Vern Yip knows a thing or two about room makeovers, but his first big renovation was his career.

He had just graduated pre-med from the University of Virginia when he realized he couldn't go through with medical school.

"I knew my entire life what I wanted to do was study architecture," Yip said. "To me, the built environment has such power to kind of enhance the quality of all of our lives, and so for me, that's what I was always passionate about."

After two bachelor's degrees from U-Va., and both a master's in architecture and an MBA from Georgia Tech in the mid-1990s, Yip found himself making $24,000 a year at an architectural firm, "extraordinarily thrilled to be able to have the opportunity to make a living doing something that I loved."

He rose to fame after being cast as one of the original designers on TLC's "Trading Spaces." Yip also served as a judge on HGTV's "Design Star." Now he hosts "Deserving Design" on HGTV, in which he redesigns rooms for people who are helping or inspiring others.

Describing himself as "a person who appreciates the beauty and simplicity of a line versus a lot of patterns," he has won fans both on and off the set with his trademark uncluttered designs.

Yip, 39, was interviewed from Atlanta, his adopted hometown.

Q. How would you describe your approach to design?

A. I really take a very eclectic approach, because that's sort of where things are today and where they will I think always be. We're sort of past the day of everything being one style in somebody's home. It doesn't have to be all French or all traditional or all colonial or all contemporary.

Q. What is your house like?

A. My own home is very diverse. I have traditional antiques. I have contemporary photography. I have furniture from the modernist period. I have things that date thousands of years back and hundreds of years back and things that date from, like, yesterday at Ikea.

Q. Talk about "Deserving Design."

A. Every single week we get to inspire our viewers by telling the story of somebody who's doing something amazing with their own life and in many instances doing something amazing for the lives of other people as well. And I as a designer, I get inspired by hearing about what somebody else is doing with their lives.

Q. Anything else you'd like people to know?

A. For me, one of the very, very special things about growing up in the Washington, D.C., area that has really helped me as a designer has been being surrounded by so many different cultures. (Area residents) may not necessarily appreciate — because I certainly didn't until I moved away — what a special gift it is to live in an area where you have so many different cultures living in one city, and it's definitely affected me as a designer and made me understand that there was that possibility of design elements from all over the world coming together in one space and still being incredibly powerful and beautiful and pulled together.