Designers Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent share what has been giving them creative energy since their Italian summer vacation, a story about the first time they traveled together, and each others’ quirky travel habits. Nate and Jeremiah talk about their new show, Home Project, their individual approaches to sensitive projects, and how to make sentimental pieces work in your home regardless of the style. The couple shares how they collect transitional pieces that will move with you and their recent decision to suddenly sell their New York townhome. They talk about the mantra their family lives by and how their children have shaped their household and design perspectives. Then the couple plays a playful rapid-fire game with Marianne.
Designers Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent share the things that have been giving them creative energy since their Italian summer vacation, a story about the first time they traveled together, and each others’ quirky travel habits. Nate and Jeremiah talk about their new show, Home Project, their individual approaches to sensitive projects, and how to make sentimental pieces work in your home regardless of the style. The couple shares how they collect transitional pieces that will move with you and their recent decision to suddenly sell their New York townhome. They talk about the mantra their family lives by and how their children have shaped their household and design perspectives. Then the couple plays a playful rapid-fire game with Marianne.
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Learn More About the Nate & Jeremiah Home Project: https://www.hgtv.com/shows/the-nate-and-jeremiah-home-project
Find episode transcript here: https://hgtv-obsessed.simplecast.com/episodes/how-to-create-stylish-sentimental-spaces-with-nate-jeremiah
[MUSIC PLAYING] MARIANNE CANADA: Hello and welcome to HGTV Obsessed, the podcast for all things HGTV. I'm your host Marianne Canada, and today, we have a design power couple who are truly as kind and handsome and funny as they are talented. Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent join me to talk about their new HGTV show, The Nate and Jeremiah Home Project, their family mantra, and they are spilling the tea on why they just sold their New York City townhouse. Now, I want to make sure you get as much time as possible with these two because they are so charming. So here's my conversation with Nate and Jeremiah.
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Nate and Jeremiah, welcome.
JEREMIAH BRENT: Thank you.
NATE BERKUS: Thank you.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah, Jeremiah, I have to tell you right off the bat-- Jeremiah waved-- but they can't see you. Yeah You have to use your words.
JEREMIAH BRENT: It's the story of my life.
NATE BERKUS: Oh, babe. Now, he's becoming a French mime.
JEREMIAH BRENT: Yeah, I wish.
MARIANNE CANADA: I like that career path for you.
NATE BERKUS: What were you thinking when you were--
JEREMIAH BRENT: I'm so tired of talking. It would be perfect.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, before we dive in, I am going to have you guys introduce yourselves, so everyone listening can know who's Nate and who's Jeremiah.
NATE BERKUS: Hi, guys. I'm Nate Berkus, host of Nate and Jeremiah Home Project on HGTV, the main host.
JEREMIAH BRENT: Yes, yeah. Nate Berkus is in the current cast playing my spouse. Stay tuned for next season.
NATE BERKUS: Wow.
JEREMIAH BRENT: I'm Jeremiah Brent, interior designer, and you can tell my voice because I sound like a screeching monkey on this.
NATE BERKUS: Is there going to be a recap scene every season of the Nate and Jeremiah Home Project? Is that your plan, like American Horror Story?
JEREMIAH BRENT: I can't tell you. It's just one of those things you have to find out.
NATE BERKUS: Oh, OK, lucky me.
MARIANNE CANADA: Oh, it's kind of like Back to the Future, when in Back to the Future II, they just completely recast the girlfriend and never spoke of it again.
NATE BERKUS: Never said a word.
JEREMIAH BRENT: It also happened in Will Smith, when they replaced Aunt Viv. It was a really--
MARIANNE CANADA: Oh, my gosh.
NATE BERKUS: It was a hard pill to swallow for me.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, you guys both recently returned from a glorious Italian vacation. I personally loved following along on social media. So I have to ask-- anytime I come back from a vacation, I always find myself inspired. What inspiration from your trip is giving you guys creative energy right now?
JEREMIAH BRENT: I'm going to speak for myself. I think, because of COVID and everything, obviously, we hadn't traveled in so long. And because it was Nate's-- a big birthday for Nate, it was important that we make it happen.
What was really beautiful about the trip was the intimacy and the connection, which I think I definitely missed. And we were in Sicily, and they art, the ceremony of breakfast there, the ceremony of lunch, we were so disconnected but then connected with the people in our lives. When we came back, it took me a minute to bounce back. I really missed it. But I think that ceremony of taking time, connecting, dinner, breakfast, that's the stuff that I took back.
NATE BERKUS: We like cities and visiting foreign lands that are a little bit gritty, that aren't sort of designed for the US traveler, where everything is just perfect and you have the option of having a hamburger everywhere you go. I mean, Sicily is so pristine in its way. And one of the things that we do on our own show often is reach for salvaged architectural materials, and we like to use old things and incorporate old things even when we're doing new builds. And so for us to be surrounded and sleeping in and eating in and drinking in and hanging out with our friends and kids in old, historic, ancient structures is food to both of us.
It can't be undersold. First of all, I can't believe I'm 50. I'm as old as some of the architectural materials that I'm asking that we use in our projects, but it was really special.
JEREMIAH BRENT: It's true. You are so old.
NATE BERKUS: You are a bad human being. Everyone knows that.
JEREMIAH BRENT: I'm just agreeing with you.
NATE BERKUS: No, no, no, no, you literally--
JEREMIAH BRENT: I support you.
NATE BERKUS: No, that's not how these go.
JEREMIAH BRENT: So supportive.
MARIANNE CANADA: So supportive. No, Nate, you are aging like a fine wine. I think we can all agree.
NATE BERKUS: That's why I agreed to only do podcasts now and forever.
JEREMIAH BRENT: Yeah, that's why he made me put Vaseline on the screen.
MARIANNE CANADA: Give it the old Barbara Walters. I think that a couple's first big trip together is such a milestone. Do you guys remember the first trip you took together? Did you discover any interesting things about each other?
JEREMIAH BRENT: I will never forget. We went to Punta Mita in Mexico, and it was for a weekend trip. We were in a car driving to the actual hotel, and I was crying, looking out at the scenery. And Nate grabbed my hand, and that was the first time that I was like, wow, we're going to see the world together. This is so great.
NATE BERKUS: Oh, yeah. I remember that moment too. I absolutely do remember that moment.
JEREMIAH BRENT: Yeah, and I'll never forget that. It was the first time I was like, wow, this is-- we're going to do this together.
MARIANNE CANADA: Aw.
NATE BERKUS: I remember that trip. Jeremiah and I, we went to this little town. Because Punta Mita is developed and everything, and there's a little sort of beach town where they had a market for crafts and textiles and things like that. We got out of the cab, and everybody just started swarming Jer, as they do in markets in Mexico, like over here, this, what about this, Señor, the whole thing.
And Jer had this look of complete and utter panic for the first five minutes. And then, he had to center himself, and then he was fine. And meanwhile, I already had like 90 string bracelets on.
JEREMIAH BRENT: He left me behind. That's the part of the story. He left, and I was like, [IMITATES CHOKING]. But I needed five minutes, and then I was fine.
NATE BERKUS: I was like, babe, come over here, placemats.
JEREMIAH BRENT: Yeah, I mean, when we met, Nate's big promise to me, he was like, I can't wait to show you the world. And that was really the trip where we started to do that.
NATE BERKUS: It really was.
MARIANNE CANADA: It's so sweet. Well, and now you've been married for over seven years. You have two adorable children together, Poppy and Oskar, who are stars in my mind.
You've got these successful design careers, both together and separately. You've got this incredible love story. If your family had one mantra to live by, what would that be?
JEREMIAH BRENT: It's funny. We had the opportunity, while we're going through surrogacy, to have a lot of really important conversations, and one of the things that we decided-- there was just fundamentally two pillars that we wanted to raise our children through, which was kindness and honesty. We've got a lot of mantras internally for our family, but I think kindness and honesty are really kind of the pillars of everything we try to do.
NATE BERKUS: We always also try to leave a place better than how we found it, and that applies obviously to our careers and homes and things like that. But more importantly, I think-- or as importantly, it applies to travel and visiting other places and knowing what questions to ask. So we can integrate ourselves into that local community. Whether it's a single person that we meet or a group of people or an organization that we can become a part of, we're teaching our kids to have their eyes open and move through the world with a level of awareness that I think is absolutely fundamental not only to put good things back out in the world, but to live a life that feels whole and fulfilled. And we want that for both of those kids.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, and that's such an amazing transition to your new show, the Nate and Jeremiah Home Project, which just premiered on HGTV. And I watch a lot of HGTV. I've worked here a long time.
But this show feels so special. It feels really sentimental. It feels really personal. Can you guys share a little bit about it.
JEREMIAH BRENT: Well, it's the best compliment, I think, we could get because that's exactly the intention behind this show. Our goal with this show on HGTV was really to try to show not only families through a different lens, a family like ours and how we show love and how similar we all are, but also to show a different type of renovation that's not just about how quickly you can flip it and how quickly you can get out of it. This is about understanding the power of creating a space that's rooted in your stories, your experiences, where you've been, where you want to go, where you are now.
And we care about every person that we meet on this show. Most of the people from previous seasons we still keep in touch with. It's a love story, each of these episodes, and we take it very seriously. When we meet people, the experience of them letting us into their home, and this show in particular, it's all rooted in story, and it's all rooted in experiences. And we're supposed to be the custodian to help them through whatever roadblock they're experiencing.
NATE BERKUS: One of the things that we talked about when we were trying to figure out how to craft this hour of television was how can we really get to know people the way we want to get to know them in such a short period of time? And someone had the idea, what are the questions that you always ask people when you meet them and you're working on them redoing a space? And one of the things was, what do you own? What's important to you?
And so one of the levers that you have to pull in Nate and Jeremiah Home Project is you have to come to the table even as early as the casting process to show us and share with us the objects. The things that you have that you live with currently that define you. And so we use that as a lens to get to know the homeowners.
Because when you're sharing something with somebody, the audience goes away. The TV cameras go away. And you're just talking about your mom, and you're talking about what she meant to you and why this little object or this table or this piano or whatever it is so important. And you really do get to see people through a different lens, I think, and that's one of the things that I love the most about the show.
MARIANNE CANADA: It's funny you mentioned piano because I was lucky enough to get to watch the premiere episode of the season, and the family had this incredible Steinway piano. I mean, you don't just decorate around the piano. You go the extra mile.
You find out the whole story behind it. You talk to the people at Steinway and find out who bought it and where it was purchased and when. And you guys work really hard with these families to make these sentimental pieces that don't necessarily align with the design, and you make them work.
We talk a lot about this idea of-- you get these sentimental-- these hand-me-downs that you love because has the story behind them, you love because of who you got them from, but maybe they're not really your style. So what are some of the ways that you guys make these pieces work when they don't align with the overall design plan?
JEREMIAH BRENT: Well, what's interesting about the show this season is that there's a big arc with pieces and what people think they represent to them, and towards the end of the renovation, how they see them now. And so we have a bunch of mechanisms that we build in to take people through that journey. But a lot of times it's about, does this bring you joy, looking at this? Does it make you sad? What memories is this item bringing up?
NATE BERKUS: That's a hard question to ask somebody to when they're walking you through their stuff. Does this make you smile? Or does this make you cry? And we ask that. And some people have to really stop and think about it.
JEREMIAH BRENT: Yeah, but I think we're always trying to find where the ripple began. And for Lauren and Louis, for example, that piano was where their ripple began as a family. It was the heartbeat of everything and really trying to understand the value of things and to walk through that.
Because 9 times out of 10, towards the end, we would sit down with those pieces, and they go, you know what, I think I'm ready to move on. This doesn't actually define me the way I thought it did before. And so I thought that was a really interesting experience.
But it's fun because Nate and I have very different experiences with things. I would like a dimly liy bowl in a dark room by itself. That's where I'm at. Nate would like a lot of object everywhere. He's a collector, a fancy collector.
NATE BERKUS: No.
MARIANNE CANADA: A magpie.
NATE BERKUS: He calls me a fancy hoarder.
MARIANNE CANADA: A fancy magpie.
JEREMIAH BRENT: I call him a fancy hoarder.
NATE BERKUS: A fancy hoarder. He calls me a fancy hoarder. What Jer just explained is really true. And then, the show's not just about how to make every single thing that someone thinks is important to them work. It's about editing what is important and watching them as their environment changes around them and as they start to see a space evolve that really does rise up to greet them.
When it's all said and done, what then has to be included? It's an ongoing conversation as we're talking about paint color and cabinet color and natural stone versus quartz and all the things that every makeover involves. The truth is is that it's also a very important conversation that's running parallel to all of those decisions.
MARIANNE CANADA: And it's inspiring to me that two people with such established careers and design, that you still have things that you can learn, that you can learn from clients or that you can learn from spaces. What was something big that you were able to take away and learn from filming this show that was maybe a surprise to you after being in this business for so long?
JEREMIAH BRENT: I was so, so envious of every person that we met that was so solid in their understanding that this home was it for them. They didn't want to go anywhere else. It was enough.
There was more than one time that I looked at Nate, and I was like, why and when will we get this? Because I have the same fantasies that I think most people do, which is our children walking down the staircase on their senior year or going through rooms and seeing nicks in the wall and thinking, oh, God, I remember when that happened and that experience. And so roots, I was really surprised at how much it was a recurring theme in my mind as we went through this and seeing how homes are represented. Lauren and Louis inherited that house and reinterpreting it for their family, and it kind of-- I thought that was so beautiful.
NATE BERKUS: That is really true. And some people are in a very tight budget, and some people aren't. And some people, it's their very first home.
And some people, they're downsizing, or they've moved across the city. There's a lot of starting over within each episode for each family. But as Jer said, each house was really their forever home, and it was fascinating to watch because that really does change how you spend your money and what decisions you make when you have no intention to ever leave that place.
MARIANNE CANADA: And I think that's really interesting for you guys in particular. You mentioned in this first episode that you have never lived in a place for more than two years. And in the research for this episode, I watched your home tour on Architectural Digest, and I loved seeing the pieces that you had brought from LA to your new home in New York, which was so beautiful and felt so meaningful. And then, I just read that you guys sold it.
JEREMIAH BRENT: I know.
NATE BERKUS: Yeah, in our defense, when we sat down with the writer from Architectural Digest--
JEREMIAH BRENT: We have a problem.
NATE BERKUS: --who did a beautiful job of that-- writing the story of that house, the first thing in that article is that we said we would never say that something is our forever home again. We were shamed into it after we sold Los Angeles. But part of it, I think, is the fact that the two of us, once we get a home to be exactly what we want it to be, once we feel like it's fulfilled its absolute maximum potential both aesthetically and renovation-wise and furniture, layout, and all of that, we look around, and we both get a little bit bored. When there's nothing left to do--
JEREMIAH BRENT: That's not right for me.
NATE BERKUS: It isn't for you?
JEREMIAH BRENT: No way.
NATE BERKUS: Yeah, it is. It's part of it for you.
JEREMIAH BRENT: The only thing I'll say--
NATE BERKUS: Know thyself.
JEREMIAH BRENT: The only part that I'll say is will see why, at the course of the season, we sold our home, and it was not for the same reasons that we have before.
NATE BERKUS: So just so that your listeners aren't like, [CRINGES]. It wasn't just for money.
JEREMIAH BRENT: We weren't bored, no.
NATE BERKUS: No, we weren't bored, and it wasn't just for money.
JEREMIAH BRENT: It was something much bigger, yeah.
NATE BERKUS: It was a very, very good reason.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, I think that there's a lot that can be taken from that as well. I mean, I think there are a lot of families that, for various reasons, tend to be a little more nomadic and tend to need to move every few years for various reasons. I mean, I think that you guys can speak to those people as well. What's the key to maybe collecting pieces that have a meaningful narrative, that are transitional, that can move with you? Just because you're starting over in a new location doesn't mean you're wiping the slate clean and not keeping some special items.
NATE BERKUS: No, I mean, we also-- this is not a pitch. I have no affiliation with this, but there's this website called Sortly, this app that you can photograph and measure and keep a running inventory of every single thing you own. And we have that split between different cities and whatever. So I know exactly what sofa is where and all of that at any given moment. And I think we've always just bought what we love.
JEREMIAH BRENT: Well, I think we're thoughtful about what we purchase. I think that's the issue that most people face. And to your point, you should be able to buy pieces that you can take if you move to five different places.
And as you mentioned, we've done that, and we have pieces that mean something to us. But I think, and one of the things that we try to deal with on the show is make thoughtful decisions about what you're bringing in. Don't just try to make it look like page 23 from that catalog.
Bring pieces into your life that obviously spark joy and are useful but have a future in them. Chairs that were bought for one reason can represent something else five years later or be used in five different ways. So I think we're always trying to help people understand how to make thoughtful decisions with what they bring into their home.
NATE BERKUS: And as designers, the switching out of pieces, the becoming interested of new designers or older designers or people that whose work we haven't come in contact with, that is a constant evolution. We are never done learning, ever, not about people, not about spaces, and definitely not about furniture and decoration. And so for us, there's also this undercurrent, as we move into our next project as a family, of what haven't we done before, what haven't we used, what do we not know.
And so we keep walking around, asking ourselves where it's not just going out and buying a new sofa for the living room. It's like, what should that be? Should it be Italian '70s? Should it be classic English rolled arm? Should it be vintage? Should it be new?
JEREMIAH BRENT: I find myself teaching something new every single day, always learning, always growing.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, speaking of people teaching new things, I mean, I can only imagine that having children has evolved your perspective on design and what makes a place home. So can you ruminate on that a little bit?
NATE BERKUS: We've always said, it goes people then pets then things in terms of priority. And if you find yourself beholden to your possessions or the architecture of your space, then you've done something wrong. Our relationship is our primary priority, because they're going to go at some point, many, many years from now, whether Jeremiah is willing to admit that or not. But the truth is they will.
And so our relationship takes precedence over everything else in our world, and then the kids are very, very close second. We want to create an environment for them where we aren't panicking and chasing them around and telling them they can't eat their crackers or their cheese stick or whatever it is on a piece of furniture. That's a ridiculous way to live with two kids under six.
But conversely, we both grew up with parents, mothers really, who cared very deeply about our homes. And so design was a passion for his mother and for mine, so we were also taught and both of us raised to respect things and to understand that things cost money and that you don't just wreak havoc over everything because you're a kid. It doesn't work like that.
JEREMIAH BRENT: I was going to say, I mean, we made a conscious decision when the children were born to help them understand what it means to respect the home that they're a part of. We were never have baby-bumped our house. We were never anything over chairs. There was never rooms that people couldn't go into, but there was an expectation with the way that you handled yourself in those rooms.
The children engage in this house like anybody else, and I think that's healthy for them. They're not like a caged animal that I'm afraid they're going to jump. They know not to jump on furniture. They know not to do things.
Our children set the table for dinner. They are part of the household. They're part of the rhythm, and I think it's important. And I think that respect and the expectation for them to participate in the household goes a long way, at least it has for us.
MARIANNE CANADA: I have two kids too. They're a little older than yours, and I consider my number one job is to teach them how to be good citizens of the world. And that includes our home. It starts with our home.
JEREMIAH BRENT: [INAUDIBLE]
NATE BERKUS: Absolutely, it starts there.
JEREMIAH BRENT: We all have those friends. Their kids come over, and they're like jumping on the kitchen counter. And you're like, OK.
NATE BERKUS: They've put us through it. Every parent knows. I mean, we had a pair of suede benches in our living room, and Oskar wrote all over them with a ballpoint pen. It happens.
JEREMIAH BRENT: One time [INAUDIBLE].
NATE BERKUS: You can do a quick internet search for solutions for the stuff like that. But the other thing that I think a lot of people don't understand when they're decorating their own homes is that, if you buy vintage stuff, if you buy stuff that already is worn and already has a patination and already is chipped and dinged and you embrace the character of that, then go for it. If somebody throws a magnet tile and it lands on the face of that armoire, great.
JEREMIAH BRENT: I don't know if everybody who loves that. [INAUDIBLE]
NATE BERKUS: I'm just saying, though. Our kitchen table is a 19th century stripped oak table. It's pitted and has marks, and it's not a fine finish at all. And the more the kids beat it up, and they do, and draw and do their art arts and crafts projects, the better it looks, so also make smart decisions around that stuff.
MARIANNE CANADA: I love that. I mean, it's just part of the history and part of the life of your home. All right, well, before we let you guys go, we thought it would be fun to do a little rapid fire round with you both. This is just answer with the first thing that comes to mind. You guys ready?
NATE BERKUS: Yeah, you're not calling me a poop emoji again, though, right?
JEREMIAH BRENT: We'll see.
NATE BERKUS: He did that once.
JEREMIAH BRENT: That was five years ago. You got to move on.
NATE BERKUS: I know, but every time we do a quick fire, I still-- I feel--
JEREMIAH BRENT: Then, don't act like one.
MARIANNE CANADA: I don't think there's anything emoji related in here, but we'll see where it goes. All right. So describe your spouse's style in one word.
JEREMIAH BRENT: Classic.
NATE BERKUS: Japanese sniper.
JEREMIAH BRENT: One word. See, you can't even--
NATE BERKUS: Sniper.
MARIANNE CANADA: Sniper, wow. Who has the better hair?
NATE BERKUS: Jer.
MARIANNE CANADA: Jer.
JEREMIAH BRENT: Jer, for sure.
NATE BERKUS: No, for sure. Because my hair takes a long time to look like this, and his drives from the swimming pool like that, like how it looks on TV.
MARIANNE CANADA: He truly woke up like that.
NATE BERKUS: 100%.
MARIANNE CANADA: All right. It's movie night. What are we watching?
NATE BERKUS: Go for it. It's one word.
JEREMIAH BRENT: Sci-fi.
NATE BERKUS: We're watching a sci-fi because he always wins.
MARIANNE CANADA: What are some of your favorite things to do in New York?
NATE BERKUS: We like to run, park.
JEREMIAH BRENT: Kids.
NATE BERKUS: Yeah, Washington Square Park. Actually, you know what, New York is so awesome with the kids. In the morning, sometimes, if we're early for school, Oskar and Jer and I will just sit on a rock outside of the school because he likes to watch the trucks go by and talk about it. So New York is just constant entertainment.
JEREMIAH BRENT: New York's [INAUDIBLE]. New York's everything. You walk out, and you're part of the world. So you can go anywhere in the world you want at any day.
MARIANNE CANADA: If you could live in only one season forever, what would it be?
NATE BERKUS: Fall.
JEREMIAH BRENT: Spring.
MARIANNE CANADA: Oh. And last question, what are you most looking forward to right now?
JEREMIAH BRENT: Well, I don't know how to say that.
NATE BERKUS: I do.
JEREMIAH BRENT: OK.
NATE BERKUS: Moving.
JEREMIAH BRENT: Moving.
NATE BERKUS: Yup.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, I can't wait to see where you guys end up next. I want to thank you both for your time. We love Home Project. We're so excited to see where you land.
JEREMIAH BRENT: Thank you.
NATE BERKUS: Thank you so much for having us.
JEREMIAH BRENT: You're the best. I could sit here all day with you. Thank you for having everything.
MARIANNE CANADA: Me too.
[LAUGHS]
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Do you love them? Because I love them so much. I felt like we had a soul connection.
Well, We hope you enjoyed this episode of HGTV Obsessed with one of our favorite couples on the network. You can find Nate on Instagram, @nateberkus, and Jeremiah, @jeremiahbrent, and watch new episodes of The Nate and Jeremiah Home Project Tuesdays at 9:00 PM Eastern on HGTV or streaming the same day on Discovery Plus. To find out more about our guests, you can also visit our show notes at hgtv.com/podcast.
And I do have a little bit of news to share with you guys. This is going to be our last episode of HGTV Obsessed for the year. But if you just found us, have no fear. You got to go back and check out the back catalog. We have some amazing episodes with tons of helpful advice, tips, and tricks from all the experts at HGTV.
You can continue to follow HGTV on Instagram and subscribe to Discovery Plus to binge watch your favorite show. Thanks again for listening. I'll see you next time.
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