Tour Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent's Holiday-Ready Apartment in New York City

Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent’s newly-renovated apartment in NYC's Greenwich Village features holiday decorations with a vintage, old-Parisian ambiance as glowing with sentiment as the sun-drenched space itself. The Nate and Jeremiah Home Project hosts are celebrating their first Christmas back in the home they vacated in 2016 for a stint on the West Coast. And if watching Jeremiah tear up thinking about his kids ringing in Christmas morning under their tree doesn't bring you to full-on tears, this festive tour might.

In many ways, this apartment turned out to be like a first love: impossible to forget. East Coast nostalgia brought Nate and Jeremiah back to Manhattan only three years after their move West, but it wasn’t until two years into their new New York lives that this apartment went up for sale again. Ecstatic, they dropped everything (including a stunningly remodeled townhome in the West Village) to return to the space where they’d once lived, this time with their kids Oskar (4) and Poppy (7) in tow. And, as sometimes happens with first loves, the sweet reunion was emotional — even more so during the holidays.

Nate and Jeremiah mix festive decor with their year-round accessories for a subtle, high-design holiday effect. Case in point: In the entry, seasonal branches (currently olive) rest in a reclaimed stone pot. Garland hung by Jeremiah and Oskar complements the rest of the room's greenery while playing against the aged, black-and-white Spanish tile flooring.

"My trick to holiday decorating is to start simple, then I keep peppering things in when Nate’s not expecting it,” says Jeremiah. Nate, on other hand, admittedly takes a less-is-more approach. Their happy medium lies in pairing seasonal with year-round and vintage, while sticking to the home's warm, neutral color palette. “If left to my own devices there would be 16 trees, 37 wreaths and everything would have garland on it,” says Jeremiah.

Each year, the family picks a tree from one of the many sidewalk sellers around Manhattan. “This is the first year we’re all back together in this house with a family bigger than we ever thought we were going to have, with a life bigger than we could have imagined,” says Jeremiah.

Displayed in a sunny corner of the couple’s living room, this year’s tree boasts the same silver, white, gold and rattan ornaments Jeremiah used to decorate the couple’s first Christmas tree — which he surprised Nate with in the dining room of this apartment years ago.

Four light gray stockings embroidered with the initials of each family member complement the gray-white veining on the marble fireplace surround. “It just feels like the holidays the second you hang them on the mantel,” says Jeremiah.

Arguably their favorite space in the house, Nate and Jeremiah constructed the dining-kitchen area specifically for gathering. Though the couple thought the kids would prefer sitting at the kitchen island, the family naturally congregates around the bleached-oak table in the dining room (a 19th century piece they found and brought from their old house).

This wall of mirrors — tucked between two custom cabinets on the far side of the dining room — was not part of the design the first time the couple lived here. Now, it brightens the space with reflected sunlight. A wreath echoing the greenery in the entry brings in lush holiday cheer.

Sunlight spills into this airy space through a ceiling of arched windows and bounces off bronze sink hardware and cool-toned vintage accessories. Swathed in stunning Calacatta Turquoise Antico marble, the kitchen is where (come December) you'll likely find Jeremiah basking in the ceremony of cooking. “The smells that come from this room during the holiday season, because of [Jeremiah], are incredible,” says Nate.

An especially sentimental piece of the Berkus-Brent seasonal celebrations: Jeremiah’s grandmother’s recipe book. Made by his aunt, the book contains all of his grandma Arline’s favorite recipes. “We always reference it during the holidays,” says Jeremiah.

Beneath a 1950s Italian light fixture, Jeremiah recounts his ideal morning in this kitchen — an image he and Nate shared long before they knew they would one day return to this space together with kids. “It's that beautiful chaos of family," says Jeremiah. "My mom grabbing a cup of coffee, the kids running around, Nate feverishly cleaning something that doesn’t need to be cleaned ... It's [these] moments [that] serve you in the way you always dreamed.”