Dubbed as ‘the chaos conqueror,’ Jeanie Engelbach vows to create thoughtful and creative spaces out of cluttered or disorganized homes. As founder of apartmentjeanie, this aesthetics whizz bounces between Charleston and New York City with her bulldog, Crème Brûlée, yet will travel to wherever lackluster interior design lurks.
“We so much enjoy providing fresh ideas for rearranging personal items and honoring things that our clients love. The best thing about our business is creating spaces that tell stories about who each client is. We do that by assisting with repurposing and guiding colors, decisions and overall results,” confirms Jeanie. “And, Charleston is such an exciting place to do this design work in.”
Sprinkling her magic over four main services: home organization; space planning; short-term rental interior re-design plus styling; and move management, with home-inspired shopping bolstering each project if needed. The design core of apartmentjeanie is to implement what clients already own by ‘recycling with purpose,’ allowing for final results to be true reflections of each individual’s taste and style.
For 24 years, Jeanie has professionally streamlined and designed homes of Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony award winners, as well as New York Times best-selling authors. Jeanie’s transformational abilities somewhat come from her own experiences in vacation rental spots. She says she first fell in love with Charleston in 2013 while accompanying a friend on a business trip.
“I've always wanted to spend summers at the beach. In 2016, I rented in Folly for a few weeks in August, and every summer added a few more weeks and eventually renting for Memorial Day, too. Now, I’m typically in Charleston up to four months a year. I’d like it to be for six months,”
Jeanie and her team of seven professionals, who span design, moving, prop styling, operations and project management experience, are known for providing services with a knack for mixing the right amount of beautiful and unique furniture, objects of art, curated pieces and personal touches. The group admits for many people getting and staying organized can be a constant struggle.
“We collectively create comfortable, warm and inviting but uplevel spaces, which in Charleston, especially pay homage to its coastal history,” describes Jeanie.
She asserts that short-term rental locations have become her company’s recognized design niche.
She says they typically place local books or art in the remade rooms, supporting other local creatives. They also infuse locations with the personalities of the owners, but not in a “generic or overdone fashion.” Additionally, they'll help rebrand a property by infusing the owner's personality or passion while highlighting low country culture, matching each space’s décor to those themes.
“We strive to improve guest experiences. It’s easy to forget that rental spots are competing with hotels, and that people want VIP experiences at rentals as well,” Jeanie reminds us.
“Plus better short- or longer-term homestay experiences equal better reviews and increased revenue for property renters.”
By taking a “repurpose with high function approach” to interior design, Jeanie says her team can upgrade and enhance indoor spaces through budget-friendly plans while also managing the realities of people’s lifestyles. She states they extend their company’s trade discounts to their clients without receiving commissions, such as when ordering wallpaper.
The process when working with apartmentjeanie professionals is to start with a 30-minute discovery call during which daily routines and goals will be discussed. Next, clients complete an intake form that enables the team to be as targeted and intuitive for clients as possible. Jeanie says they determine how to best navigate spaces for each client, even getting into details as to whether clients are left- or right-handed.
“We want to support our clients, not support just the space,” Jeanie confirms.
She says clutter is so solvable, and they want to get to the heart of painting a picture of how to transform spaces as quickly as they can for clients. “We provide turnkey moving management, and are dedicated to designing the best systems and structures for our clients’ lives. We can even help clients through virtual means,” she promises.
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apartmentjeanie.com
“We so much enjoy providing fresh ideas for rearranging personal items and honoring things that our clients love. The best thing about our business is creating spaces that tell stories about who each client is.”
"We love doing tasks others may hate or fear to do," proclaims Jeanie Engelbach, founder of apartmentjeanie as an innovative interior redesign and professional organization company. She started with organizing people’s photo collections, calling it photojeanie, and eventually turned her endeavor into a full-on business by adding apartmentjeanie.