Photo by Mitchell Haaseth/Bravo
This season
on Flipping Out, Jeff Lewis is making the full on transition from house flipper
to interior designer. In a recent conference call interview Lewis and his
trusty Executive Assistant turned COO, Jenni Pulos, talked about the career
shift, how he describes his aesthetic
and some of their
recent clients.
The word’s most famous house flipper
talked about making the transition to his new occupation. “The bigger impact
was when the market fell and the flipping business came to a complete
screeching halt and I had to start working for clients. And I didn't have the
money that I had in the previous years. That was really the biggest dose of
humility. And I think that's what gave me a little bit more empathy and little
bit more sympathy for people… When I look back and it was probably one of the
best experiences that now, that I'm out of the woods. It was probably one of
the best things that happened to me.”
Now Jeff has a thriving interior
design business and is traveling around the country talking with prospective
clients. He explained, “I have a lot of consults all around the United States.
So basically what happens is people will fly me in for a few hours, they'll fly
me in for a day; they'll fly me in for three days. And I actually did, I
consulted someone in Rancho Santa Fe. And I also had a consult in La Jolla
recently.”
This work has led him from La Jolla,
California to Chicago, Illinois. Lewis expounded on the Windy City gig, “I've
been talking with a company about doing a restaurant there. A big rooftop, bar,
restaurant. And I'm trying to work that out with my schedule. I could
potentially be spending a lot of time in Chicago.”
Lewis described his sense of style,
“I definitely lean more contemporary and my looks are definitely more
streamlined. And I like big open spaces. I don't really like a ton of
furniture. I'm not one of those people that over accessorizes.”
He even offered up some advice about
dealing with expensive interior decorators, “Let me tell you just a little
trick of the trade that designers do which I don't. And that is, I work out a
different fee structure. So I don't mark up everything that I buy for my
client. The reason that you'll see a lot of homes that are over accessorized
and over furnished. And they hang something on every single wall and they put
something in every corner. Well, news flash, here it is. They mark up every
single thing they buy. They have a vested interest in over selling furniture
and accessories to you.”
So Lewis passed on words of wisdom
to unwitting homeowners. “What I would suggest to you is you work out a flat
fee with a designer or an hourly. You don't want to do the mark ups because…
not all of them but a lot of them, obviously, the more furniture they sell you
the more money they make. So that's why you're seeing when you open up these
magazines and you say, ‘My god, I can't even walk around that room.”
Not over accessorizing is one reason
that Lewis is able to work with people who have a limit on their price range.
Jenni pointed out that fans will get to see that when Flipping Out returns,
“This season on the show there's some clients that Jeff works with that have a
really limited budget and there's beautiful reveals with those.”
Viewers will also get to see the
completion of one of Lewis’ ongoing projects — The Chaz Dean bungalows in
Hollywood. Pulos added, “Our bigger client reveals, like Chaz, if you've been
following the show, the studio, the salon in Hollywood. So we have a lot of
different ranges this year, which is exciting.”
Lewis described the scope of the
work that his business does, “We have clients with $30,000 budgets and we have
clients with $2 million budgets. But really anybody can walk in the most
expensive stores on Robertson in West Hollywood and beautify a space. If you
have no budget, that's easy. What's difficult is taking a $30,000 budget and
making three rooms look beautiful. And not just furnishing them but painting
them and putting in moldings and putting in floors and wallpaper. And there's
two projects this season that you wouldn't believe what I do for 30 grand. And
that's really, that's what takes some skill and talent. Otherwise if you have
no budget. Anybody can make a space look beautiful.”
Of course, Lewis would be more than
open to a crossover episode with Bravo’s latest hit Million Dollar Decorators.
He gushed, “I love real estate porn. And those aren't necessarily my clients.
My clients give me a specific budget and there's no way they're going to spend
$25,000 on rugs. But I love to dream and I just love watching that show.”
As for ways
to decorate for the summer Lewis commented on a growing trend, “The most
popular color I'm seeing is gray, specifically the charcoals…. God I remember
in the ‘80s when we would just go in and spray everything white. And ironically
that's kind of what's happening right now. Everything is white and gray, white
with gray accents and black accents and I'm seeing a lot of polished chrome and
a lot of glass. And what's interesting to me in the last probably eight years,
six years it doesn't matter what the exterior of their homes are. They are
wanting a contemporary blend. And that's actually good for my business because
that's my aesthetic.”
Contrary to what people might think,
being on television is not always good for Lewis’ business. Lewis admitted, “I
do have a lot of clients. And I would say that at least half of them don't want
to be on TV. So that actually creates a little bit of a problem for me. Because
I have to push them back to when we're not filming or I have to see them only
on weekends and evenings. So actually I end up working longer hours and more
days to service these clients outside of the filming. Because we film from 9:00
to 7:00 everyday. So that's the only thing that's a little difficult. But
otherwise in regards to this being on the show has helped my business
tremendously. I mean it's given me a platform and exposure that I could never,
[ever] afford.”
See who
Lewis fires and hires this season on Flipping Out on Wednesday nights at 9
p.m. EST/8 p.m. Central on Bravo.
For related stories check out:
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
No comments:
Post a Comment