HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – Michael Verdugo, aka Mikey V, has two distinct personas.

His macho side is the Hollywood, Fla., cop who arrests bad guys and boxes a firefighter for the Hollywood Police Athletic League.

The creative side is the decorator and home stager who loves to talk about fabric, cabinetry and which floor plans help sell a house.

It’s the creative side that may just make him a TV star.

Verdugo’s video of his remodeled Davie, Fla., home impressed the judges so much that he is one of nine designers competing on HGTV’s third season of “Design Star.” The designer the viewers select will get his or her own show, joining past winners David Bromstad of Miami, Fla. (“Color Splash”) and Kim Myles of Queens, N.Y. (“Myles of Style”).

What makes this former personal trainer think he has the right stuff to beat competition like Dwayne Paul DeRouen, an architectural designer from Lafayette, La., and Tracee Dore, a designer with 14 years experience from Louisville, Ky.?

“I believe that I should win because I am creative, innovative and have a personality,” Verdugo said as we toured his home.

Design world’s a stage

He calls design “my passion.” Born in Hialeah, Fla., he has been working on homes since he was 13. His stepfather was a kitchen designer, and Verdugo would go along on jobs to help him. Now 33, he has been buying, redesigning and flipping furnished homes for the past 11 years.

“I found they sold better if they were staged, long before anyone knew what that meant,” he said. “I really enjoyed designing and would sell them furnished.”

His knack for staging grew into Elite Home Staging (elitestagers.com), which he operates with David Bowles, a former Realtor and leasing agent. In the past year, they have staged more than 30 homes and condos, ranging from 400 to 6,000 square feet.

He describes his style as minimalist, industrial and comfortable. The best advertisement for his talent is his lakefront home, which he has remodeled from an awkward 1988 design with broken-up rooms to a contemporary, loft-like haven.

You can tell his house is different from the neighbors’ immediately. He covered the partial brick facade with stucco and added a curved wooden walkway, two waterfalls with a pond and well-placed tropical plants – from roebelenii and foxtail palms to ginger and a banana plant.

Kitchen that really cooks

The main living area, which looked cramped with an 8-foot wall separating the kitchen, is now an open and airy great room. He removed a dated mirror and cut vertical openings in the drywall. A Sheetrock protrusion became a 142-inch screen for his projection TV. A pair of lighted niches frame the screen. He added wood floors and stained them black. Area rugs define areas for eating and watching TV.

Verdugo doesn’t cook, but his kitchen could delight a gourmet. A once-dated space was transformed with a glass tile backsplash, stainless steel appliances and Ikea cabinets. A large island was added for entertaining. (The proof of his lack of culinary skill was revealed when he opened the freezer of the French door refrigerator. Inside were frozen dinners and a bottle of Patron tequila.)

“The kitchen is a gathering place,” he said. “I have lots of barbecues and lots of parties. I’m Latin (part Cuban and part Puerto Rican). My family cooks. I built the kitchen for them.”

He also changed the configuration of the master bedroom, adding an entry foyer and opening up walls so the bathroom is open to the sleeping area. The color scheme is neutral, but he added contrast with grass cloth wallcovering and a trio of paintings he created on grass mats behind the bed. He hung track lighting vertically and put the halogen bulbs on dimmers.

The home’s furnishings are minimal with a few well-placed accessories such as three silver bowls on the console (actually a cabinet turned on its side) under the TV screen in the great room. And he’s terribly neat. All his bathroom sinks are clear glass vessels; they don’t have a water spot on them. And his T-shirts are all neatly folded on shelves in his closet.

The force is with him

“When I have a cop car in front, people don’t expect my house to look like this,” he said.

Which brings up another topic. How do the guys on the force feel about his passion for design?

“They understand and support me,” he said. “When we go to Starbucks, they read Guns & Ammo, and I read design magazines.”

His supervisors supported him by giving him the time off to do the show. Verdugo had accumulated extra time and requested a leave.

“If someone has the opportunity to pursue a passion, something they believe in that they are good at outside of law enforcement, it’s good to allow them to do it,” says Assistant Chief Mark May.

“Everyone was glad he was given the opportunity and would like to see him succeed.”

Verdugo spent about two months filming the eight episodes in Nashville. Getting selected was a thrill for someone who was a fan of the first two seasons and sent his video as a long shot.

“Just to be picked and meeting these designers means a lot to me,” he said. “Every week was challenging. The talent is the best. It was tough. I called it designer boot camp.”

So who does he consider the most competition?

Matt Locke from Los Angeles. The son of an architect dad and an artist mom, Locke planned his first bedroom by age 6 and built his first house by 27. A Princeton graduate, he studied fine art and industrial design. He now runs his own custom furniture, lighting and interiors company.

“We both come from a cabinetry background and enjoy building,” Verdugo said. “He’s the one to beat.”

The viewers will decide if Verdugo ends his career as a police officer and becomes the next Design Star. Voting at HGTV.com/designer begins at 10 p.m. July 27 and ends at 10 p.m. July 30.

Decorating tips

You, too, can decorate like the pros on HGTV’s “Design Star.” Here are five ideas from South Florida’s Michael Verdugo:

Looking for minimal window treatments? Use airplane wire ($6 at The Home Depot) and hang it from hooks in the ceiling. Put it on a turn device to tighten the tension. Hang the curtains on hooks from the wires.

Love the look of SubZero appliances but can’t afford them? You don’t have to spend a fortune to have your appliances flush with the kitchen cabinetry. Verdugo brought the 24-inch cabinets out to 30 inches so everything lines up.

Feel claustrophobic in your bathroom? Cut a hole in the wall for light and insert frosted glass for privacy.

Want a more contemporary look for your front doors? Instead of spending $3,000 for double doors, Verdugo hired a company to cut out panels in the doors and install hurricane impact frosted glass.

Want to save on cabinetry? A buffet from Ikea or other piece of furniture works well with vessel sinks on top. Turn an inexpensive kitchen cabinet on its side to make it look like a custom floating cabinet.