Bobby Berk from ‘Queer Eye’ has been surprising people with backyard makeovers during quarantine

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When life around the United States all but shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic this spring, production on the next season of Netflix’s “Queer Eye” ground to a halt in Austin, Texas.

In the months that followed, Bobby Berk, the Fab Five’s resident design expert, put a lot of his extra energy into yard work — and not just on his own property.

“Outdoor spaces are one of my favorites. Like, my neighbors, right now, have nicknamed me the Friendly Los Feliz Neighborhood Gardener, because I’ve run out of things to do in my yard, and I’ve started doing other people’s yards,” Berk told In The Know’s Gibson Johns recently. “Without asking, I got on Lowes.com, ordered all my electric weed eaters and extra batteries. I’m like, ‘You know, clearly you’re busy, and you haven’t taken care of your yard… so I’ll just do it for you, I’ve got nothing else to do.'”

“I love doing outdoors stuff,” he added. “I grew up in the country, I grew up with gardening. It brings me back, it warms my soul.”

While Berk was clearly getting a thrill out of spending more time working outdoors while stuck at home, he also admitted to In The Know that, without “Queer Eye,” he missed surprising people with made over spaces.

So, this month, Bobby partnered with Lowe’s to fill that void using his love of outdoor work: Five couples who had been forced to postpone their original June weddings received surprise one-on-one consultations from the Netflix star, who helped them to design picture-perfect new wedding venues using their own outdoor spaces.

“I haven’t gotten my fill of surprising people with design recently,” Berk laughed. “So this was fun to do. […] These spaces are going to be spaces that they’re going to be able to continue to use year round.”

In addition to having newly-redone spaces to enjoy, the couples that Berk surprised were also able to have socially distanced wedding ceremonies that otherwise might not have fulfilled the ideas they had for their dream weddings.

“I have so many friends right now whose weddings have been delayed or they’ve just decided to cancel it — not the whole wedding, but cancel the destination wedding — so I was like, ‘This is so close to my heart. It’s so personal right now, it couldn’t be more perfect,'” Berk said of the project. “Not to mention, my wedding was a surprise: My husband proposed and had the wedding planned on the same day, and surprised me with it.”

These days, of course, it’s also critical for celebrities to think twice about who they’re aligning themselves with, and Berk recognizes that.

“I align on so many issues with Lowe’s: They’re a great supporter of, not only the LGBTQ community, but also the Black Lives Matter movement,” he explained. “I like working with companies who think like me.”

Listen to our full interview with Bobby Berk below:

Find out more about Bobby Berk’s partnership with Lowe’s here.

If you enjoyed this article, check out In The Know’s recent interview with pop star Kim Petras here.

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