{"id":7390,"date":"2023-09-14T00:54:30","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T17:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/?p=7390"},"modified":"2023-09-14T00:54:30","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T17:54:30","slug":"designer-bobby-berk-on-first-book-right-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/?p=7390","title":{"rendered":"Designer Bobby Berk on First Book, &#8216;Right at Home&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"drop-cap text-big text-gray\"> <span class=\"drop-cap__first text-dropcap \">W<\/span>ell before design expert and Emmy-nominated TV host <a href=\"https:\/\/bobbyberk.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/bobbyberk.com\/\">Bobby Berk<\/a> could identify his instinct for design, he could feel it in his bones. He encountered that feeling for the first time at age five, sitting in a bedroom that was flush with red\u2014red bedspread, red pillows, red curtains\u2014everything in a firetruck hue that his mother figured was apropos for a little boy. \u201cI wasn\u2019t able to articulate the fact that this color gave me anxiety, but I could tell that I didn\u2019t feel calm, and I felt that blue would make me feel better,\u201d he tells me. So, he saved up his birthday checks until he could afford blue linens in what would become his first ever room makeover.<\/div>\n<hr\/>\n<div class=\"experts-in-article noskim py-[24px] px-[40px]\">\n<p>Experts In This Article<\/p>\n<ul class=\"!ml-[18px]\">\n<li> <a href=\"https:\/\/bobbyberk.com\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/bobbyberk.com\/\">Bobby Berk<\/a>, design expert, Emmy-nominated TV host, and author <\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<hr\/>\n<p>Though Berk didn\u2019t quite realize it then, this formative experience laid the early foundations of his current modus operandi: The heart of good home design isn\u2019t just in how it looks, but in how it feels to the person who\u2019s living within it. As Berk outlines in his first book, out September 12, <a href=\"https:\/\/clicks.trx-hub.com\/xid\/leafgroup_ca5e0_wellgood?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.anrdoezrs.net%2Fclick-100155342-12366831%3Fsid%3DSTMSLS-1112047%26url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.barnesandnoble.com%252Fw%252Fright-at-home-bobby-berk%252F1141877033&amp;p=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wellandgood.com%2Fbobby-berk-right-at-home%2F&amp;event_type=click\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/right-at-home-bobby-berk\/1141877033\"><em>Right at Home: How Good Design Is Good for the Mind<\/em><\/a>, when you take care to design a space with your happiness, comfort, and style in mind, it\u2019ll take care of you right back.<\/p>\n<p>In the book, Berk unveils the ways in which design has had a profound impact on his mental state over the years, and then shares actionable how-tos for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/covid-19-home-health\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/covid-19-home-health\/\">designing a home that feels and functions like a safe haven<\/a>\u2014one that adds to, rather than detracts from, your sense of peace.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cWhen it comes to a home, the biggest feeling for me is [that of] feeling safe and secure.\u201d \u2014Bobby Berk, design expert and Emmy-nominated TV host<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cWhen it comes to a home, the biggest feeling for me is [that of] feeling safe and secure,\u201d he says. He only fully grasped the gravity of this feeling after finding himself without a home, couch-surfing or sleeping in his car or on the street during his teenage years. The first apartment he could afford was a lifeline, physically and mentally. \u201cGoing from not having that sense of safety to having that feeling, and seeing the drastic difference it made for my mental health\u2014that\u2019s what put me on the trajectory to be a designer and to share that feeling with others,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>In honor of his book launch, I talked with Berk about what it really means to find your personal style and why it matters so much for creating a space that best supports you, plus the key elements of home design that can boost your mood and soothe your senses.<\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content \" style=\"\" data-module-init=\"related-content\" data-module-immediate=\"\" v-cloak=\"\">\n<div class=\"related-content__wrapper \" v-cloak=\"\" :class=\"{'is-loaded':isLoaded}\">\n<p> <span class=\"inline pr-6 text-seafoam-dark\">Related Stories<\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <related-content class=\"related-content__links\" parent-article-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/bobby-berk-right-at-home\/\" current-title=\"To Bobby Berk, Good Home Design Is the Most Profound Act of Self Care\" current-image=\"WG_Editorial_BobbyBerkBook_feature-425x285.jpg\" v-on:parsely-posts-loaded=\"onPostsLoaded\" start-date=\"2023-03-13\" tag=\"div\" inline-template=\"\" url=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/bobby-berk-right-at-home\/\" secret=\"w5ztterVB03LGZJLfXS0hf3EvQBuFFIWew9hmVQxthU\" apikey=\"wellandgood.com\" limit=\"3\"> <\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"related-content__card mb-[10px] sm:mb-[20px]\" :class=\"{'related-content__card--full':posts.length === 1}\" v-for=\"(post, key) in posts\"> <a v-on:click.prevent=\"trackLinkGA($event, key)\" :href=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/bobby-berk-right-at-home\/post.url\" data-url-source=\"related-content\" class=\"related-content__link\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"\"> <\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content__card--image bg-tan\" :style=\"{ backgroundImage: 'url(' + post.image_url + ')' }\"> <img :src=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/bobby-berk-right-at-home\/post.image_url\" :alt=\"post.title\"\/> <\/div>\n<p> <\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <\/related-content> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Well+Good: Your book, <em>Right at Home<\/em>, emphasizes the importance of designing your home in a way that personally resonates with you. What would you tell someone who is struggling to figure out their design style?<\/h3>\n<p><em>Bobby Berk:<\/em> I\u2019d start by asking them about things that are completely unrelated to design\u2014because ultimately those are the things that you want in your home because they&#8217;re the things that make you happy.<\/p>\n<p>I remember, years ago on <em>Queer Eye<\/em>, we had a hero whose name was Remy, and he had inherited his grandmother&#8217;s house. While his granny was stylish and had such a cool house, it was <em>not<\/em> the home of a 27-year-old bachelor, and he didn&#8217;t really know what to do with it.<\/p>\n<p>Back in the beginning of the show, I would ask people, \u201cWhat&#8217;s your design aesthetic?\u201d And they&#8217;d be like, \u201cI don&#8217;t know.\u201d Or, they&#8217;d say something that I knew wasn&#8217;t really them, but was just something they had heard\u2014like \u201cFrench industrial,\u201d for example. And I\u2019d be like, \u201cAre you sure? Do you really know what that is?\u201d And they&#8217;d inevitably say, \u201cNo, I just read it somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So with Remy, I asked, \u201cWhat&#8217;s your favorite television show?\u201d And he was like, \u201c<em>Mad Men<\/em>.\u201d And then I was like, \u201cWhat&#8217;s your dream vacation?\u201d And he was like, \u201cCuba, and I&#8217;m also stuck in the fifties.\u201d So I did his home in mid-century modern, and I did a really cool mural of Havana, and he walked in, and he&#8217;s like, \u201cOh my God, this is so me. I don&#8217;t understand how you were able to do that.\u201d And basically I had just asked him about the things that he was passionate about that had nothing to do with design, and those are the things I put in his home. Because the thing is, if they fill up your cup in other ways, they\u2019re going to fill up your cup at home, too.<\/p>\n<h3>W+G: What is the mental-health impact of designing a home around your personal style?<\/h3>\n<p><em>BB:<\/em> It&#8217;s drastic. Your home is like your phone charger. If you don&#8217;t get fully charged at night by your house, you&#8217;re not going to make it through the day, just like if you don\u2019t charge your phone at night, it won\u2019t make it through the day, either.<\/p>\n<p>So, it really does have a big impact when you design based on your personal style. And it doesn&#8217;t necessarily have to mean surrounding yourself with things that you go out and spend money on, either. It can be a cool rock you found on a vacation that brings you back to that moment when you were in a really great mental place every time you look at it. It can be a scent. It can be a texture that reminds you of your grandmother&#8217;s sofa when you were little, during a time when you felt safe. Once you figure out what those things are, it can have a huge impact.<\/p>\n<h3>W+G: Are there particular design tweaks or changes that you\u2019ve found tend to really improve how people feel at home?<\/h3>\n<p><em>BB<\/em>: Lighting is super important. And while people talk about how much lighting can do for a space, they don\u2019t really think about the way it can affect your mental state, too.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of times, people are like, \u201cOh, I have such a hard time falling asleep at night.\u201d And I&#8217;m like, \u201cWell, what&#8217;s your lighting plan?\u201d Depending on what time you go to bed, it\u2019s a good idea to start turning your lights down or turning certain lights off a couple hours beforehand\u2014or if you can, have your lights on a dimmer because your body naturally starts producing melatonin when it gets dark.<\/p>\n<p>So if you&#8217;re sitting in a super bright room, your body is not naturally going to go, \u201cOh, hey, it&#8217;s dark. I need to start preparing myself to go to sleep.\u201d If you wait until midnight to not be in a bright room, and then you&#8217;re like, \u201cOh, I want to go to sleep. Why does it take me an hour and a half to go to sleep?\u201d That\u2019s because you&#8217;re not programming your body and letting your body know. You&#8217;re not giving it the signal of, \u201cHey, I&#8217;m going to turn the lights down. You start getting ready to go to sleep.\u201d So even just tweaking your lighting plan at night can have a big effect.<\/p>\n<p>The same goes for adding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/green-color-home-design\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/green-color-home-design\/\">plants into your space, which can be really soothing<\/a>\u2014even a fake plant can do the trick because our souls and our minds connect to nature. And when we&#8217;re living in a space with greenery, it tricks your mind into seeing that texture and that color that really connect us to where we&#8217;re from.<\/p>\n<h3>W+G: As your own style and wants and needs have evolved with time, what\u2019s something that you\u2019ve done to make your home work (even) better for you?<\/h3>\n<p><em>BB<\/em>: Good organization has become increasingly important for me. I never really realized how important being super organized was for my mental state\u2014even though I&#8217;m a Virgo, so I&#8217;ve always been <em>mostly<\/em> organized. But I used to allow the clutter to accumulate a bit more when I first moved to Los Angeles. I never did in New York, because in New York, you can&#8217;t have clutter because your space is just not big enough for it. But in Los Angeles, I used to let my bedroom get a little bit out of control; it was the one space where I let myself let go a bit.<\/p>\n<p>But I realized that the bedroom is actually one of the worst places to let go because then, you&#8217;re sleeping in chaos. And don&#8217;t get me wrong, it was never <em>chaotic<\/em>, but there was a pile of clothes here and laundry there; you go to sleep seeing those things, and you wake up seeing those things, and it actually starts to have a huge effect on your mental well-being. So, organizational methods have really been something that I&#8217;ve gravitated toward as I&#8217;ve gotten older.<\/p>\n<h3>W+G: What\u2019s a simple design tip that someone might use to feel even just a little bit more comfortable and at home in their space?<\/h3>\n<p><em>BB<\/em>: I always say that a can of paint can go a really long way. A lot of times, even if your walls aren\u2019t necessarily a bad color, or maybe they\u2019re just a little dingy or yellowish, a nice fresh coat of paint to whiten things up can help in a big, big way.<\/p>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"disclaimers__after_content mb-[18px] mt-[16px] pt-[16px]\">\n<div class=\"outline-earmark relative mt-[8px] pt-[10px] pl-[20px]\">\n<p>\n            Our editors independently select these products. Making a purchase through our links may earn Well+Good a commission.          <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1675549\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well before design expert and Emmy-nominated TV host Bobby Berk could identify his instinct for design, he could feel it in his bones. He encountered that feeling for the first time at age five, sitting in a bedroom that was flush with red\u2014red bedspread, red pillows, red curtains\u2014everything in a firetruck hue that his mother &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}