Nate Berkus is one of the country's most influential interior designers, known for creating

homes that are filled with meaning, character, and effortless elegance.

Alongside his husband and fellow design powerhouse, Jeremiah Brent, Nate has built a career centered on the belief that the spaces we live in should tell the stories of who we are.

In his new book, Foundations, Timeless Design that feels personal, he shares his four tenets of good design.

It's a deeply thoughtful guide to creating spaces that reflect your life, your memories, and the things you

love most. Nate's passion for design began early, inspired by his mother, who was a designer

herself. Then right out of college, he launched his own firm, but his work reached a national

audience through his appearances on the Oprah Winfrey show. I sat down with Nate to talk about

its design philosophy,

his love of books, which he shares with his children,

and how he became his most authentic self.

I'm Jenna Bush-Hager.

Welcome to my podcast, Open Book, with Jenna.

I'm Jenna Bush you're here.

I'm so happy to be here.

Not only because I respect your work so much and because you've written a beautiful new book,

but you're also a big reader. So we're going to talk about that too. Well, we have, like, it's embarrassing because I don't pick books based on your book club, even though I follow you. Yeah.

And then, like, I went back and looked at how many titles I really love. And it was like, read with Jenna, read with Jenna, read with Jenna, read with Jenna. And I was like, maybe Jenna and I should just share books. Because we have the same taste in, but what is it? I have one for you. It's called Buckeye. Okay. Which you will love. I'm ordering it right now. If I have my phone, I'm 100%. You will go on to share it for sure. All right. I mean, I love reading. You know what? Honestly, it's so interesting to me because I, my kids are readers too, which makes me so happy. Yes. And I see their vocabulary change and I see their comprehension change. But I have to read to like shut out the decorating noise. Yeah, because I don't want to hear about that. I want to be in Tehran in 1960 before I go to bed. Yes. Yes. So I think you know what? Also, one of the things, and I should just say this to you because I think people listening know about the power of reading to your kids because there's been so many

studies on that.

But the patron saint of writing, Anne Patchett, shared a study with me about modeling

reading, that if you're modeling reading to your children.

So just by you reading every night, you and Jeremiah are reading, you talking about books

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