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'Queer Eye' design expert Bobby Berk: The one piece of furniture worth splurging on

“(It) has the most effect on your health, your mental health, your back (and) getting through the day."
/ Source: CNBC

As we spend more time at home during the Covid-19 pandemic, you might be looking for ways to zhuzh up your space. Bobby Berk, interior design guru on Netflix’s “Queer Eye,” says there’s one home item that’s definitely worth spending a little extra on: your mattress.

According to Berk, your mattress “has the most effect on your health, your mental health, your back (and) getting through the day,” Berk tells CNBC Make It.

Bobby Berk's A.R.T. Furniture Launch Event
Bobby Berk attends the Bobby Berk's A.R.T. Furniture Launch Event on Nov. 05, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.Jesse Grant / Getty Images for Bobby Berk

Indeed, your sleep environment — which includes your mattress, bedroom temperature and lighting — can impact the quality of your sleep, and in turn your mental health.

A good night’s sleep allows your brain to form or maintain neural pathways that help you learn, create new memories, concentrate and respond quickly, according to the National Institutes of Health. Sleep deprivation, on the other hand, can intensify feelings of anxiety and stress.

At the start of Berk’s career, he recalls being “dirt poor” and living in a studio apartment in New York City. “I was sleeping on an air mattress that, usually once a week, I’d have to return to Kmart because it would get a hole in it,” he says.

Berk grew up in Missouri, but left home and dropped out of school at 15. He worked various retail jobs in Colorado before moving to New York City in 2003, where he got another retail gig at Restoration Hardware and was introduced to interior design.

The first big purchase that Berk made with his tax refund was a proper mattress. “I remember just laying on that mattress (with) two friends of mine that had also moved to New York with me from Denver, and we were like, ‘Oh my God, we’re rich. This is the life.’”

This bed was the most luxurious thing in the world to me, even though it wasn’t a super expensive bed,” Berk says. Depending upon the materials, size and features, a mattress can cost $250 to $4,000.

Berk says that “anything to do with the bed” is worth spending a little extra on, such as good sheets.

“You should get in bed every night, and when your feet touch those sheets, it should be like when you wake up like you’re in a nice hotel,” Berk says. “That’s the mood and the feeling you should have when you’re falling asleep [and] when you’re waking up, because that’s how you’re ending your day and starting your day.”

This article originally appeared on CNBC.