Hostess with the mostest

“In fact,’’ says Nayak, 36, as she adds a splash of pink Italian soda to the top of her creation, “I probably wouldn’t be doing television right now if I hadn’t tended bar.’’

Nayak isn’t exaggerating. Her life may now be on a design fast track - she begins filming a new show for HGTV this fall, she’s working on a book, and she appeared on “Oprah,’’ “The Today Show,’’ and “The Early Show’’ earlier this year - but there was a time in the not-so-distant past when Nayak was a stranger to television. As she was finishing her degree in interior design at the Boston Architectural College in 2003, a friend and fellow bartender encouraged Nayak to audition for “Knock First,’’ a teen decorating show created by Boston-based production company Scout. She initially pooh-poohed the idea, but then decided to audition.

Fearing that her teen slang was out of date - she was 30 at the time of the audition - she spent time on public transportation as kids were getting out of school to better relate to her young clients.

“It was like a foreign language,’’ she says with a laugh. “I had no idea what they were saying.’’

Fortunately, her good nature and design skills impressed producers more than her grasp of teen speak, and shortly before graduating from BAC, she was hosting her first TV show.

Her TV career took off quickly, but Nayak confesses she was aimless about her profession for years. Before BAC, she’d collected a degree in marketing, but was miserable with sales jobs. There was nothing about her youth that would indicate that she would go on to a career in interior design. She confesses, after a few sips of her cocktail, that even as a child growing up in South Weymouth her room was generally a mess. But a love of good design was passed down to Nayak from her father, an architect who owns the Braintree firm B.D. Nayak Architects & Planners. To attend MIT, he moved the family from India to the South Shore when his daughter was 2 years old.

“I was the only girl in drafting class in junior high, and I always wanted to be an architect,’’ she says. “But my dad talked me out of it. He is a business owner so he was always working long hours. I think he wanted me to have a life that was a bit easier than that.’’

Nayak may not have settled on a profession that’s more leisurely than architecture - she works long, hectic hours in Washington, D.C., where she films “Designed to Sell’’ - but she certainly chose one that suits her effervescent personality and good taste.

“There are some shows you work on where the talent is just the talent. They finish the day, and they’re gone,’’ says Jeff Martinez, a former “Designed to Sell’’ series producer who worked with Nayak on 93 renovation projects. “Taniya is definitely not that person. She is exactly how she comes across on camera. She’s a lot of fun.’’

Nayak recently renovated the condominium in Milton that she shares with her husband, Brian O’Donnell, a partner in several Boston restaurants and clubs such as Felt, Vinalia, Lobby, Revolution Rock Bar, McGreevey’s, and 88 Wharf Riverfront Grill. Nayak gamely stepped in and decorated 88 Wharf - which is downstairs from her condo - as her first solo attempt at restaurant decor. Just as her television career can be traced back to her stint as a bartender, so can her marriage. The couple met when Nayak was bartending, and O’Donnell was her manager.

The two are a study in personality contrasts. O’Donnell is just as reserved as Nayak is outgoing. As she gives a tour of the couple’s home, she points to a photograph she took of her husband peering grumpily through a glass of wine.

“It sums him up perfectly,’’ she jokes.

The couple moved from South Boston to Milton in May after several months of working on their new home. The (almost) finished product nicely sums up Nayak’s design aesthetic. Most of the palette is neutral and the space is filled with contemporary furniture that hews closer to traditional than avant garde.

“But if you look around, you’ll see pops of color in the neutral,’’ she says. “The green is the accent color, but I could have gone with cobalt or orange. You can completely change the look of the space by changing the pillows, or the window treatments, or adding a few vases.’’

Her home looks as pristine as her television work. On “Designed to Sell,’’ she is given a pair of carpenters and a budget of $2,000 to update a house and help it sell quickly. While she plans her designs and shops for paint and accessories ahead of time, her team has just three days to renovate the home and finish all the projects that they work on. She’s one of the team, dirtying her hands painting, cleaning, decoupaging, and stapling. There are nights that she finds herself finishing projects at 3 a.m.

“It’s not entirely glamorous,’’ she says. “I think you can tell that we genuinely have a blast. We’re like a family, and we make fun of each other constantly.’’

All that hard work has given Nayak a chance to host her own show. Late next month, she’ll begin filming a new HGTV show in New York called “Staycation.’’ She describes the show as a way for people to meld their love of travel and design. She’ll offer advice on incorporating elements of travel into people’s homes that are not literal or conventional. The goal is for people to feel as if their home is their favorite retreat. She’s also in the early stages of a book, and is thinking about launching a home accessories line.

In addition to her very public work, Nayak occasionally takes on private clients and has decorated spaces for “Desperate Housewives’’ star Jesse Metcalfe and Massachusetts native Erik Per Sullivan of “Malcolm in the Middle.’’ In just six years, she has pulled off 500 renovations. She’s energetic, loves her work, and adores being on camera. She realizes, however, that much of her success can be attributed to an increased interest in do-it-yourself home decorating. Homeowners now follow interior trends as fervently as they follow fashion.

“People actually care about what their houses look like,’’ she says. “Think back to your parents’ house growing up. Some parents cared about their houses, but for the most part it was just about comfort. Now it’s all changed. Lucky for me, people care a lot more about their surroundings.’’

Christopher Muther can be reached at muther@globe.com.