Best 75 quotes of Nate Berkus on MyQuotes

About 80 percent of the stuff I live with is old. I like letting things take on the character they’re meant to have by really being used. … when you own things that have the imperfections they deserve, that they’ve earned from a well-lived life, it frees you from feeling as though they’re untouchable.

About 90 percent of the pieces in my home are vintage, and I'm a ruthless editor. I only live with things that I love. There is not one thing in my home that doesn't have meaning to me.

A lot of guys go in immediately for status, as opposed to comfort and allowing their home to tell a story about them.

As a designer, everything is always about aesthetics mixed in with functionality and having that visual appeal. But you learn fast as a new parent with an infant that if it’s not deeply practical as well, then forget about it. Style wise, I wanted to design items that would work well in any nursery - regardless of gender.

As a kid, I think I rearranged the rooms of almost every house on the block.

Before you begin designing or buying anything, you need to get real and ask yourself: What do you really want to use this room for? What do you want to do in this room but can't now?

Books are the heart of any home, and I spend hours going through books for design inspiration.

Color is a very personal thing. You need to make sure to choose a color that makes you happy. But I don't recommend accent walls - choose a color you can live with on all four walls.

Design, to me, is part psychology, part sociology, and part magic. A good decorator should know what's going on in someone's marriage and how their kids are doing in school.

Even as a 10-year-old, I remember trying to explain to my mother and stepfather how upset and frustrated a messy room made me. But they just couldn't grasp it. They wanted me to be playing with baseballs and frogs while I wanted to be scouring garage sales.

Everywhere in my house are these little things that have meanings and make me think of great memories.

First and foremost, I'm a decorator and product designer. Everything I do, the television shows, the books, that comes from the design work. It's what I love.

Go outside! I mean, even leaves from a park are beautiful in a clear glass vase. I'd rather see that than fake anything any day.

Home has always been one of the most important things. If I don't feel at home in my space, then I feel really unmoored.

I always want objects in my home that have a connection to me or something I've loved. It's still stuff, but it's stuff that has meaning.

I believe your home tells a story about who you are and who you aspire to be. We represent ourselves through the things we own. I don't believe in trends. I believe in collecting things that you connect with. We should surround ourselves with things we care about, that have meaning.

I can change a light fixture, and I can do certain things. But I'm really bad in terms of construction. I can't do any of it on my own.

I can look at a photo and the dimensions of any piece and tell you if it's going to sit well with the four other pieces in your room.

I didn't grow up thinking I'd be a decorator. Design is my greatest passion, and it naturally just pulled me down the path. Same with TV. Being famous or having a show was never the motivation. I got a call and was swept up by the challenge of that first small space redesign.

I didn't necessarily want to be famous growing up, but I knew I would be a good famous person because I'm not offended if somebody comes up to me and knows things about me and wants to engage me in a conversation.

I don't believe in having spaces in the home that don't get used. We pay so much for square footage that to waste it is criminal.

I do shop online! But I’m shopping online mostly in the home categories - One Kings Lane and Gilt. At a lot of architectural websites, I buy a lot of hardware for cabinetry like hinges and things like that from England. So you know for me, I shop at Net-A-Porter, but I don’t really shop that much for clothing online.

If you actually keep things very organized and clutter-free, you can have more furniture than you think you can in a small space.

I got my first Charvet knit tie when I was 15. I actually stole it from my father. I love them because you can wear them day to night. They're French and preppy and have been around since the 1800s.

I hate sets. I've always hated sets. I think that if you have a dining room set, break it up!

I have a large watch collection, and classic watches are especially important to me. I had a silver Rolex, and I actually gave it to my little brother. He wears it every day. He's an actor, so whenever he goes to an audition, he can look down, see it, and it gives him confidence. It was a great thing to pass on.

I knew that I was a gay boy fairly early; what was interesting to me was that my mother didn’t know. She made me play baseball - I had no desire to do that. I said, ‘Mom, I don’t like direct sunlight, I don’t like bugs, I don’t like grass, and I’d rather be in the house playing with your fabric samples.’

I like my house to be unique to me. Sure, I've bought plenty of things out of a catalog, but the way I put them together in my home is special. You might have bought your sofa at a major home decorating store, but the rug you found at the flea market is so unique, it takes your room from 'carbon copy' to 'simply yours' in no time.

I live in a beautiful vintage building that was built in the heart of downtown Chicago.

I love linen in soothing colors for any room in the house.

I made my parents crazy. As a kid, I redecorated my bedroom every month. I would literally save my allowance and go buy things.

I'm not going to say paint is an easy spruce-up. It takes time, it needs touch-ups, and you have to be very methodical. But it is worth it, and it isn't particularly expensive.

In a minimal interior, what you don't do is as important as what you do.

In a modern loft, you can't just fill a space with furniture. Each piece has to be perfect.

In a small space, you want to keep the bedding as simple as possible so it looks clean, calm and collected.

In design-speak, 'a library' means a room lined with books, floor-to ceiling, but it all depends on the space you have. You may have a free-standing bookshelf of your favorite books if that's all you have room for.

In every interior my firm and I design, we are always reaching for vintage pieces, and materials that feel classic and timeless. It's how I feel about fashion as well, and definitely one of the intentions I had when designing the layette collection. I'm not a fan of trends.

I see it every day: People trying to create a home that somebody else tells them they should have. I don't care if it's a magazine or a bossy friend - when somebody says, 'This is what's elegant, this is what's trendy,' if it doesn't represent you, you're not going to be happy.

I tend not to wear ties very often. I'm usually in old stuff: Hermes or Marc Jacobs boots and jeans and a T-shirt and a leather jacket or a jean jacket.

I think I was the only kid on the block who knew about furniture scale by the time I was 8.

I think that a lot of guys reach for electronics first, but the truth is that you can never keep up with electronics. You buy a flat-screen TV, and then six months later, there's one that has 3D and Blu-ray and all this business, and that is just going to keep continuing.

It's important how we feel in our homes, because feeling good makes us more gracious. And that makes it easier to welcome others not only into our homes but into our lives.

It's my job to know what's available from every retailer, catalog, website, antiques mall, and craftsperson. A good designer or decorator has to have an almost encyclopedic knowledge.

I've always felt that color is intrinsically personal. It evokes a tremendous amount of emotion. If there's a color you respond to, that's something you can incorporate into your home. No one can tell you it's wrong.

I was a boy with one dream and one dream only: I wanted - no, strike that, I was desperate for - a room of my own. You see, in those days I shared a room with my little brother, Jesse, and it wasn't pretty. He was the Oscar to my Felix: messy, careless, and just a little bit sticky - exactly the way a kindergartner is supposed to be.

I was barely in grade school when I helped my mother rearrange the living room furniture for the first time.

Layering in different patterns will keep things from appearing too studied.

Mixing in some rusty oranges is a warm way to update your place for fall.

My favorite thing about decorating is mixing different periods and styles. If you have something that's old, and you really do want to mix those styles, then you have to add something that's obviously modern with it. You can't put a kind of a mediocre thing in the middle.

One of the biggest lessons I've learned during my time on 'Oprah' is that everyone wants to be heard. We all want to have our humanity acknowledged - to have others see us for who we truly are. We all want to know that we are valued, we are heard, we are understood.