Orlando Soria’s Unspouse My House Is Your Newest HGTV Obsession

On the new HGTV series, Unspouse My House, host Orlando Soria divulges what many of his fans already know: the heartfelt and hilarious L.A.-based interior designer—a popular, pompadoured Instagram personality with 158,000 followers—has a lot of experience with “getting dumped” (his preferred, maximally honest way of putting it).

There was the first big heartbreak: “Yes, my relationship is over. The relationship I waited my whole life for, since I came out at age 15, is through. And I’m, like, totally a disgusting mess,” Soria wrote on his blog, Hommemaker, in 2013. (“Hommemaker isn’t just a name, it’s kind of the way I am,” Soria says. “I live to…be domestic. For some reason my spirit animal is an oppressed 1950s housewife.”)

Four years later, on Valentine’s Day 2017—amid clever, colorful entries about art and sunny California decor—came another breakup post, entitled: “My Life Burnt to the Ground So I’m Building a New One!” Soria had been dumped again, by the “handsome French guy” he’d renovated and furnished a condo with (an unabashed lover of puns, Soria had nicknamed the place Orcondo).

“And with that, my heart was ripped out of my chest, put into a blender, mixed with battery acid, and then put back into my chest,” he lamented. Soria documented the journey of moving into a new place on his own—an “old-Hollywood, French Provencal–style” apartment he anointed Chateaulando—both on his blog and in Instagram Stories, making for an Under the Tuscan Sun–like journey of starting over and rebuilding, in both the emotional and home design senses.

The process has made Soria uniquely qualified to host Unspouse My House, premiering Thursday, June 6, in which he’ll help the heartbroken revamp their spaces and start fresh after divorce or other breakups. I may or may not have cried in episode one, when Michele, a divorced mom of two, finally rids her living room of her ex’s ratty recliner.

Soria spoke with Vogue about the healing power of design, the joys of decorating while single, and what he’s learned about love as HGTV’s newest budding star.

You’ve been open about the pain of going through a breakup, and then moving out and redesigning your new space. How did you decide to turn your experience into a show?

I’d been working with a producer for years trying to develop a show…and then I went through this breakup, and I moved into this new apartment and it was a hard year and I was really depressed. And something that I noticed later was that the process of getting this place furnished, and renovating the kitchen and just doing projects around the house, was a great distraction from the breakup itself, and also a great way of tearing my brain away from the past and focusing it on the future.

Often, after breakups, people make themselves over with a new haircut or clothes. What is the Unspouse My House argument for making over your home instead?

There’s so much history and baggage that goes into the things that surround us. But one of the main reasons for this show is that when people are going through breakups, logistically, it’s a nightmare. Like, I moved into a new apartment, I had no furniture because I had completely furnished this place with my ex, and it just made more sense to leave everything. People going through breakups or divorces are always dealing with this weird design conundrum, which is like: ‘Dude, I only have half the furniture,’ or ‘I have all the furniture and I hate it because my ex-wife chose it.‘ Houses are in disarray. When your house is not settled, it’s very hard to feel settled yourself.

It’s particularly satisfying watching Michele, your first client, simply pick out a new coffee table without having to ask anyone else’s opinion. Is there a certain empowerment to design too?

Going through a breakup, obviously, it’s a terrible time of your life. But one of the silver linings is that you get to make design decisions without having to worry about somebody else. That is a really empowering thing for people. Especially people who haven’t necessarily considered what their style might be, who felt kind of repressed. It’s like design therapy. You’re thinking about the interior design of your home, but that always leads to thinking about, ’What is going to be happening in my life? And, who am I? And what things do I like? What spaces do I care about?’ I found, on every episode, it really helped build people back up and just get them excited about their lives again.

You say upfront that you have a lot of experience being dumped. Some people would stuff that down and not share it. But you do, particularly on Instagram. Why?

As somebody who has been gifted and earned this following, I’ve tried to figure out ways that I can use it that are helpful to people. In all honesty, I have a pretty privileged, nice life. So me just talking about that sounds, a) really basic, and b) boring, and c), sort of detrimental to people who see it. I think talking about things that we’re struggling with and feelings of rejection is so much more helpful to people than being like, ‘Here’s my beautiful latte, I’m a rich person,’ which is basically everyone on Instagram. That’s the goal with the show too, to say, ”Everybody has vulnerability. Everybody experiences loss. How we take those losses and how we figure out how to make lemonade out of lemons is the fun, happy part of life.”

This ethos goes back far for you. Even as a kid, you were part of designing your bedroom in a Mickey motif and redesigning it a million times after. Do you remember any of the things you redesigned it to?

The memory seared into my brain was that I was allowed to paint my own bathroom, and I chose the craziest colors, a sort of peach-pink for the walls and teal for the trim. When I was finished, it looked just like a bad Santa Fe Mexican restaurant. But then my mom helped me paint it back to beige and white. And after that design mistake, I wasn’t afraid to try again.

The HGTV fan base is very passionate. What is your headspace, entering the long and legendary line of hosts in this universe?

I have to say, I’ve actually been very anxious over the past few weeks. I’m excited for people to see the show, but there is huge amount of fear. It’s a very personal project that came out of my own life. These are genuine, real stories and people are honoring us by being vulnerable on every episode. It’s basically going out into the world and being, like, ‘Hey, do you like me?’ It’s a pretty scary thing, to be honest. I’m trying to be Zen about it.

Hosting a show that’s, in part, about breakups, have you learned anything about your own love life?

I have learned that I thought my breakups were bad, but some of these breakups are crazy. People go through a lot and it’s inspiring to see other people be resilient. We have a guy who’s eight years post-divorce and he’s funny, like, ‘Oh my God, my wife designed this ’80s country kitchen and I hate it. Please get it out of my house.’ That, to a super raw person who’s probably still crying about their breakup every day, but who grew so much throughout the course of the month that we worked together. When you see other people’s humanity, it helps you feel less lonely.

I feel like people are going to watch you and think, “This man is amazing. I want to date him!”

That’s the whole goal. The show is supposed to be, basically, a super Tinder profile.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Originally Appeared on Vogue