You know him as the interior designer who works miracles on the Emmy-winning show “Queer Eye.” Now you can shop his furniture line, A.R.T, locally at Mathis Brothers, C.S. Wo & Sons, and West Coast Living. Berk shares ideas to refresh your interiors and some behind-the-scenes insight from the hit Netflix series.
Updating interiors …
Honestly my biggest suggestion, because obviously everyone’s budget is so tight right now, is to get rid of stuff—there’s no need to get more stuff. It’s amazing sometimes how you can make a space completely different when you just edit. Another fun thing to do without spending any money is moving things from room to room; move your art from your bedroom to your living room. My friends and I would have community decorating parties too, where we’d put together all the things that we were bored with in our houses and we’d bring it all and we’d come together and switch stuff. Instead of home interior parties, home swap parties.
Mixing high and low pieces …
I think the best-looking houses are the ones that aren’t too matchy. You know when you go in and you just buy everything the exact same wood tone or metal finish or the exact same set exactly the way it’s set up on a sales floor—I don’t like that as much as things that come from Goodwill or places like that. I think that mixing things up like that looks the best.
Trend to shop for …
Neutrals. Especially when you’re buying furniture, buy things in neutrals because that way when you want to switch it up in a few years, or six months, or a month, or however long you get bored with things, you can switch it up with accessories or pillows and rugs—things that aren’t a higher price point that you can just run and buy.
Finding your style …
It’s hard not to get caught up in the trends, especially when you see it happening all the time. My advice is finding that piece that you really love and build from that. Instead of just looking at a trend and being like, “Oh, I want my whole place to look like that,” find that one piece that really speaks to you and decorate around that. That way you know you’re not just following a trend, you’re following your heart.
“Queer Eye” design process …
My starting point is always thinking about how they’re going to use the space and how changing the space is going to help change their day-to-day lives. I try to find out as much as possible about them. I’ve learned not to ask about design, because they don’t know, or if they do know, they don’t know how to articulate it. I ask them about their favorite movies, their favorite television shows, dream vacations, their favorite piece of clothing. If I start to see a common thread in things you’re passionate about, that’s what I tie into the designs.
“Queer Eye” season six …
As the seasons went on, we went from predominantly doing homes to doing businesses too, so hopefully in season six we’ll be able to continue that. But I love being able to do businesses because it doesn’t just affect the family who lives there or owns the business, but it also affects the patrons that get to go there. It influences an entire community.
Netfllix’s “Blown Away” …
I was a guest judge (during) the second season, but now they brought me back to host the entire holiday season that will be coming out in the fall. That show came out when we were filming “Queer Eye” season five. I had a day off and “Blown Away” came up in the queue; I remember going, “A glass blowing competition? We have really run out of ideas.” But then it started auto playing and I was like, “Actually, this is really captivating. I really like this show.” And I ended up binging the whole season that day. I actually tweeted about it and said I loved it. Netflix noticed that and asked if I would want to be a guest judge for season two and I was like, “Absolutely.”
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