Nate Berkus
Appearances
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: One Last Gift to Unwrap
Well, my mother was an interior designer here in Minneapolis. I have a younger sister and a middle brother, and he once coined our family phrase as what we did on the weekends is either shop or be left behind. So my mother would take us to auctions and antiques malls and Stillwater and downtown Hopkins and all these places looking at old things and looking at antiques and vintage things.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: One Last Gift to Unwrap
And my job was to carry the wallpaper books in from the trunk of her car to her home office. Which is also why I have muscles.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: One Last Gift to Unwrap
No, but I was definitely sidetracked if somebody was setting up for a garage sale on my way to the bus stop.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: One Last Gift to Unwrap
I'm actually Apollonian. I've morphed. That's amazing.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: One Last Gift to Unwrap
No, I do. My parents gave me my own bedroom because I shared a room prior to that with my filthy younger brother. The worst one. No, but the first thing I ever was allowed to design was my own bedroom. And I actually wrote about this years ago because it was such an interesting thing for me as a 12-year-old kid to be able to pick out
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: One Last Gift to Unwrap
At the time, again, my mom was an interior designer, so she had all the carpet samples and wallpaper books, and she said to me, what do you want your room to look like? And I remember it was the 80s, and I said, I want gray, white, and red. And she was like, that's so ugly, though. And I was like, but it's cool. And so I remember, though, that it was agency. That's what it felt like.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: One Last Gift to Unwrap
I had the agency to pick my own environment. And I do think that that's why I've spent the greater part of 30 years helping other people create a home that means something to them. I think that that is connected.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: One Last Gift to Unwrap
No, I mean, you know what, though, Bobcat, actually, now that you ask, I was notorious among my friends when they would invite me over for a play date or sleepover or whatever, that I remember my friend Ronnie Swartz, his mother came home and Ronnie and I were, like, hanging out and, like, you know, at their house, and I had pushed all the living room furniture into a different location. LAUGHTER
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: One Last Gift to Unwrap
So it wasn't, and she said, did you move my sofa? And I said, yeah. Don't you think it looks better like this? And she said, I do.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: One Last Gift to Unwrap
Okay, so here's the thing. If one person hates it, it's out. And we don't talk about it. And you can't try and sell it to the other person. And boy, can we sell to each other.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: One Last Gift to Unwrap
You can't, like, if I say I hate it, then the conversation's done and vice versa. We will fight, like, beyond, like, really, really rip each other to shreds over who ate the last piece of pizza before we fight over a sofa.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: One Last Gift to Unwrap
And to think I've been just selling bath mats all these years. I know. You could have been acing quizzes, I guess.