\n<\/p>\n
What makes a house a home?<\/p>\n
On Tuesday night, that question floated in the delicately candle-scented air of a three-story penthouse apartment on lower Fifth Avenue in Manhattan where the interior designer Jeremiah Brent lives with his husband and fellow designer, Nate Berkus, and their two children.<\/p>\n
An intimate gathering of about 30 guests had assembled to celebrate the publication of Mr. Brent\u2019s first book, \u201cThe Space That Keeps You,\u201d a collection of photos and stories of interesting people and their enviable houses.<\/p>\n
For Mr. Brent, who along with Mr. Berkus is a mainstay on HGTV with shows like \u201cThe Nate & Jeremiah Home Project,\u201d a home is a \u201cweird blend of space and place.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be in the right place and have the right space at the same time,\u201d he said in an interview, speaking from recent experience. Mr. Brent and Mr. Berkus originally lived in this apartment from 2013 to 2016, when they sold it and moved to Los Angeles. But they longed for what they had previously had, and seven years after selling, they bought the apartment back.<\/p>\n
This was the first time the couple have hosted a party since returning to their old apartment. Amy Astley, the editor in chief of Architectural Digest, was there, along with Elle Decor\u2019s editor in chief, Asad Syrkett, and New York magazine\u2019s design editor, Wendy Goodman. The designer Athena Calderone<\/a>, the filmmaker Shawn Levy and Ashley Avignone, a stylist and friend of Taylor Swift<\/a>, orbited the dining area, where a spread of intricate bites \u2014 duck fat-fried fingerling potatoes with creme fraiche and caviar, blistered shishito peppers with fennel pollen and lemon juice \u2014 were artfully arrayed.<\/p>\n One guest could be heard marveling at how good everyone looked in the apartment\u2019s not-too-dim-to-be-dramatic light.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It was a scrupulous attention to lighting that led Brooke Cundiff, a retail entrepreneur, and her husband, the writer and editor Michael Hainey, to a West Village apartment that was subsequently featured in Mr. Brent\u2019s book. But before settling there, they looked at a lot of places that didn\u2019t feel like home. Mr. Hainey developed a test: With each apartment they\u2019d enter, he\u2019d ask, \u201cOK, it\u2019s a Wednesday. You had to call in sick to work. Can you imagine being home in this apartment all day? Like, how is the sunlight?\u201d He added, \u201cOn your worst day, is this going to make you happy?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Another guest, Antoni Porowski \u2014 the food and wine expert on TV\u2019s \u201cQueer Eye\u201d \u2014 said that, to him, a home is made up of the things that remind him of where he came from.<\/p>\n Mr. Porowski was still living in a small studio when he purchased a pair of Adnet chairs from 1stDibs. His apartment at the time was barely big enough to accommodate them. Now, the chairs sit in a spot in his living room where they don\u2019t get much use, but he still loves to gaze at their burgundy leather, thinking back on the \u201ctiny studio apartments with one drawer and two functioning kitchen burners\u201d where he used to live.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cEvery time I look at them, I remember what that was like, what my life was like, and how much it changed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n