Behind the Scenes at House of Jade Interiors

photo by Lindsey Orton

We love showing all of our readers pretty and inspiring rooms but today we wanted to pull back the curtain and talk about how our business runs on a day-to-day basis.  I’m not sure if our business schedule is conventional, but it works really well for us.

We both have two kids at home (with each one on the way) and because our kids are young we like to be home as much as we can.  This career choice has been so nice because we can be flexible with our schedules when we need to.  We have chosen to keep our work part time. Some weeks are less busy and some are more busy.  We typically work two days a week.  On those days we have family that helps or a great sitter we take our kids to.  A typical schedule is 10-4.  We are able to squeeze in meetings, errands and, of course, lunch within that time frame.  Jamie (more on her later) does all of our scheduling.  She gets all of our forms and contacts all potential new clients to set up meetings.

At a recent new build meeting

At new client meetings we walk around a client’s home and talk about their needs.  We measure and take pictures and Jamie takes lots and lots of notes.  If it’s a new build meeting we’ll meet at the clients existing home and go over floor plans and potential needs for their new house and once again Jamie takes lots and lots of notes.  If it works with their schedule our interns will join as well and help with measuring.

On work days we will also check in on current projects.  We’ll go out to a new build to check on progress or meet with an existing client to give them updates on where we are at.

photo by Lindsey Orton

If we have an install day we’ll spend the whole work day installing a space or home.  If there are multiple rooms it will take us multiple days.  These days are really rewarding because we get to see a space come to life! The room goes from being conceptual to a reality!

Design plan for the Modern Farmhouse Boy’s Room turns into this:

 Our interns are also crucial at installs.

There are lots of boxes to unpack, curtains to iron, furniture to move and errands to run! There are always last minute accessories that need to be bought or returned as well.

We could never do what we do without our great team! In addition to our interns we have two assistants.

Jamie is the backbone to our business.

She does all our client scheduling, ordering,  tracking of orders, communicating with vendors, floor plans and helps with sourcing for design plans.  She is also the one to keep everything running at installs.

We hired Lisa a few months ago.  She helps run the blog and our marketing as well as assists with our e-design projects.

She also helps out with some of our bigger local projects.

Currently we are on the lookout for a good office space but for now we work out of our own homes.

We meet about once a week just to catch up on projects and plan for the week ahead.

There are plenty of challenges with running your own business but overall we all love what we do! Amongst the challenging days there is always laughter and plenty of amazing moments. We all feel pretty lucky to be doing a job that is so fun and rewarding!