The current issue of Elle Decor features Nate Berkus's newly decorated place - overlooking Lake Michigan, located in a vintage 1929 building, in an apartment which was renovated in the 40's by architect Samuel Marx. So, yeah, it's got quite a lot going for it already but the decor is some tasty icing on the cake. Very masculine, classic and elegant but not stuffy, it is a glamorous city home filled with 90% vintage and antique pieces. Jump below for photos...
Another shot of the living room features two items from another Chicago source, Jayson Home & Garden - a black linen sofa and 1960's vintage green armchair.
The kitchen features green metal cabinets, original to the space.
We love the look of a wall of books. The sofa is by Nate Berkus.
More books - this time on an oversized yellow velvet ottoman. The fireplace and oak walls are original.
Nate, Henry and Emma.
Click over to view the entire slideshow of 15 photos and check out the article by Taryn Bickley here or in the current issue of Elle Decor, available now.
Photos: Pieter Estersohn/Elle Decor
Comments (37)
Just curious if this is really a new apartment. I remember his last one having a room with silverleafed walls. What are the chances that he found another place with similar walls?
wooof!
I wonder where that rug is from? Anyone know where to find a relatively inexpensive one like it? Obsessed, must have...
That place isn't new. It's just been re-decorated. I saw him show it off on Oprah a few years ago.
That definitely is his OLD apartment. Nate gave Oprah's cameras a wall to wall tour of his apartment in Chicago around 2005. A while after, he moved into a place in the West Village in NYC and he had a whole apt renovation show following it.
this ikea rug comes in two different sizes
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80104862
charlene and fishbat - sorry to be misleading with the "new" - I've reworded the intro for clarity...
Legsly39, you are in luck...
IKEA has a most similar runner rug, 3 feet wide, doesn't it? for 2009--you could stitch them together.
The rug is cotton and manufactured by Madeline Weinrib, the granddaughter of the founders of ABC home and carpet, NYC and pretty much the only place where you can buy her rugs and textiles.
Your best and most affordable bet is to follow Orangered and Lalonde44advice and check out the similar rug offered by Ikea.
Yawn.
I dunno. I generally love Nate's style, but the living room is reading a bit... cold for me. I'd be afraid of knocking over one of those gigantic log-things.
I'm loving those gold chairs!
This is the same apt., remember the bedroom with the leather upholstered screens behind the bed instead of a headboard?
I think it's great when an apartment evolves with the owner.
When we toured the apartment on Oprah, Nate hadn't gone through a life changing event, and did not have a New York apartment, among other experiences we don't know about. And, I'm sure this is reflected in his home decor.
If I was going to have a designer do my home, I'd pick Nate.
Totally the same apartment as a few years ago. He has great style, but his apartment is such an old story, I was amazed it made the cover. Editorial coverage should be about being new and fresh.
Sorry, everyone the Oprah show tour of the apartment was after the tsunami.
If you want to see the apartment before, go to oprah.com search Nate Berkus and you can view a slide show of that video tour.
Is it just me? I would hope my place would be so much more compelling if I became a renowned designer. The dogs are the best design.
Now THIS is how to design a space...
The apartment is nice----but somehow it feels like anyone with some degree of taste could of put it together. Perhaps it's his way of getting away from what he does for a living for other people who want more spit and polish looking interiors. It's not what I feel such a well known designer should put forth as his home. It just looks to much like what "thebradseed" said above---Yawn!
Crud. I'm working on my degree in architecture, and while my actual interests and work are all-inclusive, encompassing interior design, landscape design, etc., things like this really make me think I should just get a degree in interior design.
The interior designers are always filthy-rich. Especially compared to the average architect. How the hell do they do it? Is it the 1000% markup they charge over wholesale?
LOVE the kitchen cabinets.
I'm confused - what room are the lower two pictures of? The same living room? Or does this dude have multiple enormous living rooms?
Maybe the images don't translate well online, but do these look like a bad photoshop job to anyone else?
I love the table in the kitchen. That's the only thing that has any personality in this space. However, I do admire someone who can make random stacks of books not look like clutter.
Well, I saw this on the cover and I bought the magazine, so I guess that's why it's on the cover. I don't watch Oprah, so it seemed fresh to me.
OK so someone please compare the cover shot from elledecor of Nate's place and the cover of the new ikea catalog.
it's not just the rug... the colors too, etc.
too funny!!
nice digs though...
Uh, the cabinets are beautiful, but if they belong to the building he's standing in front of, they are NOT original.
Yeah grb, I LOVE that the covers of ELLE and IKEA have the same rug!!
I agree with Jooly - the kitchen table is great and appears to be the only thing with real personality (well, and the dogs). Everything else appears a bit too studied - a little stiff. And the books piled on top of the yellow ottoman are awful.
G&D: Uh, the cabinets are beautiful, but if they belong to the building he's standing in front of, they are NOT original.
The article: ...renovated in the 40's by architect Samuel Marx.
Not original, but easily from the 40's reno.
Bredlo - True, and you're probably right with Marx as progressive as he was. I just think the wording is a little misleading to people.
What's the big back piece of art in the corner. i can't zoom in on it, but feel like I saw the same thing in another magazine this month...Domino? Dwell?
Does anyone know where to get the pendant lamp in his kitchen? Or something similar?
...having just come back from a vacation in Scandinavia, a week of which was spent in a summer hotel run by a pair of married designers, my head is in a completely different design space... I'm sorry to say that I now see this as fussy and ugly. It's like the stripped down Danish design sense has taken hold, and won't let go...
I think he is my alter ego, I love everything in his place!
monika1, do tell, where is this summer hotel? i'm planning a trip for next spring/summer and it sounds amazing!
Nate's design is all about making it "your place", not something designed just for design's sake or portfolio piece. His apartment reflects that, the place is filled only with stuff that is meaningful to him. I can see in the photos artifacts that relate to Fernando Bengoechea. It is good to see him evolving and letting things go and at the same time keeping the past as a solid testament to what he has gone through and what a better person he is becoming. Love you Nate.
Marcelo Bengoechea