Designer Spotlight: Jenn Feldman Designs
From an unexpected design contest win to a complete career pivot, Jenn Feldman has had quite the inspiring journey to establishing Jenn Feldman Designs. With her modern-aged design, Jenn creates classic tailored spaces with rich antique accents, seamlessly blending old and new. Based in Los Angeles, Jenn Feldman Designs has designed timeless and sophisticated interiors all over California and the States. A longtime friend of Visual Contrast, we sat down with Jenn to hear more about her introduction to interior design and her design process.
From a young age, Jenn was always interested in art and design. As a child, she amazed her family by completing puzzles made for adults. Looking back, Jenn said “In essence, it’s exactly what I do today- I see pieces and I know where they belong. I could always see how things coexisted together, I could see balance and scale and texture and positioning and the art of spatial planning, it’s the same thing all these years later.” Jenn went on to study studio art and art history in college, but, despite her love for interior design, never thought she would pursue a creative career path.
Jenn had a successful career as a publicist for over ten years in Manhattan working on major beauty campaigns. She would channel her creativity when working with clients and branding, but wasn’t feeling fulfilled, always getting the “creative tug.” After moving to Los Angeles from New York City, Jenn entered a design contest for Oprah Magazine on a whim. Her true passion was interior design and she had just decorated her first home in Los Angeles. Next thing she knew, “I had won the contest- lights, cameras, and Nate Berkus was standing at the door!” She started to get calls praising her style and seeking out her talents, but continued with her career in PR. In 2008, a year after the contest, she got the opportunity to design a friend’s home and hesitantly took it. A few days into the project, Jenn realized this is what she was meant to do with her career- interior design truly chose her.
“I joke all the time that my story was so backwards- people work their whole life to get on Oprah because this is their career and for me, it took being given this opportunity to realize that this was my calling.” Jenn’s next step was starting Jenn Feldman Designs in 2008. With quite the “backwards-forwards journey”, Jenn credits all of her unique experiences along the way with giving her the confidence to establish JFD and know this is what she was meant to do. Coming from a generation where one was either corporate or an entrepreneur, Jenn sought to create an environment where she could find the perfect balance of running a successful business while being creative.
Fast forward to today, Jenn Feldman Designs has become a household name in the interior design world, spreading Jenn’s signature style to homes all over the United States. With her excellent eye and attention to detail paired with her passion for design, Jenn has created a portfolio of beautifully refined modern-aged spaces. A true art-lover, Jenn believes artwork is one of the most important elements of a space as she explained, “Art is not an afterthought to me. Everything for me is about art- surrounding myself with it, looking at it, talking about it.” JFD always allows us into their process quite early on, letting us develop art specifically for the project, then building and decorating the space around the artwork. For a recent Bel Air project, we created two custom Eclipse silkscreens for a breakfast nook as well as two custom Pressed Flowers prints for a powder room and both beautifully fit the space while complementing the interior design. When asked about her experience working with us, Jenn expressed “You’re constantly pushing a new format and new boundary- you have this baseline of tried and true success that you anchor off of but you work to really do it differently every time and that’s just true artistry. You just look at things in such unique ways and based on the people you’re working with, you move the needle.” Working with Jenn for over five years has been an amazing journey and we can’t wait for what the future holds.
