Even Nate Berkus & Jeremiah Brent Disagree on Decor — Here’s How They Compromise

Although Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent share the same love for neutral colors, texture variety, and bringing warmth into a space with artistic, collected decor, the two designers have visions that are just different enough that they sometimes find themselves at an impasse. In a recent Instagram video, Berkus shared one of those stalemates — a Roman-style sculpture of a woman’s torso — and how they managed to finally work around it.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with something that I’ve owned that Jeremiah cannot stand,” Berkus joked in his video. He said that he had tried to get this sculpture into their house in New York City for years, but Brent was totally against it — “no, absolutely not,” he said.

But Berkus figured out a way to make the antique piece work with Brent’s modern style.

“Let me back this whole thing up to say, it is very difficult to merge styles with somebody, whether it’s a significant other or a roommate,” Berkus said. “But when two people have two different points of view, you have to find common ground.”

“You will notice that everything else around this is very modern,” Berkus said, pointing out the modern bronze triangle sculpture, light fixture, and pedestal that is actually an outdoor table Brent bought, which Berkus said, “would look weird inside the house.”

“But look — it’s the perfect base,” he said.

This vignette is the perfect example of how Berkus and Brent merge styles and make concessions. “[Figure] out how you can combine one thing that somebody really loves with another thing that the other person really loves and create and forge ahead with a style that’s signature to the two of you,” Berkus said. 

You may just learn something new about your own design style by making it work with someone else’s.