Hildi Santo-Tomas (Trading Spaces Designs) Wiki, Age, Children, Husband

Name Hildi Santo-Tomas

Age / How old / Birthday / Date of Birth / DOB April 4, 1961. As of 2025, she is around 64 years old.

Wikipedia Biography / Profile Background

Introduction :

Hildi Santo Tomas is an American TV celebrity & home designer, mainly known for her role in TLC’s and Discovery Home’s show Trading Spaces.

Personal Life : Parents, Family and Education

Love for Design :

Hildi’s love for design started when she was a child. Through the knowledge acquired in university & the experience watching TV programs gave her, she was able to polish her not-so-classic but distinctive style.
As a designer, Hildi always took risks and was known for being creative and having unique ideas. This is what earned her the love of the public & her eccentric art was appreciated in “Trading Spaces.” One season, she even decorated someone’s living room with a painting of her face.

Career, Salary, Portfolio and Net Worth :

In 2000, Hildi became a part of Trading Spaces, a reality show about home design and redecoration. The show has aired for over a decade, with Hildi as one of the main professionals.
In 2003, she made an appearance on the TV series “Pyramid” as a contestant.
Since then she has participated in a few episodes of other shows, such as “Sacred Places” and “Entertainment Tonight.”

Interesting Facts and Trivia :

The digital platform BuzzFeed once made a list of “17 Most Hideous Designs” and criticized Hildi for some of her outrageous designs. Hildi, however, gladly accepts criticism as it helps her become a better designer, but her offbeat ideas are not always well received.
While she is not working on TV, Hildi enjoys spending her free time visiting museums or gallery arts that inspire her. She told the platform Good Housekeeping that she “goes to two or three different museums every week.”
The viewers know Santo-Tomas as the “hay room designer” because she decorated the walls of one of her clients’ rooms with hay. She put glue on the walls and instructed her workers to stack hay on them. Her fellow designers warned her against this idea, as there were both a toddler and a baby living in the house, but she went ahead anyway. The owners were very disappointed when they saw the final result. Apparently, taking the hay off the walls took over 17 hours and was paid by the production company of “Trading Spaces.”
The magazine Curbed praised her artistic work in an article where they gave her the title of “queer icon.” The writer, Michael Ward, highlighted her way of expression and creativity, describing it as an empowerment of the LGBTQ community.