What is a great room? Queer Eye's Bobby Berk explains the concept and his top tips for designing one

Bobby Berk, the resident interior designer on Netflix's Queer Eye, has seemingly endless knowledge of designing beautiful spaces. We are always open to his home decor ideas. 

Recently, he designed a specialty room for the Living by Design Virtual Showhouse. This awe-inspiring project is revolutionizing the way we think about design. It offers top designers the chance to design a shoppable living space in an interactive virtual home. This year, Bobby was chosen to design a great room for the space.

Since he became famous on a show that specializes in teaching those who don't have a firm grasp on their personal style to find confidence in design, it makes sense that Bobby is kind enough to always start with the basics. He opened his Instagram video with the question 'Do you know what a great room is?.' Honestly, we needed the refresher. 

'A great room is typically a multi-use room. It can be used as a living room, a family room, a lounge, a TV room.' Says Bobby. 'It's really just called a great room 'cause it's great,' he jokes. In other words, the great room includes all of the usual uses of a living room but tends to be a bit grander and more central in the home than a more traditional den-style living room idea. 

Bobby goes on to share the most important design ideas he kept in mind when creating his virtual great room. 'I'm taking a modern approach,' says Bobby, about designing the virtual space. 'I'm all about balance in design. If I'm going to use dark pieces, I like to balance them with light pieces. When I'm doing some wood on the wall, I like to balance that with some light fabrics, like this boucle,' he continues, holding up a swatch of white boucle material.

In accordance with his comment, the great room that Bobby Designed for the Living By Design Showhouse certainly deserves its complimentary name.  See Bobby's innovative and modern living room idea below.

'If you'll notice, there's lots of nice warm tones in the warm woods on the wall. Everything is balanced so there's lots of light, lots of dark, but it's a nice even harmony,' says Bobby about the space he has created. 'Love this lighting fixture here that you see,' he says, and the virtual camera pans to a beautiful modern chandelier.

Bobby's virtual rendering represents the quintessential great room with its modern and grand styling. No matter the size or poshness of the space, Bobby Berk's tips on how to design a living room, like creating balance and harmony through a mix of light and dark, are good advice. 

If you love this look, shop the art in Bobby's virtual great room below.