Nate Berkus, Target's new home collections designer, has some rather pointed memories of the hometown retailer and his new business partner.
Muppet-shaped sugar cookies with iced lips and brows, to be specific.
"They had the best sugar cookies at the Knollwood Target on Highway 7," said the former Minnetonka resident who is perhaps best known as Oprah's design expert.
Come October, the Knollwood SuperTarget and 1,764 other locations (plus Target.com) will feature the Nate Berkus Collection -- more than 150 home products painstakingly designed by Berkus himself, including bedding, bath, accessories, lighting, rugs and window treatments. But no sugar cookies to speak of.
The tousled-haired Hopkins High School alum said the partnership with the $68 billion Minneapolis-based cheap chic retailer is a kind of dream come true. "Quality and design are my first requirements, but everything has to be affordable," he said in an interview with the Star Tribune. Products bearing his name will be priced from $5.99 to $149.99.
Berkus became the design expert on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in 2002, after redecorating a teensy studio apartment for the program. He's honed a design style noted for its simplicity and layering of textures, often with a natural theme.
The power of memory
As a child who reportedly redecorated his bedroom on a frequent basis, part of his inspiration was a tortoise shell that hung over the fireplace in his family home in Minnetonka -- an unusual trinket his parents picked up while vacationing in Mexico. His mom, Nancy Golden, who still lives in the Twin Cities, is a decorator and jewelry designer.