Dr. Taniya Nayak turns home design into hospitality

Dr. Taniya – Massachusetts designer Taniya Nayak, who is set to serve as an HGTV mainstay again after “Rock the Block,” is balancing a new honorary doctorate, a long-running hospitality-first approach to design, and fresh restaurant projects across the state.

On a recent day in her Milton home, Taniya Nayak looked around mid-sentence—like she was still decorating, even as she talked. “I’m working on my bathrooms now. But as I’m talking to you, I’m looking around thinking: I need new drapes,” she said.

It’s the kind of detail-driven impatience that fits her life lately. This has been a whirlwind year for Nayak—“make that Dr. Nayak,” as she puts it—after receiving an honorary doctorate from Boston Architectural College. In the same stretch. she’s renovating a home with 98 Degrees alum Drew Lachey. wrapped Season 7 of HGTV’s “Rock the Block. ” and keeps building design projects that extend well beyond the walls of any one house.

Nayak is a Massachusetts native and designer known to HGTV audiences from “Designed to Sell. ” “Build It Forward. ” “House Hunters on Vacation. ” “Urban Oasis. ” “HGTV Showdown. ” and “Battle on the Beach.” She most recently wrapped Season 7 of “Rock the Block. ” pairing with Lachey to renovate a Las Vegas home.

Her pull isn’t just television. With her husband Brian O’Donnell. Nayak co-owns and has designed several restaurants across Massachusetts and Rhode Island. including Lower Mills Tavern. Yellow Door Taqueria. Madre Osteria. Moonshine Alley. and Esther’s High Dive. She also starred on Food Network’s “Restaurant: Impossible” for 23 seasons.

Behind all of it is the same design logic she described for her “Rock the Block” win: treat a home the way guests feel when they step into a hotel or a favorite restaurant.

“We addressed it like a hotel suite,” she said, describing how she brings a hospitality flare into her work. “I design restaurants, and my whole M.O. on the show was to bring a hospitality flare. Your favorite hotel room, your favorite restaurant — bring that into your home so you feel that energy.”

She explained that people don’t just browse design from a distance—they “judge it solely on design,” dissecting photos and deciding what they gravitate toward. That idea shaped the multi-generational suite she won on the show, which she said she “color-drenched.”

Nayak and Lachey. she said. are both “the most neutral-color-palette-people you’ll ever meet. ” but she wanted something different for the space. The result. she described. was a playful headboard and a “boutique. bougie hotel vibe.” She also designed the wall covering herself—something she said was a major TV debut for her wall covering line with Len-Tex and MDC Interior Solutions.

She said she’s already seen her wall coverings in large hospitality settings, including Marriott and Hilton hotels. “That was my dream. ” she said. adding that she wants a wall covering to be something a hotel would want for hallways or bedrooms. She also has a tile line with Genrose Stone + Tile based in Connecticut.

The suite, she said, included her tile in the kitchen and one of her wall coverings in the suite itself, a combination that made the project feel especially personal.

Nayak’s design instinct shows up outside the show, too—in how she hunts for pieces and how she approaches a home refresh when time and budgets get tight.

She said she goes antiquing at Brimfield Fair. calling it “incredibly overwhelming. ” but recommending that people plan for it in stages: “It’s incredibly overwhelming. but each year. I learn a little more. I suggest spending a night. The first day, walk around and note what you like. On day two. make your purchases.” She advised bringing a wagon. cash. comfortable shoes. and blankets to wrap items for a car ride.

For local sourcing, she pointed to Manzel in Peabody, saying it has pieces from Morocco, India, and Mexico that look aged and beautiful—hand-carved pieces, chairs, and textiles.

When she talked about her residential portfolio. she returned to the idea that a home should feel like it belongs to the people living inside it. She said her Newton home project for Boston Bruins player Patrice Bergeron—designed in Newton—has since changed hands. but at the time. Bergeron and his family were just starting out. “At the time, they were just starting their family, so they grew their family in that home,” Nayak said. She described the intent as modern with “a timeless appeal.”.

For a project in Seabrook. New Hampshire. Nayak said the owners wanted a house that would work for entertaining and had enough space. They wanted the home to speak to the area. with charm that wasn’t “completely modern”—she pointed to details in the windows—and they were willing to take risks and go outside the box.

Even when she’s not in a full-scale renovation. she said small changes can shift the entire feel of a room. “Change out lighting,” she said. “New rugs or paint can change a room.” She also recommended refacing cabinet updates without a full replacement. noting that there are many ways to refinish a cabinet and that hardware changes can make it look entirely new—so long as the new hardware matches the existing holes. “You’ll save the headache of patching holes.”.

One message she repeated with particular emphasis was pacing. “Most importantly: Don’t rush into it,” Nayak said. “Everybody wants to do it tomorrow. It takes a long time to gather ideas, source items, find the right person to install it, etc. Be patient. It’ll be worth it in the end.” She laughed at the disconnect between how she describes renovation timelines on TV and what real life has demanded of her: in her case. she said it’s been “over a year” trying to get her bathrooms done.

Her restaurant work keeps moving, too. She said she recently finished Sorella Cucina Toscana for a client in Burlington, Massachusetts. She also described another project with Tuscan Brands in Kenmore Square: Buitoni Spaghetti Bar. which she said is slated to open in spring 2027. She’s also doing a smaller project for Mumbai Spice in Boston.

Looking ahead, Nayak said she wants to keep expanding on licensing and branding. She’s also working on a lighting line with Studio M and is doing sketches.

The honorary doctorate is the thread that ties all of it together for her, because it feels like a homecoming. She described it as a full-circle moment after she said Boston Architectural College helped set her first TV job in motion—when the dean sent out a mass email about casting for ABC Family’s “Knock First.” She said she told the ceremony audience: “You guys really changed my life.”.

She also traced the path that led there: wanting to be a designer. with a father who was an architect and small business owner of a Braintree-based architecture firm called B.D. Nayak Architects & Planners. She said she completed her undergrad in business marketing at UMass-Lowell. worked at jobs for several years that she didn’t feel great about because “my heart wasn’t in it. ” then returned to school at BAC for a Masters.

That same practical emotional drive—wanting to make spaces feel welcoming, and then actually building the details—seems to be what she carries from college ceremonies to construction sites.

And as for her partnership with Drew Lachey on “Rock the Block. ” she said he was “the sweetest guy” and “such a hard worker.” When people assumed she’d be excited because he and she were both working in the orbit of pop culture—calling her a “New Kids on the Block girl”—Nayak said Lachey encouraged her to “just tell them the truth. ” adding that he said. “‘You’re a New Kids person.’”.

Even the personal connections show up in the story. She said Jordan and Jon—who she interviewed after they competed on “Rock the Block”—told her they see her at the Milton Starbucks all the time. “We’re Milton people, so we always run into each other,” she said.

Her year, she’s clear, isn’t slowing down. Right now it’s bathrooms and drapes. But it’s also a wall covering line debut. a luxury residential home designed for Patrice Bergeron in Newton. a new restaurant opening slated for spring 2027. and a growing list of hospitality spaces shaped by one belief: a well-designed home should make you feel like a guest who’s already comfortable.

Taniya Nayak HGTV Rock the Block Drew Lachey Boston Architectural College Milton restaurant design Sorella Cucina Toscana Buitoni Spaghetti Bar Patrice Bergeron Bruins home