WEBVTT - Revisionist History LIVE with Nate Berkus 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:15.796 Bushkin. 0:00:20.276 --> 0:00:23.836 Hello, Hello, everyone. We have a little surprise for you today. 0:00:24.036 --> 0:00:27.836 It's a conversation I recently have with Nate Burkas. If 0:00:27.836 --> 0:00:30.596 that name rings a bell, He's a famous interior designer. 0:00:30.916 --> 0:00:33.276 You may know him from his appearances over the years 0:00:33.316 --> 0:00:35.676 on the Oprah Winfrey Show. You may have read one 0:00:35.716 --> 0:00:37.836 of his books. You may even have some of his 0:00:37.916 --> 0:00:41.316 products in your home. Anyway, this all came about because 0:00:41.356 --> 0:00:44.356 AC Hotels wanted to host an event about design and 0:00:44.396 --> 0:00:47.596 creativity at their Times Square location in New York City, 0:00:48.196 --> 0:00:51.076 and we decided to invite Nate to come, which turned out, 0:00:51.196 --> 0:00:54.276 as you will hear, to be an inspired choice. I 0:00:54.316 --> 0:00:57.156 had so much fun doing this. We talked about our moms, 0:00:57.396 --> 0:01:00.316 about Paris, about the TV shows that Phillis with Rage, 0:01:00.556 --> 0:01:04.996 and a million other things, but mostly about design and creativity. 0:01:05.596 --> 0:01:09.916 Nate is as charming and funny as he is smart. Anyway, 0:01:09.916 --> 0:01:12.436 here it is. This all took place in the rooftop 0:01:12.476 --> 0:01:14.876 bar of the Cotel in New York with all kinds 0:01:14.916 --> 0:01:18.716 of fabulous cocktails and advertisers being passed around. Just a 0:01:18.796 --> 0:01:21.836 heads up, you may hear some city noises in the background. 0:01:22.796 --> 0:01:25.516 I hope you enjoyed this live episode as much as 0:01:25.556 --> 0:01:29.836 I did. I wanted to say before I started, I 0:01:29.836 --> 0:01:32.396 think we should get this little order a bit of 0:01:32.436 --> 0:01:35.636 business out of the way. I've scored enormous points with 0:01:35.716 --> 0:01:39.196 my significant other this evening by interviewing you, Kate. Normally, 0:01:39.276 --> 0:01:43.036 if I'm interviewing like the you know, hypothetically the CEO 0:01:43.236 --> 0:01:47.396 of whatever Microsoft, she would say, oh, interesting, and then 0:01:47.476 --> 0:01:50.436 go back to her phone. When word leaked that I 0:01:50.476 --> 0:01:54.436 was interviewing Nate Burkas, it was like Nate Burkas. It 0:01:54.556 --> 0:01:57.956 was like, you can't imagine the kind of celebrity power 0:01:58.036 --> 0:01:58.356 you have. 0:01:58.356 --> 0:02:00.076 In my home. You are welcome. 0:02:00.676 --> 0:02:05.676 Yeah, yeah, so no, it's huge. It's huge for all 0:02:05.676 --> 0:02:06.836 of us in the global household. 0:02:07.036 --> 0:02:08.956 May I just say that when I told my mother 0:02:09.196 --> 0:02:10.836 that I was going to be a guest on Malcolm 0:02:10.876 --> 0:02:13.596 Gladwell's podcast, or response with why. 0:02:16.396 --> 0:02:20.516 That's that's not very nice. We're going to be talking 0:02:20.516 --> 0:02:24.916 about travel and design and your career and all kinds 0:02:24.916 --> 0:02:28.316 of interesting things before we get to your career. Though, 0:02:28.716 --> 0:02:31.356 you and I are both both have the travel bug. 0:02:31.716 --> 0:02:35.196 Because I have a theory that the travel bug is innate. 0:02:35.276 --> 0:02:38.356 It's not acquired. Yeah to have it, you don't, so 0:02:38.516 --> 0:02:39.436 is the design bug. 0:02:39.636 --> 0:02:41.196 So is this all good? 0:02:41.236 --> 0:02:43.596 So we're talking, we're trafficking, and I have a little 0:02:43.636 --> 0:02:46.956 story about myself which I think proves this is true. 0:02:47.396 --> 0:02:50.276 But before I tell that story, I wanted you tell 0:02:50.356 --> 0:02:53.196 me when did you realize what is the first evidence 0:02:53.236 --> 0:02:57.316 the world has that Nate has the travel bug? How 0:02:57.356 --> 0:02:57.916 young are you? 0:02:57.996 --> 0:02:59.796 I think, yeah, I think it was. 0:03:01.916 --> 0:03:05.676 The first time I was somewhere without a chaperone, like 0:03:05.756 --> 0:03:08.996 a proper chaperone. I did a semester abroad in Europe 0:03:09.636 --> 0:03:12.036 and moved to Paris and sort of lived in this 0:03:12.116 --> 0:03:15.516 tiny little box at the top of a beautiful old 0:03:15.556 --> 0:03:17.796 building with a share bath fantasy. 0:03:17.836 --> 0:03:19.916 It was amazing, It was amazing. I sold all my 0:03:19.996 --> 0:03:22.116 clothes of spending money. 0:03:22.876 --> 0:03:25.396 But I knew you wearing all black at that I 0:03:25.436 --> 0:03:27.916 wanted to wear all black. Yeah, I was wearing Ralph 0:03:27.996 --> 0:03:30.916 Lauren and that's not what no, no, no oh, yeah, 0:03:30.956 --> 0:03:34.516 I had to to sell that. Yeah, get some money 0:03:34.556 --> 0:03:37.556 for a leather jacket. But I was found myself in 0:03:37.556 --> 0:03:41.876 Paris alone, and I remember walking the streets and feeling 0:03:42.116 --> 0:03:47.316 really good, feeling like really solid, and not being afraid 0:03:47.596 --> 0:03:52.916 and not being intimidated, and being fascinated by modern life 0:03:52.956 --> 0:03:55.556 in an ancient place, and I think that that was 0:03:55.596 --> 0:03:58.516 the first moment for me. And when I travel, I 0:03:58.556 --> 0:04:02.196 don't I'm not really reaching for the sort of. 0:04:03.596 --> 0:04:05.316 Where the guides say you should go. 0:04:05.516 --> 0:04:08.676 For me, it's it's what is most indicative of that 0:04:08.876 --> 0:04:12.916 place as seen through objects. So I'm in the markets 0:04:12.956 --> 0:04:15.396 where people buy their pots and pans and the fabric 0:04:15.476 --> 0:04:17.876 they make the potato sacks out of, and those are 0:04:17.916 --> 0:04:20.476 the kinds of things that I'm always searching for. 0:04:20.516 --> 0:04:24.076 But that trip to Paris, that first. 0:04:24.156 --> 0:04:26.796 Move really to Paris, was when I knew I would 0:04:26.876 --> 0:04:28.836 never really stay in one place for a long time. 0:04:29.476 --> 0:04:34.236 My version of that story is we moved from England 0:04:34.636 --> 0:04:38.796 to Canada when I was six, and there's a picture 0:04:39.036 --> 0:04:42.916 of us about to get on the train to go 0:04:43.036 --> 0:04:45.876 to the We took a boat, took the Empress of England. 0:04:46.116 --> 0:04:47.396 We're about to get on the train to go to 0:04:47.436 --> 0:04:51.476 the boat. And so there's a family shot. My oldest 0:04:51.516 --> 0:04:55.996 brother is weeping, it's leaving the only country has ever 0:04:56.036 --> 0:04:59.436 known all of his friends. My middle brother is clinging 0:04:59.436 --> 0:05:03.396 to my mother anxiously. You know, it's a long ten 0:05:03.476 --> 0:05:07.596 days on a through uncharted you know, stormy seas. I 0:05:07.716 --> 0:05:11.316 look like someone just give me a million dollars. I 0:05:11.356 --> 0:05:14.396 am five years old and this is the single greatest moment. 0:05:14.796 --> 0:05:16.996 I'm like, are you kidding me? We're going to some 0:05:17.116 --> 0:05:20.716 unknown place on a boat for ten days. This is amazing. 0:05:20.876 --> 0:05:21.516 That's amazing. 0:05:21.596 --> 0:05:23.796 Couldn't wait to get out of there. That was when 0:05:23.876 --> 0:05:25.636 if I look at the foot, I'm like, oh, yeah, 0:05:25.956 --> 0:05:29.236 that's exactly you. Nothing has changed. So I want to 0:05:29.236 --> 0:05:33.196 go back to you in Paris. You're how old seventeen? 0:05:34.476 --> 0:05:39.756 Did you experience Paris at seventeen the same way you 0:05:39.756 --> 0:05:41.516 would have experienced today and now others? Were you doing 0:05:41.556 --> 0:05:44.076 the same things that in a new city that you 0:05:44.116 --> 0:05:48.116 do today, only without realizing why with the habits there? 0:05:48.356 --> 0:05:49.636 Yeah? They were. 0:05:49.956 --> 0:05:52.036 I still love doing all the things that I did 0:05:52.076 --> 0:05:55.156 when I was that age in that city, no matter where, 0:05:55.156 --> 0:06:00.916 I am allowing myself to get lost. 0:05:59.316 --> 0:06:01.476 Not relying on you know, an. 0:06:01.476 --> 0:06:05.716 Uber or a driver or whatever it is, but really 0:06:05.876 --> 0:06:08.596 digging in and seeing the space and seeing the place, 0:06:10.076 --> 0:06:12.276 trying to figure out how to ask the right people 0:06:12.876 --> 0:06:16.876 where the best Chinese food is or the best croissant 0:06:16.996 --> 0:06:20.996 or the best coffee. Like I you know, I have 0:06:21.076 --> 0:06:25.556 this aversion to being told what to do when I'm 0:06:26.076 --> 0:06:29.276 I have this aversion being told what to do of that, 0:06:30.276 --> 0:06:32.956 but especially when I'm traveling, because I want to figure 0:06:32.956 --> 0:06:35.556 it out for myself. And if a friend says you 0:06:35.676 --> 0:06:37.396 have to eat here, you have to see this, or 0:06:37.436 --> 0:06:39.476 you have to go to this museum or see this 0:06:39.636 --> 0:06:41.596 historic home, I'll do it in two seconds. 0:06:42.036 --> 0:06:46.036 But I also like to be the guy that has. 0:06:45.956 --> 0:06:48.916 Days doing nothing and just kind of soaking in what 0:06:48.996 --> 0:06:50.476 the culture might might bring. 0:06:51.156 --> 0:06:53.116 I want to go back to something you said about 0:06:53.236 --> 0:06:58.236 allowing yourself to get lost, which is nearly impossible today, 0:06:58.356 --> 0:07:01.716 but all of us over the age of forty remember 0:07:01.756 --> 0:07:04.036 a time when that was kind of not the norm. 0:07:04.236 --> 0:07:07.276 It was really easy to get lost and thrilling in 0:07:07.356 --> 0:07:07.956 this way. 0:07:08.156 --> 0:07:08.356 Yeah. 0:07:08.836 --> 0:07:12.756 I remember when I, as a fifteen year old, me 0:07:12.836 --> 0:07:16.116 and my brother went to London and spent we spent 0:07:16.156 --> 0:07:19.156 twos with my uncle and Anne. They lived just on 0:07:19.236 --> 0:07:22.516 the kind of furthest reaches of West London. I would 0:07:22.516 --> 0:07:26.756 get on the Parsons Green Tube and randomly get off 0:07:26.796 --> 0:07:31.156 at a stop and walk around. I knew nothing about London. 0:07:31.236 --> 0:07:33.356 I had never read a guidebook. What I knew about 0:07:33.356 --> 0:07:34.596 London I knew from Dickens. 0:07:34.756 --> 0:07:39.036 Yeah wow, And I get. I totally get that I 0:07:40.036 --> 0:07:43.076 had the best time. You're a little bit afraid, but 0:07:43.316 --> 0:07:45.796 it's anticipatory and you never know what you're going to 0:07:45.836 --> 0:07:46.476 stumble upon. 0:07:46.836 --> 0:07:48.756 You know where the coolest place, the best for us? 0:07:48.796 --> 0:07:50.716 You know where I ended up going Without realizing I 0:07:50.756 --> 0:07:55.116 was there until many years later. Malcolm McLaren, the founder 0:07:55.156 --> 0:07:59.196 of the Sex Pistols, had a clothing store with was 0:07:59.236 --> 0:08:04.036 it Vivian Westwood yeap on something road in Chelsea. 0:08:03.836 --> 0:08:06.156 That I don't know, but yes, I remember I went there. 0:08:06.436 --> 0:08:08.716 I was fifteen. I had no clue what was going on. 0:08:08.796 --> 0:08:10.156 I was like, oh, this looks interesting. 0:08:10.236 --> 0:08:13.316 But you found it and it felt differently because you 0:08:13.436 --> 0:08:13.996 found it. 0:08:13.996 --> 0:08:14.876 It's like, you know. 0:08:14.836 --> 0:08:18.556 And I yeah, I mean I to allow yourself to 0:08:18.596 --> 0:08:21.396 get lost. It wasn't that It wasn't really that scary now. 0:08:21.516 --> 0:08:23.436 I mean as a dad, I think it's super scary. 0:08:23.436 --> 0:08:25.876 I would kill my kids, Like, what are you talking about? 0:08:26.156 --> 0:08:28.436 There's a lowjack and your shoe and we've an apple 0:08:28.476 --> 0:08:31.556 tag and your forehead and you know you're you know, 0:08:32.116 --> 0:08:33.116 but I can still see you. 0:08:34.476 --> 0:08:35.236 But I think you know. 0:08:35.676 --> 0:08:37.476 It was just I don't know, there was just something 0:08:37.476 --> 0:08:41.196 about being in a foreign capital and a new culture 0:08:41.276 --> 0:08:45.636 in a place that was so old and so beautiful, 0:08:45.796 --> 0:08:49.716 and the architecture was so special to my eye at 0:08:49.716 --> 0:08:52.516 that age that I wanted to be lost. I wanted 0:08:52.556 --> 0:08:53.476 to be lost every day. 0:08:53.636 --> 0:08:55.716 Does that if we think about that phrase as a 0:08:55.796 --> 0:09:01.276 kind of metaphor, does it also describe your professional practice 0:09:01.436 --> 0:09:03.156 as an interior designer. 0:09:03.316 --> 0:09:06.476 Yeah, I think it describes it in that I'm really 0:09:06.516 --> 0:09:10.316 afraid of people who present themselves as like they're mastered 0:09:10.356 --> 0:09:14.076 a craft like I just it's the weirdest sort of place. 0:09:14.196 --> 0:09:17.716 I've been doing this for almost thirty years now, assembling 0:09:17.756 --> 0:09:19.596 spaces hopefully that I'm meaning. 0:09:19.396 --> 0:09:20.556 For the people that live there. 0:09:20.596 --> 0:09:23.236 But I am trying really hard to do that. But 0:09:23.396 --> 0:09:29.276 it's all evolving constantly. And you know, in any creative endeavor, 0:09:29.516 --> 0:09:32.516 if you've made decisions about how things need to be 0:09:32.716 --> 0:09:38.676 or should be, you're missing every other sort of bright, 0:09:38.756 --> 0:09:41.836 shiny thing you can reach down and pick up and incorporate. 0:09:41.916 --> 0:09:45.516 And so I think, after this long in design, I'm 0:09:45.996 --> 0:09:49.276 adept at scale. I'm adept at certain things that have 0:09:49.476 --> 0:09:52.916 practiced is sort of refined a skill set that's a 0:09:52.956 --> 0:09:57.516 practical skill set, but the creative, the magical, the imaginative. 0:09:58.716 --> 0:10:00.356 Yeah, I'm always lost. I love it. 0:10:00.716 --> 0:10:04.996 Yeah, so walk me through. You're in Paris at seventeen, 0:10:05.916 --> 0:10:09.356 tell me take me from there to your how you 0:10:09.396 --> 0:10:10.556 became a design. 0:10:10.716 --> 0:10:14.516 So I'm seventeen. I've sold all of my Ralph Lauren 0:10:14.596 --> 0:10:15.836 clothes to the Lovely Kids. 0:10:16.476 --> 0:10:16.996 What do you like? 0:10:17.116 --> 0:10:20.716 Just briefly, in two sentences, what do you like at seventeen? 0:10:22.316 --> 0:10:27.356 Guys and fries. 0:10:27.956 --> 0:10:31.636 No, no, no, nay, you can do better than that, 0:10:31.676 --> 0:10:34.556 And I still do you can do better than that? 0:10:35.196 --> 0:10:36.396 What I like at seventeen? 0:10:36.476 --> 0:10:38.716 Do you? If my set is seventeen year old Malcolm 0:10:38.756 --> 0:10:41.316 and seventeen year old Nate Meat, we would. 0:10:41.156 --> 0:10:42.276 Probably talk about music. 0:10:42.956 --> 0:10:45.276 I was listening to like the Smiths and you know, 0:10:45.636 --> 0:10:49.876 course so music music. My walk Man was on my 0:10:50.036 --> 0:10:55.676 whatever discman, Walkman, whatever awk Man, and I liked clothes 0:10:56.556 --> 0:11:00.436 and I liked history. I was interested in history, and 0:11:00.516 --> 0:11:00.836 at that. 0:11:00.836 --> 0:11:02.676 Age, that's what we would have talked about. 0:11:03.156 --> 0:11:04.996 What's up we talk about? 0:11:04.996 --> 0:11:06.356 I don't think you would have talked about clothes if 0:11:06.356 --> 0:11:10.756 you saw the clothes I was wearing when I was seventeen. 0:11:11.076 --> 0:11:13.396 Further ahead of me. But you came, you grew up 0:11:13.436 --> 0:11:14.076 in Chicago. 0:11:14.596 --> 0:11:18.956 No, I was actually raised in suburban Minneapolis, and I 0:11:18.996 --> 0:11:22.796 split my time between southern California and Minneapolis. My parents 0:11:22.876 --> 0:11:26.676 divorced when I was two, and they both remarried instantly. 0:11:26.956 --> 0:11:29.196 My mother actually tried to get married before her divorce 0:11:29.276 --> 0:11:32.996 was legal. To my dad. They went and they said, 0:11:33.036 --> 0:11:39.116 ma'm you're actually still married. My mother was like, oh, so, 0:11:39.196 --> 0:11:40.636 so I'll go home and wash my hair. 0:11:41.036 --> 0:11:41.876 Yeah. 0:11:42.196 --> 0:11:46.116 But they both remarried, and my stepfather was a radiologist 0:11:46.116 --> 0:11:49.236 in Minnesota, and so I was raised there and then 0:11:49.356 --> 0:11:51.236 and then I went away to school for high school 0:11:51.436 --> 0:11:52.796 over out on the East Coast. 0:11:52.796 --> 0:11:53.796 So I've been all over the place. 0:11:53.876 --> 0:11:56.916 Oh I see, yeah, yeah, but you do sound more 0:11:56.996 --> 0:11:59.876 sophisticated than I was at seven seventeen. 0:12:00.196 --> 0:12:01.636 I don't know about that. I don't know. 0:12:01.796 --> 0:12:05.276 I mean, listen, I don't even know if I'm sophisticated now. 0:12:05.396 --> 0:12:09.116 My my favorite restaurant worldwide is the State Fair of Mine. 0:12:09.236 --> 0:12:13.676 So it's just the best. 0:12:13.756 --> 0:12:17.836 Guys, When you say you were interested in history at 0:12:17.876 --> 0:12:18.876 that age, what does that mean. 0:12:19.756 --> 0:12:25.596 I was interested in architecture, and I was interested in spaces, 0:12:25.916 --> 0:12:29.796 and I was interested in a little bit in mythology 0:12:29.996 --> 0:12:35.796 and a lot in sort of like royal palaces and 0:12:35.836 --> 0:12:39.716 sort of aristocratic homes, and like really beautiful, beautiful in 0:12:39.956 --> 0:12:41.156 homes in castles and. 0:12:42.956 --> 0:12:45.276 Hotel particular and things like that. 0:12:45.556 --> 0:12:48.876 I was interested in the intersection between history and design, 0:12:48.996 --> 0:12:51.476 even though I didn't know that I would make a 0:12:51.556 --> 0:12:54.756 life for myself working in design. But I was always 0:12:54.836 --> 0:12:58.036 very sensitive to environments. I grew up with a mother 0:12:58.076 --> 0:13:01.276 who was an interior designer, so our home was constantly changing. 0:13:01.836 --> 0:13:04.956 I was. My job was to carry these old wallpaper 0:13:04.996 --> 0:13:06.676 books in and out of the trunk of her car 0:13:06.756 --> 0:13:09.636 that weighed more than I did you. 0:13:09.516 --> 0:13:11.156 Did you like your mother's sense of style. 0:13:11.796 --> 0:13:14.436 I appreciated it. She used a lot of old things. 0:13:14.436 --> 0:13:16.516 But no, I mean it was French country. 0:13:16.796 --> 0:13:18.756 She knows this. We've talked about this. Trust me. 0:13:19.236 --> 0:13:25.756 She's because I had a sudden tuning in and I'll 0:13:25.796 --> 0:13:28.596 be living with you and underwitness protection. 0:13:28.916 --> 0:13:29.756 Now. My mom knew that. 0:13:29.796 --> 0:13:32.116 But I What I admired about my mother's style was 0:13:32.156 --> 0:13:35.236 that she she never reached for new things. She always 0:13:35.276 --> 0:13:39.716 reached for antique furniture or vintage things. And she loved 0:13:39.716 --> 0:13:42.316 an auction or an estate sale. And that was how 0:13:42.316 --> 0:13:46.236 I got the bug of caring so much about assembling 0:13:46.316 --> 0:13:48.676 interiors for other people with things that have a little 0:13:48.716 --> 0:13:50.676 bit of history and soul. 0:13:51.236 --> 0:13:52.956 Did your mother have the travel bug? 0:13:53.876 --> 0:13:57.276 My mother the shopping bug. So, I mean my mother 0:13:57.396 --> 0:14:00.996 was very intrepid. She was you know, she had a 0:14:01.036 --> 0:14:04.516 point of view and growing up. Actually, now that I 0:14:04.796 --> 0:14:08.716 now that you asked me that I knew it a 0:14:08.796 --> 0:14:12.316 very age that pearls came from China, or you know, 0:14:12.996 --> 0:14:17.556 great shoes came from France, or great leather came from 0:14:17.716 --> 0:14:20.516 this place, from you know, the tanneries we're here. 0:14:20.956 --> 0:14:22.236 That's probably why when. 0:14:22.076 --> 0:14:25.956 I land somewhere now, I'm always interested in, like the 0:14:26.036 --> 0:14:28.716 local craft, what's made there, what they do the best 0:14:28.796 --> 0:14:29.476 job doing. 0:14:29.876 --> 0:14:31.116 That's what I always want to know. 0:14:31.196 --> 0:14:33.876 It doesn't have to be expensive, but like what's the 0:14:34.236 --> 0:14:38.356 what's the best thing in Sri Lanka, what's the best 0:14:38.356 --> 0:14:42.076 thing in Barcelona? Like what's the coolest craft in Wahaka? 0:14:42.396 --> 0:14:43.356 What are they known for? 0:14:43.516 --> 0:14:47.516 Yeah, you said earlier that you're very interested in investigating 0:14:47.636 --> 0:14:50.636 the culture of a place through its artifact. 0:14:50.756 --> 0:14:51.636 Yeah, through its craft. 0:14:51.916 --> 0:14:54.916 It's that and what you're describing in your mother as 0:14:54.956 --> 0:14:57.316 a version of them, Yeah, it is, it is. 0:14:57.836 --> 0:14:57.996 You know. 0:14:58.116 --> 0:15:00.356 My favorite this is one of my favorite things to do, 0:15:00.396 --> 0:15:03.676 by the way, is to locate someone's passions in there 0:15:04.156 --> 0:15:07.316 in an earlier form found in their parents. My favorite 0:15:07.556 --> 0:15:08.916 I can I go in to total digression. 0:15:08.956 --> 0:15:09.436 Yeah. 0:15:09.476 --> 0:15:12.476 My favorite example of this was I was once at 0:15:12.476 --> 0:15:15.796 a party in LA and I met a very famous 0:15:16.636 --> 0:15:20.036 LA manager, maybe one of the most famous of all 0:15:20.076 --> 0:15:22.676 of managers. He was famous because he was the hardest 0:15:22.716 --> 0:15:26.596 negotiator in Hollywood. He was like the guy who would 0:15:26.676 --> 0:15:29.676 argue with you for you know, two weeks, for the 0:15:29.756 --> 0:15:32.356 down to the slightest detail of a contract. And I 0:15:32.356 --> 0:15:33.636 was chatting with him and I was like, Oh, tell 0:15:33.636 --> 0:15:35.116 me about your chither and he goes, oh, yeah, well 0:15:35.156 --> 0:15:36.516 I am. My parents were, and I was really raised 0:15:36.516 --> 0:15:38.356 on my grandfather. What's your grandfather do? 0:15:38.356 --> 0:15:38.476 Well? 0:15:38.516 --> 0:15:41.756 He was in the button business. He's like, oh, what 0:15:41.796 --> 0:15:43.596 was that like? Well, every day after school I would 0:15:43.636 --> 0:15:45.876 go to my grandfather's office in the garment district and 0:15:45.876 --> 0:15:47.716 I would sit in a chair and I would listen 0:15:47.716 --> 0:15:52.596 to him argue over the you know, the tenth of 0:15:52.676 --> 0:15:58.036 a cent difference in a large order of buttons. Pause, 0:15:58.596 --> 0:16:01.956 and I'm like exactly, And he looked at me like, 0:16:02.876 --> 0:16:03.756 what are you talking about? 0:16:03.836 --> 0:16:06.116 No connection to see it? Same thing. 0:16:06.836 --> 0:16:09.836 He takes the buttons, and he takes the it makes 0:16:09.836 --> 0:16:10.836 a fortune. 0:16:10.476 --> 0:16:13.916 Exactly right, exactly so, and he's negotiing over the tenth 0:16:13.916 --> 0:16:15.476 acent of a price of a button. 0:16:15.516 --> 0:16:17.556 Still, but you do you do you see what you 0:16:17.596 --> 0:16:18.236 see where I'm going? 0:16:18.276 --> 0:16:21.476 Oh, of course, of course I'm following this. Yeah, and 0:16:21.516 --> 0:16:21.916 you're right. 0:16:21.996 --> 0:16:23.676 I mean, you know, my mom and I have talked 0:16:23.676 --> 0:16:25.996 about over the years. She's asked me like, what do 0:16:25.996 --> 0:16:28.956 you think my influence on you was as a young person, 0:16:29.076 --> 0:16:32.476 and then obviously is in design, and it was she 0:16:32.556 --> 0:16:35.516 taught me how to source. And I think a good 0:16:35.596 --> 0:16:39.036 designer has to be really good at sourcing because even 0:16:39.076 --> 0:16:42.996 in today's age, where you know, obviously, like at any 0:16:43.196 --> 0:16:46.316 given moment, at any place in the world, you can 0:16:46.636 --> 0:16:51.516 find exactly what you're looking for online, it's not really enough. 0:16:51.836 --> 0:16:55.436 You have to know who makes the hand painted lamp 0:16:55.516 --> 0:17:01.036 chains on Etsy, and who makes the Mexican pineapples in Morelia, 0:17:01.156 --> 0:17:03.356 and then who you know it's just and then who 0:17:03.356 --> 0:17:05.116 can put it all together for you and turn it 0:17:05.156 --> 0:17:07.556 into a coffee table. So you know, you've got to 0:17:07.596 --> 0:17:10.716 know the guy in Brooklyn too. So it's but sourcing 0:17:10.876 --> 0:17:14.236 is is what she gave me, and especially a love 0:17:14.276 --> 0:17:17.676 of vintage and craft and handmade. 0:17:17.916 --> 0:17:24.796 We'll be right back after the break, and we're back 0:17:25.076 --> 0:17:29.156 with Nate Burgis. We'll stop a lot of hotels, since 0:17:29.196 --> 0:17:32.236 hotels are such an integral part of the travel experience 0:17:32.236 --> 0:17:34.356 for so many people. I was thinking when I was 0:17:34.636 --> 0:17:37.916 preparing for this about so what is the what's the 0:17:37.956 --> 0:17:41.116 most wonderful hotel experience I ever had? And it was 0:17:41.156 --> 0:17:44.996 in a little hotel in Stockholm, which is in an 0:17:45.076 --> 0:17:50.476 old mansion. And I've forgotten what the mansion looks like, 0:17:50.516 --> 0:17:52.156 and I've forgotten what the my. 0:17:52.156 --> 0:17:52.756 Room looked like. 0:17:52.796 --> 0:17:55.156 I know that it was nice and comfortable room. The 0:17:55.236 --> 0:18:00.236 genius thing was there was a huge old oak table 0:18:00.796 --> 0:18:04.636 immediately adjacent to an open kitchen, and when you wanted 0:18:04.636 --> 0:18:06.756 to eat, you went down and you sat the table, 0:18:06.796 --> 0:18:09.516 and the cook came over to you and said what 0:18:09.556 --> 0:18:12.876 do you want? And everybody who's saying the table, it 0:18:12.876 --> 0:18:15.116 was a small sale. Everyone who just came and sat 0:18:15.156 --> 0:18:18.476 at the table. It was that thing. Yeah, their intention 0:18:18.796 --> 0:18:23.876 was that they were recreating a Swedish home, family home 0:18:24.036 --> 0:18:26.876 of which you were a visitor. And that's not what 0:18:26.916 --> 0:18:29.716 I want from every hotel. But no, they executed that 0:18:29.796 --> 0:18:32.596 intention beautiful. Yeah, that's what I about. 0:18:32.636 --> 0:18:33.396 I think listen. 0:18:33.516 --> 0:18:37.356 I think that every every hotel wants to be welcoming, 0:18:37.396 --> 0:18:39.876 they want to be curated, they want to be you know, 0:18:40.436 --> 0:18:44.716 intentional in their design decisions. And most definitely design does 0:18:44.836 --> 0:18:48.676 translate and communicate sort of what are you meant to 0:18:48.716 --> 0:18:52.476 feel chic and urban and you know free? Are you 0:18:52.516 --> 0:18:56.036 meant to feel relaxed and calm and sunburnt like? 0:18:56.116 --> 0:18:56.316 You know? 0:18:56.476 --> 0:18:59.876 Of course, the furniture and the textiles and the even 0:18:59.916 --> 0:19:04.076 the distribution of the rooms lends itself to certain activities 0:19:04.116 --> 0:19:08.836 and certain feelings. So I have these clients in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 0:19:09.116 --> 0:19:11.476 They're incredibly wonderful. 0:19:11.916 --> 0:19:14.516 I was wondering what was going to come out, No, brilliant, 0:19:14.916 --> 0:19:17.476 they're brilliant, And you said you want to be there 0:19:17.516 --> 0:19:18.476 to the pause. 0:19:18.196 --> 0:19:24.556 After incredibibly that they are wonderful and there They travel 0:19:24.836 --> 0:19:28.836 probably three hundred days a year. Yeah, and the goal 0:19:29.236 --> 0:19:33.036 was to create a home that they liked more than 0:19:33.116 --> 0:19:37.036 anywhere they've ever stayed. They can stay anywhere in the world, 0:19:37.196 --> 0:19:40.916 and they can stay in a five star, rent a house, 0:19:40.956 --> 0:19:43.836 rent a villa. They can literally go anywhere they want 0:19:43.876 --> 0:19:47.476 to go. But My assignment was to make home feel 0:19:47.916 --> 0:19:51.236 better than that. So it's me against like man against 0:19:51.276 --> 0:19:51.596 the world. 0:19:51.716 --> 0:19:51.956 Man. 0:19:52.516 --> 0:19:55.156 But you know, did this make you nervous? 0:19:55.516 --> 0:19:55.716 No? 0:19:55.956 --> 0:19:59.596 I was so excited about this challenge because what it 0:19:59.676 --> 0:20:03.116 did was it allowed me to really figure out who 0:20:03.196 --> 0:20:06.756 they were as a family, what really mattered to them, 0:20:07.156 --> 0:20:10.196 what ceremonies they do in their home, how they spend 0:20:10.196 --> 0:20:14.436 time together. And it offered me an opportunity to build 0:20:14.556 --> 0:20:19.236 that tile by tile, pillow by pillow, book by book, 0:20:19.596 --> 0:20:23.196 and create a space that dreamt a bigger dream for 0:20:23.316 --> 0:20:25.916 them as a family than they had even dreamt for themselves. 0:20:26.036 --> 0:20:27.996 How did you figure that out about We had the 0:20:28.116 --> 0:20:31.436 architectural framework there. We knew it was a house. We 0:20:31.516 --> 0:20:33.796 knew it had these many bedrooms and these many bathrooms 0:20:33.836 --> 0:20:37.236 and whatever. But we started with a lot of imagery. 0:20:37.836 --> 0:20:42.796 And I just watched their eyes as they commented, and 0:20:42.996 --> 0:20:46.636 I would ask them, why are you smiling when you're 0:20:46.676 --> 0:20:49.156 talking about that fireplace. You've never picked a fireplace in 0:20:49.196 --> 0:20:50.556 your entire life, But what is it that. 0:20:50.516 --> 0:20:51.156 You like about that? 0:20:51.876 --> 0:20:55.556 And they were able to communicate, well, it feels so rustic, 0:20:55.636 --> 0:20:58.276