A Nate Berkus Day!

How will I ever put into words #NateDay921? In a nutshell NateDay began one morning over tea while on twitter. The Moggit Girls, Amy of ABCDDesigns and I were tweeting about the new Nate Berkus show to come in the fall. Than I had the idea to exercise the power of twitter to see if we could get Nate's attention by all bloggers posting their favorite Nate Berkus room or product. Guess what? Nate actually responded!! What an achievement! Next up was Joy and Janet working their magic with the show's producers to bring together all of us bloggers to a taping of the show! I was over the moon excited as I never even thought this would be a possibility! I have always wanted to see the behind the scenes of a tv show taping and than to have it be with Nate Berkus, well be still my design heart I was a girl in heaven.

A few things I took away from this day. First was how quickly everything came together. I was SO impressed how many people dropped everything to come to NYC and they came from across the country!! It was not about the kids, the husbands/wives, or the business every single one of us stopped life to do this for ourselves.

When creative people gather in one spot the inspiration and collaboration is endless. I overheard many people making plans when they returned home to meet up with bloggers they met at the show to work on projects together!

Nate Berkus is the most genuine, enthusiastic, authentic designer I have seen. He is truly a passionate designer and is all about making the homeowner feel involved in the process.

One segment of the show was "Designing With What You Have" which for me was validating as this is a motto of Jace Interiors and something I have done with clients for years. Now I can point them to Nate as another expert in this type of design!

Nate was nice enough to take time after the show for a Q&A session. It was so fun to stand up, be recognized by Nate as "CreateGirl" and ask a question which thanks to Chanee from Melongings who video taped it you can view here! His answer was to stay passionate about your design and the process, be true to yourself! Words to live by, thanks Nate!

As I mentioned earlier one of the best parts of the day was meeting all the people I talk to through the blog and on twitter everyday. Here is a photo of Jonathan (he came from Canada!!) and Amy 2 people I talk to every morning over tea on twitter! They are both super creative and the most delightful in person as they are online! I am lucky to call them supporters and friends!

All in all it was a fantastic day for me and not only was I recognized as Julieann but also as "CreateGirl" which was so fun! Thanks again for all those that participated, our community has an amazing voice!

** I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge some of the disappointment heard around the web about the show. For a while I actually felt like the negative chatter diminished my own positive experience. We all took something different away from the day but one thing I hope is that people give Nate a break. How many of us have our own tv show with the weight of a staff and expectations of a network on our shoulders? The show is not only for all of us in big cities with the privilege of being exposed to designers and great design. It is also for the person at home in ALL parts of the country who do not have design centers in their backyard or even great furniture stores. With that said it will be nice when the show pulls together segments for both of us...rooms to aspire to and ones to inspire. Just as we support each other on twitter and through our blogs which we do exceptionally lets support our fellow designer in Nate, pass on constructive ideas and be grateful we were all given an amazing opportunity to meet in person.

(images from Fauxology, thanks Regina and Jace Interiors)