Jane Says: Hi

Yeah, so I started a design thing. Cats and dogs living together. Mass Hysteria.

I know how it sounds. For 35 years, I bored people with Internet policy, talked organizations off ledges, managed a multitude of crises, helped smart people make hard calls under pressure - and now I’m standing in your family room having many, many feels about your lamps. It makes absolutely no sense.

Sort of..

Here's the truth about crisis management: it’s never really about the crisis. It’s about the person in front of you, frozen over too many options and too little time, needing someone calm to say "okay, here's what we do next." Turns out that's also, almost exactly, what happens when someone's been staring at their living room for two years, paralyzed between pillows and a Pinterest board they're now afraid to open. Or staring at their husband’s college dorm furniture that’s still in the bedroom. Different setting but same job.

So that's company number one, folded into company number two. Jane Design and Home isn't a rebrand or a midlife plot twist (well…). It's the same skill set, just directed at your house instead of a headline.

The "Jane" part is my mother. In addition to being a great designer and the mother of a thousand children, she founded a children's shop and design studio called Little Footprints and through both, taught me that a memorable room isn’t about things - it’s how it makes you feel when you’re in it. My job, whether it’s creating a campaign or creating a design plan, is the same - take the noise out, put the magic in, keep what matters and help people make the right decisions..

But here are some things I won’t do:

Tell you that your home needs to be "elevated." I don't know what that means and neither do you. Nobody needs more opinions, they just need to find their own so they can make some damn decisions. And not on what’s “in”, but something they’ll actually still like five years from now.

Tell you that you don’t need color. For anyone who argues that no color = clean, I will tell you that without color, “clean” is akin to a sad desk lunch in a nice font.

Make you feel terrible. If you've spent two years staring down ten thousand shades of white and accomplished exactly nothing, congratulations, come sit by me. Paralysis isn't personal, it’s on purpose. It’s just what you get from 24-7 choices that tell you that you must do “whatever” is today’s level of cool. Lying liars selling lies. I hereby give you permission to create whatever home that makes you happy.

In closing, I should probably disclose that Jane Says will not always be this pleasant and formal. It will be more of the “come sit by me” and maybe bring some booze vibe. A little bit of “can this marriage be saved” design advice. Quizzes on Benjamin Moore paint colors. Some therapy about how you’ll do all of this and your guests will still end up crowded into your dirty kitchen. Even some Q&A, if that’s your thing.

So come on in and put your feet up. My ottoman is fire.

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