Ideas from Nate Berkus for your Chicago apartment

Want to take some tips from a celebrity designer for your own Chicago pad? Recently we stumbled upon a great slide show of apartment images from Oprah’s favorite designer, Nate Berkus. This isn’t just any old apartment, though.. it’s his own Chicago apartment. Check out the images from Elle Magazine here.

All of Nate’s stuff is from the upper echelon of the design world, meaning that none of it is particularly affordable. But there are some general observations we can draw from these images that could be incorporated into any Chicago apartment, even if your primary sources for décor items are HomeGoods and Target.

Here’s what we liked and loved in the slide show:

Subtle use of color – Notice how nothing really pops at you while paging through these images. Aside from the teal cabinets in the bathroom and the blue/purple chairs and curtains in the dining room, use of color in this design scheme is very subtle. It is basically limited to accent work. Primary hues are browns, off-white, blacks and tans.

Antique furniture that doesn’t look old – There’s a lot of buzz about refurbished and restored stuff right now. What interested us most about the Berkus design is that he uses antique furniture in almost every room, but if you looked at the photos without knowing the origin of any of his stuff, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell. One exception: the 19^th century Belgian chest in the entryway.

Our favorite accessory: Those adorable Border Collies that the designer is photographed with outside his apartment. Here’s the thing, though.. we don’t believe they live here. There’s no way you’d let dogs jump on any of these furnishings, even the casual couches. Here’s guessing that they live at an equally perfectly decorated home somewhere on the outskirts of Chicago.. can we get some pictures of that, please?