John James Designs

As an Event Manager at a fast paced San Francisco hotel, it pays to know someone like John James. We do a lot of last minute business and I know that I can always depend on John to get the job done. I have used John for multiple events ranging from corporate events to weddings to internal events and he never disappoints. Trust me when I tell you that using John James Designs will be a delightful experience. Not only is John fun to work with, but he is super creative, dependable and amazing.

A simply wonderful artiste. John James designed several floral arrangements for a corporate event my firm hosted recently at the Hotel Vitale. The arrangements were carefully designed and put together to complement the room and we received several compliments from our guests on the originality and beauty of the flowers.
We brought one of the arrangements back to our office, where it graces our lobby. A symphony of dogwood branches, parrot tulips, hydrangeas and stock, all in wonderful shades of pale greens. My co– workers are in awe and I think JJD will be seeing quite a lot of business from our firm.
Highly recommended and you can see his work at the Hotel Vitale if you’d like to check it out yourself.

To have Johns talents on your side you are a lucky soul.
I am an artist and decorative painter. The great pleasure of working with John has inspired and encouraged me as an artist, to see through eyes with a potential for unique and beautiful creativity. Anything he touches turns to gold, he is gifted in this way like none other Ive seen in the design world. A true artist.

What do you give to the banker who has everything she needs? We got her a John James original floral experience, delivered to the restaurant, complete with place cards, monarch butterflies, and well… she was overjoyed!

I own a restaurant in San Francisco and met John a year ago, Since day first he start to give me advice on décor of the front room as a colors and dispositions of tables, chairs and anything is in the restaurant for a very reasonable price! He even give me advice on food presentation! Only now I can say I have a beautiful restaurant with great décor rating and very confident about it! Thank you John you are the best!

This is gonna be a long one, but bear with me.
It’s kind of impossible to sum up how incredible a designer John is. And I hesitate to call him just a «designer», because he is so much more than that.
We hired John when we bought our place a few years ago: a plain-​Jane one-​room loft with a killer view, but not much imagination. My husband and I knew we would need some help making this place our own. John effortlessly married mine and my husband’s sensibilities — I’m an apparel designer with a love for all things frou frou, and my husband is an engineer who appreciates clean lines and unaffected design. Opposites attract, but when it came to interior design I wasn’t so sure we’d find common ground.
Somehow, we ended up with a marriage of these two aesthetics that still — even years later — delights me. John brought color to our walls, a birds-​in-​flight mural to our ceiling, a giant wood swing to our living room and humor to our surroundings. John was able to get some killer wallpaper up with the help of trusted contractors, and even helped us pick out artwork for our walls. I always knew I would want floor to ceiling shelves with such a tall living room — John and his contractors installed beautiful, rough-​edged walnut shelves that display not only books, but all kinds of fun stuff from our travels.
One of John’s biggest assets is that he’s able to push his clients to take risks. As much as a design sensibility as I thought I had, John imparted an edge to it that I’d never before considered. Never before had my husband and I worked on a design project together — and having John to encourage us to make unusual choices was an invaluable and dare I say FUN experience!
John also helped us to design a custom piece of cabinetry to disguise all our music/​media equipment, so where before all of that was stacked in sight, now it’s tucked away and lets the room do the talking.
Even better, I’ve been able to count on John for other projects unrelated to my home. He is a master floral architect and built some incredible arrangements for a photo shoot I did awhile back, in addition to packaging (and hand-​delivering) a special lingerie piece I made for a Hollywood starlet. From top to bottom, John is hell-​bent on making an impression, and he definitely does.

My experience with JJD has been wonderful. He listened to my needs and delivered custom beautiful wool drapes and bedding (duvet, including a leather monogram fob and pillows). The craftsmanship was of the highest quality.
John has provided me with a weekly flower service that provides fresh flower arrangements throughout my home. They are very creative and engaging to the eye. He also designed and staged a magical Chrismas party and a Holiday get together. The guests were both amazed and delighted in the results. They were fun events for all.

I hired John James to do the flowers for a super significant party and he far exceeded my expectations which he had said he hoped he would once we agreed upon the theme and the price however I had not expected to be as impressed.
I have quite high expectations and often am the one in the room describing how things can be better… I have an analytic mind and an eye for details which leaves me rarely pleased. John James appears to understand this way of being organized and is there to meet the needs and beyond of those of us that are not ok with good enough and strive for super!
I confidently endorse his work and am very happy not to look any further for that perfect someone to help me with design needs.

I just bought a small (800 sqft) condo in SF, and decided to try working with a designer to furnish and decorate it.
I interviewed several designers before picking John. I really liked how quick and creative he was. He had some great ideas, and was able to communicate them clearly and confidently.
I am pretty price conscious, and wanted to be involved with the project both creatively and at the project management level. He drafted a proposal for a 40k budget, and we agreed on an hourly rate of 100/​h.
I paid him a 1k retainer, and we got started. Things were going well, and I enjoyed working with him. I got a bunch of flooring samples, and we met and picked one that we both liked. He also recommended kitchen cabinets and countertops, and I started working on lining up contractors and buying materials. He also picked out paint colors, and came over with samples.
The next step was rugs and lights. He came over with a few printouts of rugs (including two rugs that cost 30k), and a light fixture that he recommended for 6k.
I wasn’t sure how that would work with a 40k budget and wanted to think about it. I also asked him for my first invoice since I was curious how he was billing his time.
And then I got the bill. He had charged me for 18 hours of work. Every email was charged as an hour. 15 minute phone calls were rounded up to an hour. He spent 3 hours «shopping» for carpets. He spent 2 hours picking out paint colors (but never emailed me the final choices even though I asked a few times).
These were all in addition to the in-​person meetings at my residence. I am not a designer, so I don’t actually know if he sat in his office for two hours contemplating paint colors, but I don’t feel good about paying $ 300 do be presented with a 30k rug when my budget for the entire house was 40k.
When I asked him about his billing, he replied that it would not make financial sense for him to bill in smaller increments, and that I was getting a great deal. I decided not to pay his invoice for $ 1800, and gave up my retainer.
Given the glowing reviews everyone else has given, I am willing to believe that he was just out of my price range. If I didn’t care about money, I could see hiring John. He is quick, has good style, responded quickly and very professionally. But as it stands, I feel like I basically paid someone $ 1000 to give me advice on a flooring and kitchen cabinets.

Professional work ethics and tres chic designs that wow anyone that enters your realm but without any pretensions? Unheard of, until you meet John James.
You know you’re in good hands because you can feel the passion he has for his craft once you meet him. He is genuinely one of the rare interior designers that will actually listen to what YOU want and create this beautiful story just for you. None of that, «I’m the designer, I know better,» business. If you’re an avant garde kinda person, GREAT, he’s perfect for you. If you’re a minimalist, GREAT, he’s perfect for you too.
That’s the beauty of working with John James. Flexibility and unparalleled expertise.
I’m very happy to be working with him on several projects and his patience as well as input has been invaluable. We had hired him to redesign our VERY boring kitchenette in our pool room into a bar and it seriously looks like we just walked into a swank little lounge in downtown NYC. He stuck to our budget and got everything complete in just 4 weeks. An amazing feat in itself, since all of our projects in the house before his arrival took MONTHS to finish, and that was with a full time project manager!
If you’re looking to beautify your home or create an unforgettable event, look no further.

John was a pleasure to work with. He stayed within our budget, prioritized design elements for those that would have the greatest impact and offered input for those that fell outside of the budget. His plan was offered in iterations so we could evolve our design as our company grew.
Overall, he understands startups and the vibe we were going for. I hope to use him again for a variety of design needs. If you need specifics, feel free to dm me.
Thanks John!

Knowing that John was San Francisco’s own Design Star and loving the work on his website, I shot him a cell phone pic of a blank wall with a message saying I don’t know what to hang here. Three months later I have a whole new sleeker, sexier, more grown-​up apartment (thank god as I just turned 40). John argues everyone is a designer, and while I’m not shy about expressing what I find aesthetically pleasing, I really was born without an understanding of scale, color relationship, and what might open-​up a room versus what might make it cluttered. After working with John, not only to I now have a cooler space that communicates who I am and where I’m at… but I’ve also learned how to make better choices.
On a practical level, John worked within my budget, answered DOZENS of emails/​texts (this table? this chair? this light fixture? this color? this size?) and was gentle in helping me do away with my «dot-​com-​moment» lamp and the orange chair that ate up 90% of my apartment. He made me custom linen drapes, gave me an idea for an incredible collage wall, told me where to order a cheap but perfect piece of custom glass (so much cheaper than buying a new desk!). He went shopping with me, helped me return a rug I bought and lost the receipt, and more than anything he LISTENED TO ME. I never felt like he was forcing me to make my place an expression of his design and instead I felt like he used his design talent to help me make my place.
I can’t wait until I hit it big so I can really let him go all out!
Thanks John!

There simply isn’t a more creative arbiter of taste than John James. Flowers, event design, interiors — probably more. The best!

John James’ designs are stunning, artful and inspired. I recently had the privilege of photographing his work at a wedding, and the bride could not say enough kind things about both John & his work.

My husband and I had a wonderful experience working with John James Designs for our June 12 wedding. We fully enjoyed ourselves throughout the planning process, and couldn’t have been happier with the end result. John really took the time to get a good sense of who we are as a couple and what we wanted, and he made sure we got exactly the look we desired for our big day. He was an excellent listener, paid attention to specifics, helped us with linen rentals, took creative liberties and went above and beyond our expectations for our wedding day look. Each centerpiece arrangement had the same feel to it, but was unique in its own way. Even the boutonnieres and wrist corsages were lush and elegant, and not something you’d seen a million times. No «cookie cutter» arrangements here! He is a true artist, and enhances the beauty of everything he arranges. It was a pleasure to work with him, and we’d definitely recommend him to others planning a Bay Area wedding or event.

John helped me brainstorm the redesign of my room and gave me practical instructions on how to put it together on a shoestring. It’s a work in progress but everything is turning out wonderfully! Don’t hesitate to call John, even if you’re project is small (e.g. just a room) — he will treat the same as any of his big money clients: with warmth, professionalism, and a little magic!

I known and worked on and off with John over 16 years now and he is one of the most talented people in the bay area. Never a detail missed, and the final outcome is always jaw-​dropping whether it be a grand wedding or simply a floral arrangement. From all aspects of design down to the smallest item, he manages to make everything come to life. I’ve never seen someone work with flowers the way he does. Simply an amazing individual.

John came up to our home in Healdsburg for a consultation a couple of months ago and he was fabulous. I received a two hour consultation and his ideas were amazing. Later that same day, I received a two page typed list of plants that would work, suggestions for landscaping and painting ideas. He really listened to our concerns and integrated them into the design. What I like most about him is that he will work with any budget and some of his ideas didn’t cost us anything. We really enjoyed working with him and will continue to refer him and work with him again and again in the future.

John is great at making things pretty.
I’ve hired him for stuff as simple as flower arrangements for a party and as complex as restaging my flat — he does both with intense attention to creating beautiful enviornments for people to enjoy.

John James is genius. I hired him to give me a few suggestions for decorating my new office, and he totally transformed it. From custom fabricated lighting, shelves, and window treatments to found wood tables and a swing (uh-​huh), John integrated high modernist chic with warmth, comfort, irreverance, and whimsy.
His design concepts make me excited to bring clients by and get down to serious work, but still manage to bring out a playful side of me that sparks creative thinking and fresh ideas. I never would have thought to mix the colors, textures, and periods that John did, yet I ended up with something that suits me entirely.
And though you’ll get all the creative vision and personality you’d expect from a Stanlee Gatti protégé, John’s only concern throughout was that I was happy with what he produced for me. He skillfully incorporated my suggestions and made adjustments when I was than thrilled with a minor detail here or there, always coming back with something better, more creative, more appropriate.