Denise Jones was always fascinated by aesthetics, logistics and the collaboration that manifests design projects. Raised in a family that worked in interior, landscape, graphic and architectural design, she was predestined for design.
Jones, the owner of J2 Design Studio in Bedminster and a professional member of the American Society of Interior Designers and the National Kitchen and Bath Association, transcends the concept most people have of interior designers as professionals who sift through color swatches and select furniture. “I have the ability to decorate and design, yes, but at my core, I am a master planner,” she says.
Her passion for creating collaborations between client, architect, designer and contractors began when she repeatedly saw the regrets of homeowners and businesses whose projects experienced critical mistakes, missed functional considerations or had cost overruns because pre-construction planning and design were not considered alongside architecture early in the process.
The seed for establishing cohesive teams was planted early on in her career when she worked on large corporate projects in Manhattan as well as collaborations with her architect-husband, Patrick M. Jones, AIA, whom she met at her alma mater New York School of Interior Design. She honed her skills in large-scale projects and logistics managing corporate relocations. “I found that my unique expertise was figuring out how to solve complex problems and serve as a sort of air traffic controller who could facilitate the decisions and coordination necessary to take projects across the finish line and done well,” she says.
“As I evolved into this career, watching my family navigate interior design and decoration I saw that there was real value in having someone who was knowledgeable and professional in the field being involved in the project’s planning stage, as opposed to being thought of when construction is about to end and someone needs to know a tile selection or painting color,” she says. “A customer should be thrilled with the outcome because the project was well thought-out, not spend a lot of money and be dissatisfied.”
She launched her interior design business in 2011 and expanded into kitchen and bath design in 2018. The merger of these two businesses allows her to use her expertise in uniting interior design, architecture and interior planning in a collaborative approach to property development, real estate rehabilitation and renovation. Working with the best tradespeople in the field, Jones helms a cohesive team to design well-planned and efficiently executed projects.
Master planning at J2 is all-encompassing, providing everything from 3D visualization, video walk-throughs, conceptual renderings, and exploration of finishes and materials to pre-construction due diligence, project planning and phasing and on-target cost estimation.
“When it comes to renovation, people have a lot of ideas in their head, but they just don't know where to start. It’s like the jigsaw puzzle is spilled out on the table and nobody can see how it goes together. This is where I come in,” Jones says. “I want them to tell me their wildest dream — shake everything out on the table — and from there we prioritize and see how the project will manifest.”
Learn more at https://j2designstudio.com/
“A customer should be thrilled with the outcome because the project was well thought-out, not spend a lot of money and be dissatisfied.”
