwise feel very alone.”

Fortunately, little Tyler never seemed to feel alone. “When it came to his attitude, you never knew Tyler was sick,” Doug says, still every bit the proud uncle. “For instance, if other kids asked why he had no hair—why it had fallen out—he would say, ‘I have to take medicine that makes my hair fall out.’ In that way, he was very naïve about it [the illness], which is sort of a blessing.”

As you might imagine, a person as bright and creative as Doug faces challenges with a quest to know as much as he can about the subject at hand. “Rhabdoid cancer is very rare and the [prognosis] is poor. Nobody knows that much about it or how to completely treat it. That’s sort of a parallel to AIDS,” he says. “We all had to learn about it together and what you learn is not always encouraging.”

Doug and the extended Trading Spaces family started the Ronald McDonald House makeover on a Monday [the Monday following our interview, in fact] and had a “reveal party” of the new room on the following Saturday, giving them six days in which to make over the space. “It is all well planned out; we’ve been working on this a long time. We want to do it right.”

His vision for the room is drawn directly from his family experience with Tyler. “I wanted to push for…a welcoming, purposeful room. We’ve created a spot where the kids can play computer games and feel at home and have some things to capture their attention and fill their time, enjoyably. Maybe help take their minds off the medical crisis. Whether it’s cancer or AIDS or whatever else…people need that break. That ‘normal’ place to just be.”

Doug says he firmly believes in the universality of keeping a positive attitude; the need to stay focused on the possibilities. So, this fall, as you see promotional spots for the Ronald McDonald room makeover by Doug on TLC and the rest of the Discovery family of channels, you’ll know that it’s part of his way of accentuating the positive when faced with serious illness and the loss of a child in his own family.

“I want to get the point across that you may not have money to give to a charity, whether that is Ronald McDonald House or Broadway Cares or DIFFA, but you can help raise money or give your time and talents,” he says. “My making-over this room is the giving of my abilities. My time. So ‘just’ volunteering means a lot.”

And, just as Doug finds ways to help extend his own “brand”—for instance, by branching out from Trading Spaces to two additional TLC television shows, America’s Ugliest and Moving Up—he continues to find ways to make his family’s experience with Tyler’s death lead to “greater good.”

“We had an auction for Tyler in the community where my family lives, and raised $70,000 in one night,” he says with a big-hearted smile. “That may not sound like a lot sitting here in New York, but that’s a lot of money to raise in a small community.” A fund was set up—the Tyler Wilson Fund—the details of which have not all been worked out, that will help other kids who face illness and their siblings and families.”

The ways in which Doug is helping the memory of Tyler live on and serve others is obviously a point of deep pride for him. “Doing some work that celebrates Tyler and that may help other kids and families who face challenges like that…is my best work,” Doug says.

Just as his design work helps show us all how to make our living spaces more beautiful, it seems as though Doug’s philanthropic work offers a good example of how to make living more beautiful.

“Doing what you can…approaching life from a practical, cyclical standpoint is important and goes beyond tangible things,” he says. “You just deal with things; you don’t turn your head or bury it in the sand or wait for someone else to do something. It’s not even enough to say you have to be part of the solution. Sometimes you have to create the solution.”

And that’s a hands-on design plan Doug prescribes for any of life’s challenges—including AIDS.

To keep track of Doug Wilson and his many current projects, visit www.douglaswilsonltd.com.

Grooming by Timothy Fischetti. To contact photographer Francis Hills or view more of his work, log on to www.francishills.com.

B. Andrew Plant is an Atlanta-based freelance writer and is Editor at Large of A&U. He interviewed gymnast Matthew Cusick for the July issue.

November2004