Meet Nate Berkus : Interior design expert, NY Times best-selling author and Oprah Winfrey protégé
Nate Berkus' lifelong passion for design started at a tender age. He was barely in grade school when he started helping his mother - also a decorator - rearrange their living room. After graduating from Lake Forest College, Nate scored a position with Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, a job that, coupled with an internship at Dominique Aurientis in Paris, honed his skills and developed his love for the decorative arts and furniture.
In 1995, aged 24, Nate formed Nate Berkus Associates and helmed projects for W Hotels, Barneys New York and culinary icon Wolfgang Puck's Spago. In 2002, Nate was invited by The Oprah Winfrey Show to makeover a small space and quickly became a featured design expert for the show. In 2005, he published his first book, Home Rules: Transform the Place You Live into a Place You'll Love and in 2006, he debuted his radio show on Oprah Radio. This weekly time slot sees him chatting about the home and living well.
After almost eight years and some 127 The Oprah Show makeovers, Nate launched his own day-time talk show which premiered in the US in September 2010. Featuring a broad range of subjects and guests, the show focuses on lifestyle, entertainment and personal transformation.
TF: What makes The Nate Berkus Show different?
NB: Our concept is to break the hour into segments which focus on personal stories with a purpose. Everything we do ties back to great information for our viewers. Our signature segments focus on how to save time and money. You see us talking to a regular network of working women and mums. Bringing viewers into our house is really a very cool element to the show. Ultimately, we want our viewers to have fun while taking away valuable and relevant information and inspiration they can apply to their daily lives immediately.
NB: Part of our effort to make sure we're hearing directly from our audience was to fly in women from across the country to sit down with our producers and get a pulse as to what they want us to talk about. It was an opportunity to hear them out so we can respond to what's happening in their lives right now. Some of them are having a rough time - struggling to secure jobs, personal credit has been slashed and they're juggling several balls in the air at the same time. The Nate Berkus Show gives them the tools to create a fresh, beautiful and organised life.
TF: What other segments can we look forward to?
NB: We will also feature segments such as the secrets to buying secondhand items online and turning family finds into a fortune.
TF: Will there be any celebrities paying your show a visit?
NB: Yes! I'll be chatting with Elizabeth Edwards, Dolly Parton, Julianne Moore, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kim Coles to name a few.
Nate saves your home from kid-tastrophy...
Permanent marker on the wall Use hairspray on the stain. Make sure it's saturated and then wipe it off.
Crayon on the wall Rub toothpaste on the wall stain - regular toothpaste, not gel-based.
Water stains/rings on a wooden table Form a paste of ash and water and rub it on the stain.
Water spillage on a mobile Remove the phone battery and place the phone and battery in a jar of rice for 24 hours. The rice will soak out all the water from the phone and the phone can be functional again.
Nate's top tips on clutter organisation
Having more than two generations living under one roof can definitely be challenging due to the limited space and overload. Use the SPACE formulae to keep you and your family organised.
Sort Group like with like
Purge Get rid of duplicates and old items
Assign Find a home for all items
Containerise Put everything inside something
Equalise Maintain the system
Get design-savvy
The Nate Berkus Show takes on design challenges, showcases home improvements and provides audiences with life-changing personal makeover stories. The Show premiers on January 25, 10:30pm on Li (Life Inspired, SingTel Mio Ch. 22)
Posted Jan 2012
