Before and After: Bobby Berk Gave His Parents’ Dated Home the “Queer Eye” Makeover Treatment

If you’re familiar with the Netflix show “Queer Eye,” you know that one of the most powerful moments in every episode is the home reveal. Not only is this because Bobby Berk handles the task in three days (?!), but the designs are truly reflective of the heroes who live there. And while Bobby brings it for every project he takes on, this one in particular is a true labor of love: a complete home makeover for his mom and dad. 

Berk’s parents Connie and Jerry Berk still live in the childhood home where he grew up in Mount Vernon, Missouri. It all started when Connie vocalized that she wanted to remodel the kitchen, and from there, Berk took matters into his own hands. “You’ve watched the show! I can’t just do one room, so I did the whole house,” Berk said in the video reveal. 

The last time the house was remodeled was before Berk’s family moved in circa 1977, so there was a lot of work to be done. And with the help of Target, Berk transformed his parents dated home into a modern abode. 

The first unveiling was the living room, which Berk brightened up by using lighter colors for the walls and furniture. He removed the popcorn texture on the ceiling—which he also did throughout the home—and resurfaced the existing beam to play up the original architecture. Sprinkle in neutral furniture with wood and black finishes, and you’ve got a contemporary upgrade.

Then it’s over to the kitchen, which sparked the idea of a home renovation in the first place. “I reworked the layout and floor plan of the kitchen, which then allowed me to add lots of additional storage,” Berk wrote on his blog. “Because the house is an old farmhouse (really, there are cows across the street), I went with something that would complement the architecture of the home, and brought in a combo of solid and glass front lehryttan shaker cabinets from Ikea.” To create more a seamless dining area, Berk removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room.

The master bedroom saw similar revisions as the rest of the home—the exposed beams, brightening the room with light colors, and adding wooden finishes. And it’s always a good idea to add a mirror to make a room feel more spacious.

“Being able to redo my childhood home exactly the way I would have wanted it when I was growing up and being able to call all the shots in the home that I was never able to call the shots in…it felt good,” he says.