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There are so many interior design mistakes to avoid. A big one, according to HGTV darling Nate Berkus, is chasing trends. What’s popular in home design comes and goes, but this isn’t something Berkus wants you to worry about. The star famously avoids trends and instead tends to focus on creating spaces that work best for individuals, based on their own tastes and preferences. “I am not scared of trends. I just don’t believe that they should be used to fuel what you do and how you design,” Berkus told Homes & Gardens. However, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have opinions on the do’s and don’ts of interior design.
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Whether you’re tempted to buy reproduction furniture over the real thing or want to buy furniture sets to decorate your house faster, these are some of the design mistakes Berkus warns against. By avoiding these pitfalls, your home will look timeless, elevated, and, most importantly, uniquely you. Here is a look at what to look out for when designing your home.
Buying reproduction furniture
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When selecting vintage-inspired furniture, Berkus would prefer you buy the real thing for your house instead of reaching for a cheap reproduction. Reproduction furniture is new furniture that’s specially designed to mimic the look of vintage pieces. For example, you can buy a mid-century modern table or a velvet Art Deco-inspired chair on Amazon. But, they are only created to look vintage and have been designed and created more recently. In an interview with the New York School of Interior Design, Berkus shared his reservations about reproduction furniture. “It’s a really hard time with reproduction furniture,” he said. “I’d much rather have something old or vintage…and I sell furniture … but it’s not meant to look like something that’s, you know, 18th century or 19th century.”
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There is a reason these kinds of pieces are still popular, though, and Berkus knows it. They are certified classic styles that you’ll have in your home for years. And for this reason, it’s important to invest in the real thing. “Take a weekend to shop your local antique mall or vintage stores for special and one-of-a-kind things, even if it’s a group of pottery in the same tones for your fireplace or bookshelf,” he told Real Homes. “I always choose antique things with real patina, and that can evolve with you as your life, and space evolves.”
Sticking to one design style
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No matter how invested you are in Art Deco decor or how much you love mid-century modern furniture, Berkus recommends branching out from each of these areas. If you don’t, he warns, you kind of run the risk of turning your home into a bit of a time capsule. Suddenly you don’t just have a chic couch and fun chandelier, but a kitschy collection. Instead, he told Living, etc., to vary choices. “Think vintage lighting, mirrors, and picture frames along with furniture from a mix of eras and countries. (They) don’t tie you to any specific design aesthetic or trend and can move around in your home as you and your space evolves.”
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In a talk with DxvLuxury, Berkus expanded on this idea to help nervous home decorators find their footing with mixing and matching. The best place to start, he thinks, is with an inspiration board. Whether that’s a physical collage or a Pinterest page is up to you, but he says, “They shouldn’t actually be the exact room you want to create, but color combinations or the way sort of furniture has been laid out, the juxtaposition of different elements and different periods. If you see something that’s really striking, you should save that photo.” This way, as you begin to gather pieces in reality, you’ll already have a better grasp on what it is that you actually want.
Buying only matching furniture sets
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When your local furniture store is having a Memorial Day sale, you might see it as an opportunity to re-furnish your entire home. Yet Berkus suggests that you reconsider. “It’s really tempting to create an instant interior and say, ‘This set of bedroom furniture is a great deal, and I can finance it. It’s easy, I’m done, and I can move onto other areas of my life,'” he told Oprah.com. However, this isn’t the best way to go about creating a curated and stylish space. “Take a beat and drown out the noise from all those makeover shows,” he continued.
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Instead, Berkus would rather people carefully curate their homes over several years. “Your home should really be a refugee of your collected experiences, and it should really be a reflection of who you are,” he told Homes & Gardens. That means filling it with pieces from your travels, local neighborhood flea markets, art that has spoken to you, quirky pieces that reflect your personality, and sentimental pieces like photos, books, and gifts. You have the rest of your life to put together a place that you love — you really don’t have to rush it.
Letting trends dictate your home’s color palette
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While some designers insist that gray is already on the way out and beige is the newest relaxed hue, Berkus thinks it’s best for everyone to simply tune out the noise. Instead, choose what you like and stick with it, even if what’s in style passes right by you. “My philosophy has always been extremely trend avoidant,” he told The Washington Post. “If you love a color, you should live with it regardless of what you’re seeing in shelter magazines, on television, or on this chat.”
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It’s easy to spot that what’s in vogue is constantly changing. And, even though you may think some shades are over for good, colors are making their way back into home trends all the time. Berkus advises embracing the old, the classic, and personal favorites and forgetting all about the rest. “Trends are designed to make people feel bad about what color they didn’t buy last year,” he told Atlanta Magazine. “It’s planned obsolescence.”
Leaning into trendy bathroom tiles
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Updating your bathroom can be costly and time consuming. So, if you are going to do it, you want to make sure the design choices you make are ones you’ll enjoy for years to come. For this reason, Berkus thinks one of the worst mistakes you can make is to blindly follow recent trends, like going for super bold tiles that will look kitschy before you know it. “I made one mistake, years ago, in my own bathroom, where I put in this tile from Mexico in my shower; they were black and white triangles,” he told Domino. “It was the first thing I didn’t like a year later.”
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To keep things simple, Berkus has an easy rule to follow when designing these spaces. Only choose materials, like tiling or fixtures, that have been in constant use since at least the 1920s. “I try to keep bathrooms as timeless as possible, especially when choosing materials and more permanent fixtures,” he continued. “If it has been around since then, it’s probably a good investment.” Yet the most important part, of course is that if you like bold tiles — go for it anyway. That’s Berkus’ whole belief, after all.
Decorating with acrylic furniture
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Acrylic furniture is made from strong and flexible plastic. Some people like it as a lightweight and safe alternative to glass, and it lends a modern look to most spaces. Because it is see-through, it’s a favorite for smaller homes, as it can appear to take up less space than it does. However, it’s not something Berkus would ever recommend. “I hate it so much,” husband Jeremiah Brent told House Beautiful. “Acrylic always looks inexpensive to me, and it’s always dirty.” Berkus couldn’t express his agreement more, quickly adding, “And scratched!” to the list of reasons the furniture isn’t a great choice.
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Instead, if you want something see-through, just go for glass. It requires similar care and doesn’t look so cheap. After all, that’s what Brent and Berkus used in their own home in New York City. They have a glass chair decorating the end of their entryway, adding a modern twist to their historic home.
Choosing ceiling fans over chandeliers or pendants
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Interestingly enough, Berkus isn’t a fan of ceiling fans. In a quick Facebook question and answer session, when he was asked if he likes ceiling fans, he gave a very decided “nope”. Instead, he prefers something a bit more visually interesting when designing spaces. However, he doesn’t just talk the talk. There is evidence for his stance going back decades. In 2005, he revamped his New York City home and swapped the fan in his bedroom for a chandelier instead.
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This was to give the space more character, not to improve its functionality. “If you have a small space, you can still make it great,” he told Oprah.com of the change. “And most of all, make it really comfortable.” Of course, ceiling fans can go a long way to improve airflow in a space. If you are more concerned about functionality rather than style, it’s OK to keep your fan. However, if it’s particularly ugly and clunky, swapping it out for a more stylish version, like Amico’s Low Profile Ceiling Fan with Lights, can go a long way.
Tearing up your tile to install terrazzo
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Terrazzo is a material that is created by mixing small pieces of things like marble, quartz, and glass into a base of cement or resin. It is then polished to achieve a shiny, smooth surface. In modern times, lots of designers like to use it for floors, countertops, and walls, particularly in bathrooms and kitchens. It tends to be popular because it is strong and comes in bright, colorful patterns, yet Berkus can’t help but disagree. “It’s so annoying to install,” he told House Beautiful. “And it looks like an airport.”
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Instead, if you already have nice tiling on your floors or countertops, just leave it be. If you really can’t stand it, swap it out for another tile if it needed instead of choosing something that Berkus thinks looks a little too commercial for most residential settings. Or, repaint your existing tile with a product like styleonme’s Waterbased Tile Paint for a fresh new look.
Implementing outdoor rugs
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In the years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, maximizing outdoor living spaces in homes have become more and more important. Yet when putting your oasis together, there is one thing Berkus insists you avoid. And, that’s any sort of rug on the patio or backyard. “I’m going home to throw mine away by the way … my daughter’s walking around on a petri dish! I learn something new every day,” he told a panel at a blogger breakfast hosted by Chairish when discovering just how many germs these rugs tend to attract and hold onto.
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Instead, there are a number of other ways the designer recommends sprucing things up. For instance, rather than relying on the rug to make a statement, focus on using unique tables and chairs to elevate the space. “One of the things that we did was buy handy saw horses from a home-improvement store and cut the legs so they were really low to the ground,” he told PopSugar. “We then just added some plain plywood to the top to create a mini table and threw a fun tablecloth over it with a bunch of cozy pillows on the grass.” It’s ideal, according to Berkus, because you can likely host more people than at a traditional backyard table. If you worry about lying directly on the grass, add a few blankets to the mix, too. Just be sure to bring them inside and wash them after each event so you don’t run into the same issues as the outdoor rugs.
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