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Friday, 29 March 2024

Inside Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent’s NYC Townhouse

Credit: Architectural Digest
Duration: 10:28s 0 shares 1 views

Inside Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent’s NYC Townhouse
Inside Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent’s NYC Townhouse

Star interior designers Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent return to Architectural Digest to bring you inside their New York City townhouse.

When planning a move east with their family from Los Angeles, Nate and Jeremiah needed a space where their children would feel secure but with the potential to incorporate their own inimitable styles.

- Hey guys.- Hi guys.- Welcome to our home in New York City.- We're back!- Yeah, here we are.Come on in.[chill music]So this is our parlor, as you can see.We bought a townhouse thathas sort of half of a parlor'cause there's this hugeglass railing behind.And we didn't know how to use this room.- I mean we have this dreamof it being our grownup space,but at the end of the day it's reallythe idea is that it's aplace where we come upand have a cocktail, we can hang out,have a nice quiet moment.But designing it was...- A disaster.- Yes.- It was honestly the worstexperience of our design careers.- There's three different entrances.- Yeah, so where do you put the sofa,where do you put the chair?We just landed on this twoseconds before everybody arrivedto take pictures of the house.- Coming from LA we reallywanted to find a placethat our children feltsafe, that felt like a home.And this house, the second we walked in,even though it didn'tlook anything like this,we knew that we couldreally make it our ownand we could grow as a family here.- Guys, this is super cool.So this structure, this glass railingand this crazy glass bridge, was here.So one of the reasons we loved this houseis this is the family room down hereand you get this incredible volume.I think the coolest thingwe did to this renovationwas design and build this bookshelf,which is actually floating on the wall.But we connected it as wellto a bookshelf downstairsand we centered the sofathere in the middle.We downsized from LA, so basically thisentire space would've fit intoan eighth of our living room.But as our eyes travel around the roomthey land on things that've come with usfrom home to home, combinedwith some new things.Like these sconces next tothis thing from Mexico City,from Pedro Friedeberg,from a thousand trips ago.It's great I think tofill a home with thingsthat tell the story of you and your familyand that's what we've tried to do here.- Dang it.- Not scary, not scared.- I thought I was gonna get ya.- Not scared.All right guys, so part of the home...- Our favorite room in the home.It's where the day starts,it's often where the day ends.So we really wanted to treat thislike the heart of the home.It's a space where we can laughand we've got friends and family over.The kids sit here everySaturday and Sundayand bake pancakes with me in the morning.- We didn't move any cabinetry,we didn't move any appliances,and by doing that we saved a lot of money.We were able to spendmoney on the finishesof things that mattered to us,like this beautiful faucet.- This is from Van Cronenburgand it was always a fantasy of mineto create something with them.This is custom, it doesn't exist,which is so strange, andI feel like such a dadthat I'm so excited about a faucet.But that's where I'm at.I wear high-waisted pantsand I care about faucets.- We added chicken wireto the upper cabinets.We just cut out the inside,or our contractor did,because we wanted to be able to see...I love when you're doing stuff to mewhen I'm trying to talk, it's amazing.- I like your hand movements.- It's like, anyone married?- It's like Pictionary.- Anyway, in a small space it's greatto be able to see all the dishes.The stove, babe.- [Jeremiah] Yes, I had to have this one.We wanted it to be boldand I've always wanteda La Cornue, and I cook on it everyday.- You like it.- And it's amazing.- You like it.I don't cook, I clean it.- One thing that werealized, like most families,is that we basically live in the kitchen.And it is such a luxuryto be able to have a TV,a hangout room that's open to the kitchen.This is where we're at constantly.- The thing is is thatthis was a major decision.We moved with both kids,we knew what our lifestylewas gonna be, and you cansee the volume in this space.So this makes us feellike we're actually usingand interacting with the entire houseeven though we spend 95% of our time here.- All right, so strangely,the other day I looked overand our son had taken a black penand he had drawn allover that suede ottoman.- What was really interesting to meis that Oskar got every single section.- Yeah.- It wasn't like he justwent on one section,he just went around,and around, and around.- He's thorough, very thorough.- He did a great job.- He's thorough at everything he does.- I started buyingJeremiah lighting as gifts.- All of the lamps werepresents, you realize that?- I know, this little guy wasa birthday present to Jeremiah.it used to be in ourliving room in Los Angeles.And it makes me sohappy to look at it too.And I'm glad it makes you happy'cause you're not aneasy person to buy for.- I don't agree with you.- This bronze by our friend James Brownwho lives and works in Mexicois one of my all-timefavorite things in the home.- Do you know James Brown gave methe best life advice ever?- No, what did he say?- He said, to make sureI stretch and save.- Stretch and save.- That's all it takes.Where's Poppy?Where?She's so quiet.Hi lovebug.- Hi bug.Look at this thing.- No.- Oh yeah.- No!Get outta here.- Pops, you want one?- Yeah, I want three.- No.- You can have one.- What do you say?- Fine, one.- All right, scram.- All right, beat it.- I love you, give me a kiss first.Uh uh.[laughing]- Some sugar.- Perfect.Okay, come on in.Come on.- Well we can't use that take.- Could've used it man, it's real life.- All right, well then great, go.- All right, when we bought this housethere was no real master dressing roomthat was gonna work for the two of us.So this is entirely new,we built the entire space.- And what's cool about this roomis that this was part of the bedroomso this casing is all newand then there's storagebehind all of these doorswith the fabric behind.And that is really what we needed.Our bedroom is very serene,super thick carpeting.We've got all sort of monochromatic,this Matt Connors painting thatwe've moved from home to home.- [Jeremiah] It's so cozy,everything has a purpose,everything has a function.It's just a cozy room.- One thing we love is this sitting area.It's sort of sculptural,this table used tosit in our kitchen in Los Angeles.This chair is part of ourcollection for Living Spaces.- But when we purchasedthe house the fireplace,this all didn't exist before,it was just a marble mantel.So I worked with Cam Studios to reallycraft this shape and this silhouette,kind of inspired by the 1930s.And it's all hand fluted plaster.We're really proud ofthe way it turned out.- And let me show you how it works'cause the mirror, which is centered,is actually only hung on half of it.And then our television is back here.Both of these doors open.- So nobody can know that I sit in hereevery night and watchHouse Hunters before bed.- Every night.- So this was the only stress pointthat Nate had with this entire renovationwas the fact that we were gonnahave to share a dressing room again.'Cause he loved when we lived in LA--- 'Cause he's messy.- I'm not messy.We have different ways of organizing.- Yeah, I'm organized.That's the difference.- This isn't normal.Like I need somebody tolabel where my sweaters go.- I can't believe you're actuallyshowing everybody, it's a mess.- Yeah, you seem normal.- [Nate] I just want you guys to know,these are my two little sections.- They're very large.- Just right here.- I feel like it's adequate.- And this is Jeremiah's section.See that?- [Jeremiah] This is myinvestment portfolio.- [Nate] And that's his shoe section,that's the shoe department.- It was really about usingevery square inch of spaceand making sure that it was smart storage.And ironically it fits us perfectly,it's nothing more, nothing less.And I just have to--- You really are still messy.- I just have to step up myorganization game apparently.I'm not messy.- This room makes me so happy.- [Jeremiah] I know- It's like this bright,happy, cute land for Poppy.- One thing about this movethat was really important,unlike the room that she had previously,is that we wanted her to haveall of the design direction.She got to choose the wallpaper,she wanted pink carpet, shewanted her bed to be pink,she wanted everything tobe pink, and so it is.- What's special about this roomis that it's actually not that differentin terms of the things that we hadin her bedroom in California.I love this old antique benchcovered in this Lisa Fine polka dot.We did recover her bed,which was a lighter pink.But all of these things aremeaningful to our familyand meaningful to Poppy.The Hunt Slonem painting,this is Geraldine Neuwirth,who, these are all friends.The shell necklace was from James Brown,who did the bronze downstairs.- I think having children it's reallygiven us an opportunityto experiment with colorin a way that neither oneof us ever did before.- Now that is the god's honest truth.- I would never havegravitated towards this paletteand I have to tell you, I really love it.We're up here every night,rolling around with the kids.We're just really grateful thatwe get to give this to her.- This is the domain oflittle Mr. Oskar Brent-Berkus.I love this bedroom, I think this isthe cutest boy's room on Earth.Both of us don't believe inbuying nursery furniture.The crib is obviously nursery furniture,but this beautiful armoire we actuallyjust had rods put insidebecause little kids clothingis this big, so it's easy.The painting behind Oskar's crib says,always on the edge of somewhere.That was painted by ourfriend Michael Hainey.And this is one of two ofFernando Bengoechea's photographs,my former boyfriendwho died in the tsunamiwhose name was Fernando Oskar Bengoechea.And that's why Oskar is named Oskar.- It's really about, again,finding pieces that cantransition with you.We've owned all of these things for years.This was Poppy's crib, it stayed with us.This used to be our candy cabinetwhen we lived in Los Angeles.Everything in here hasa form and a functionand it's changed five different ways.And I think that's really importantwhen you're creatingany space in your house.And I think with nurseries especiallyit's nice to kindabring things and see howyou can adapt them to the baby.We are so happy to beback in New York City.- So happy.- Thank you for letting usshare our home with you.- Thanks for coming over, guys.See you later.- Bye.

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