Who knew a person could paint a dining room screaming tangerine with orange accents?

That a mid-century pink bathroom actually looks good with tomato-red walls? That painting the family room eggplant works well in a quirky, offbeat palette.

Christoph Earnest, 45, and his partner, Johnnie Hurst, 43, believe in taking chances.

"I've always liked color," says Hurst, an accountant. "I especially like it in older houses because it really enhances the space. Everything has to be bright and vivid - no cream colors."

The tangerine dining room?

It's his signature color.

"I've always used the color everywhere I've lived," Hurst says. "It's also a food color so it works well. I said, 'Let's make this room look like a big dessert - like orange sherbet.'"

The two take the same kind of chances with real estate, moving from a beachfront condo in Clearwater to Tarpon Springs then to Old Seminole Heights two years ago because they longed to be back in the thick of Tampa's energy.

"We love the eclectic feeling of this community, keeping in mind that this is still a transitional area," says Earnest, a nursing auditor who commutes daily to Largo. "It's been totally a positive experience with only one exception: We don't have the Gulf of Mexico at our back door."

The trade-off: At 2,600 square feet, the 1920s bungalow on Suwanee Avenue in Old Seminole Heights offers much more space than the typical beachfront condo. They even have a detached garage and studio as well as a utility room big enough for a washer and dryer, pantry shelving and an extra refrigerator. Another closet off the hallway is large enough to accommodate a grooming table for their beloved Lady Marmalade, an inquisitive miniature schnauzer with a pink collar and her own extensive collection of toys.

The rambling old house is perfect for a couple of collectors with a taste for everything from display-size gems and minerals, to artistic crosses, to antique pinball machine marbles, to funky frogs, to contemporary ceramics.

In a built-in alcove in the den, they cleverly stuffed their collection of frog figurines that now numbers in the thousands. On the kitchen counter are frog cookie jars that Earnest, who worked for years as a pediatric and maternity nurse, picked up at hospital gift shops.

"For some reason, hospital gift shops are always great places to find frogs," he says.

His other inspiration for collecting? Thrift stores. And he's not choosy.

"I never drive by one without stopping," he adds with a grin.

Over the years, they've grown their furniture collection. The dining room table and chairs and the Italian, hand-burled birch bedroom set are treasured purchases from Galloway's Furniture. A collection of lamps, small, large and novelty-shaped, including one that looks like a martini glass, help create a relaxing mood in the house.

Outside, the plain, gray and white house offers no clue to the vibrant decorating and funky collections inside.

"People are shocked when they come in - no one expects it to look the way it does," Earnest says with a laugh. "They expect it to be plain like the outside."