in this edition of Celebrity Homes, Interior designer Nate Berkus shares how he renovated his dream home in New York City with Architectural Digest.

As the longtime home-makeover maven on The Oprah Winfrey Show and later host of his own television program, he has mastered the art of creating elegant, welcoming rooms in seemingly no time at all. In the case of his Manhattan duplex, the designer—true to form—executed one of his hallmark speedy transformations, with chic results that are a thoughtful reflection of his past.

Berkus bought the apartment, in a 19th-century Greenwich Village building, in 2011, after a period of renting a loft-like space in a mod Jean Nouvel–designed tower overlooking the Hudson River.

His current address, discovered after several restless nights searching real-estate listings, was far from perfect when he found it, distinguished not by venerable millwork or original fixtures but by walls of whitewashed brick. Still, the floor plan possessed the key elements he wanted, namely three bedrooms (two would be for guests) and a terrace. Besides, he reasoned, even the duplex’s flaws had a certain amount of character. Berkus explores this philosophy with his new collection of furnishings for Target and in The Things That Matter, a style monograph being published this fall by Spiegel & Grau.

Collaborating with architectural designer Carlos Huber, Berkus spearheaded an aesthetic overhaul that, given typical timelines, might as well have occurred overnight. In less than three months, the apartment had been renovated and decorated. Among other major alterations, the floors, whether painted parquetry or stone tile, were ripped up and replaced with white-oak boards, ensuring a seamless continuity between rooms; glass-and-metal planes were added in the form of double doors and interior partitions; and the upper level was reconfigured so that a skylit space (formerly a small gym) could become the dressing room of Berkus’s dreams.

Upgrades included antique marble mantels, bronze radiator grilles, and vintage Belgian hardware as products of his double-Virgo tunnel vision.

Sophisticated tweaks and clever fixes shaved weeks off the already abbreviated construction schedule. Rather than gut the kitchen, for example, Berkus retained the existing countertops and cabinets, having the latter painted a high-gloss black and crowned with moldings and ordering up matching panels to conceal the exposed washer and dryer. The apartment’s walls, meanwhile, were covered with either grass cloth or fresh coats of paint. The staircase, previously a treacherous climb owing to its lack of a railing, was finessed into a dramatic focal point with the addition of a sinuous steel banister.

Whereas some people might seize upon a new residence as a reason to start shopping, Berkus instead furnished with items he had collected over time. The majority came from his Chicago home, an expansive apartment done in the 1940s by architect Samuel Marx. An enormous striped dhurrie by Madeline Weinrib, for instance, is now rolled out across the first-floor family room, where the designer hosts casual meals of takeout. (“I can’t make anything myself,” he admits.) An image of a desert landscape at Joshua Tree National Park in California, snapped by his late partner, photographer Fernando Bengoechea, creates a rugged note in the dining room, where the designer’s onetime conference table is paired with Louis XVI–style Jansen side chairs.

Nate's dressing room is superbly appointed with painted floor-to-ceiling cabinets custom made to contain every element of his stylish wardrobe. Everything is where it ought to be—and now so is Nate Berkus.

Establish continuity: Replacing a patchwork of parquetry and tile with oak floorboards laid in a classic herringbone pattern created seamless transitions between the first-floor rooms and achieved a harmonious look overall.

Work with It: Rather than gut the kitchen, Berkus refined the space—lacquering the white cabinets black, substituting gutsy brass handles for standard pulls, and sheathing the backsplash in smart subway tiles.

Improve with Age: Antique mantels, tracked down at salvage yards, added texture and a sense of history.
Update: In a skylit guest room, a partial wall of dated glass blocks was supplanted by a glazed panel that does the same job—allowing sunlight to suffuse an adjoining stairwell—giving the space timeless appeal.

Get the Little Things Right: Berkus used handsome hardware—from door handles to a newel finial—to elevate the character of the rooms.

Don't miss our tour of Nate Berkus's New York City apartment:
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