JAS Design Build

JAS Interior Furnishings……Interior Design and Furnishings the Design-Build Way

About 8 years ago we were asked by a client to provide Interior Design / Furnishings for their newly (and extensively) remodeled home. This was no small undertaking… the house being four floors including basement and attic rooms. The scope of the work was one thing but the fact of the matter was that … well, we weren’t interior designers…. Or at least we didn’t feel qualified to categorize ourselves as such. The conversation went pretty much like this…. internally as well as with this incredibly trusting and effusive client….

JAS is Design Build.
JAS is Architecture.
JAS is NOT interior Design.

So this wise, trusting client said, “OK – so can we meet next week to talk about how this will go?”

This woman is the equivalent of a sky-diving instructor! And thank goodness for that! Her clarity, enthusiasm and trust in our skills as designers has led to growth in a direction and way that we never would have planned (without panicking) or predicted.

It would be years later that a quote from Paula Scher would bonk us all on the head and remind us of how great evolution happens in design.
“The best way to accomplish serious design …. is to be totally and completely unqualified for the job. ”
That is when good designers really get going. So that is precisely what we did.
As residential architects and designers we had already come to the realization that homes are about life, and the life of a home is about architecture and the stuff of life that comes along with it.
Ok, maybe we CAN do this…. And JAS Interior Furnishings starts there.

For 20+ years we have cultivated and nurtured a Design-Build team who care jubilantly about the life people live, in the homes that we make for them. Designers, carpenters, cabinet makers, project managers, supers and the lot, masterfully work together, actively and thoughtfully exploring opportunities to make houses homes.
Extending this expertise, philosophy and way of doing business to interior design started to make sense to us…. after that initial push and a bit of free fall of course.
We needed to decide how we, as a Design-Build firm, would approach interior design and furnishings. Luckily and with much appreciation, our first client and their home was our training ground. It is impossible to ever thank her enough for that … so credit will always land at her feet.
And where we decided to start was with what we already knew.

For JAS …. Design-Build embodies some key values:
• Belief in craft and craftsmanship

• Understanding the relationship between the idea and the execution

• Enthusiasm for homes and how people live

• Importance of culture large and small

• Benefits of time, history and their influence on buildings and patterns of living

• Charm of a good story

• Integrity of service and honesty in business, design and construction

• Respect for costs and understanding of value

For the past 8 years we have worked to integrate interior design into our design-build model and decided to offer interior design & furnishing services. The primary mission of JAS Interior Furnishings is to continue to partner with our build clients as well as working with new clients on “Interiors-Only” projects.
Helping to cultivate and enliven meaningful living spaces anchored in those key Design-Build values is how we have chosen to approach selecting and coordinating the “stuff of life”.
Through our interior design services, furnishing selection and art curation, JAS Interior Furnishings is procuring, remodeling and making custom pieces which feel authentic, familiar and fresh in equal measure. It is not our goal to approach a home with an “out with the old – in with the new” attitude. Much in the same fashion that we handle interventions in older buildings, we find it important to take the time to inventory and closely consider furnishings, art and personal artifacts which are part of our clients’ lives and personal stories. This understanding helps us blend old and new in a personal way.
It is not simply decoration, it is Design-Build and very individual.

(If you would like to learn more about JAS Interior Furnishings and our interior design services, send an inquiry email to home@jasdesignbuild.com. We would be very pleased to discuss our process and deliverables with you.)