Nate Berkus recently partnered with Duracell to emphasize important safety tips when using lithium coin batteries, especially during the holidays.
Berkus is a well-known interior designer and TV personality. He has made appearances on the Oprah Winfrey show, featured in various publications, and was on the ELLE DÉCOR A-List of the world’s top designers and the AD100 list. He and his husband Jeremiah Brent have a home renovation show on HGTV called ‘The Nate and Jeremiah Home Project.’ Berkus has collected numerous accolades over the years that have shown a timeline of his success.
Nate Berkus, interior designer, teams up with Duracell to #HolidaySafely reminding parents that holiday decor can be unsafe for kids if they contain lithium coin batteries. Make sure your decorations have Duracell with bitter coating (Courtesy Duracell)
His partnership with Duracell is timely as many people have begun decorating for the holiday season. He is using his platform to encourage families to #HolidaySafely and switch to Duracells lithium coin battery products. Many holiday decorations are powered by lithium coin batteries which can be left in easy access locations when assembling that could cause potential problems if left unattended. Due to the size of the coin batteries, they pose a hidden danger to young children. Duracell has implemented safety features to their products that will deter from swallowing by adding a bitter coating to the batteries and child secure packaging, which is nearly impossible to open without scissors. These precautions are a few of the preventative measures Duracell has included ensuring an added level of protection for families this season.
Berkus spoke with our correspondent Rebecca Eugene regarding his partnership with Duracell and tips for the holidays. Fans and viewers can follow his work on both his website and Instagram.
The Knockturnal: So tell me a little about your partnership with Duracell?
Nate Berkus: So as a designer obviously I want everyone’s homes to be beautiful this holiday season, and the reason I partnered with Duracell is that as a dad it’s important to keep my children safe. Duracell as a company has done some really wonderful things to help keep the holiday season safe.People can go on Duracell.com to download a checklist, which includes some really smart ideas about protecting kids this holiday season. There’s sparkly,beautiful, glittery lights and decorations in all of our homes, a lot of them take lithium coin batteries. Duracell has coated the lithium coin batteries with a bitter substance that will discourage children from swallowing them. Their packaging is nearly impossible to open without scissors, which makes it really hard for kids to open. I’m sure you’ve done it yourself where you were like, “Why is it taking me five hours to take this battery out of its package,” that’s why. There’s a lot of things that I have learned by just going on Duracell.com that I just didn’t think about and aa a parent or even people who aren’t parents who are hosting kids or having guest over this holiday season, I think it’s really important that they look at that, it’s an additional safeguard to keep everyone safe.
The Knockturnal: What are some tips you would give to parents when it comes to safely decorating their homes and keeping things out of reach for children to grab?
Nate Berkus: When it comes to the remotes, keep them up on the fireplace mantle or even in the cabinet. There’s batteries in the new remotes that usually are lithium coin batteries for christmas trees and things like that. It’s really about making the space as safe as possible when it’s filled with stuff that aren’t in our homes 85% percent of the year, that are attractive to grown ups and especially attractive to kids. Tape the battery compartment, tape it closed, when you’re down putting the batteries, put a couple layers of tape on that so its harder for little kids to get into that. As well as flameless candles, instead of actual real candles, it’s always a great idea. Again, take a lithium coin battery, use the Duracell one that has the bitter coating in case it falls out or in case you’re rushing and you’re trying to put batteries in your candles, wrap presents, bake a turkey and do all the stuff that we’re all trying to do. We know, i know, Duracell knows that everybody has a thousand things going on, parents feel like they need to have eyes in the back of there head, it’s a special time and should be about getting together, making beautiful memories, honoring old traditions and crafting new ones, we just want the holidays to be about that.
The Knockturnal: What are your go to holiday decor items?
Nate Berkus: My go tos are neutrals, I know that’s probably a huge shock. Jeremiah and I both gravitate towards things like slivers, metallics, bronzes and golds. We’ll put ornaments and things like that in bowls and not just on the tree, and make a centerpiece on the table with that. Flameless candles for sure, I love them everywhere, I leave them on all night, I like to wake up to them in the morning. I love things that are natural, mixed with glittery metallics, anything made out of wicker, twigs, raffia, seagrass, or any of those natural woven things. I’m always gravitating to things that are made by hand, basically all year round but especially during the holidays. Our tree is a real tree but its a mix of metallic ornaments in silver, gold, and white, and these hand knitted animals like little white sheep and black sheep, they’re really cute, we bring them out every year and the kids love them. I love a natural woven placemat, a crisp white linen dinner napkin or ivory. But I also have a lot of respect for those that go crazy for holidays, I’m behind that, I love seeing that, I have friends and clients that do that and it’s beautiful. It’s really about doing what makes you feel like the holiday season has arrived and its the perfect backdrop for you to eat, be merry, gather, and make memories, sit around the fire, sit around watching Netflix whatever your family does.
The Knockturnal: When it comes to DIY projects they never work out for me. How do you feel about doing DIY’s?
Nate Berkus: Me either. I hate DIY’s. I’m with you, I can’t stand it, they try to make me do it on the show and it doesn’t work out for me either. So, I don’t get it. It makes me want to get up and call Martha Stewart. Yup, it’s not for me, not when you can go on websites and find people who actually know what there making and do such a beautiful job and you’re like “its eight dollars” Im going to spend five hours of my life and six hours in the car in holiday traffic trying to find the materials to make this thing, that this lady is making on etsy for seven dollars. !00% support small businesses women owned, Black owned lets do it.
