2012 Design Awards
Judges | Details | Exteriors | Interiors | Homes
Rising Star | Reader’s Choice
Jennifer Loftis decided to become an interior designer 24 years ago. Considering she turns just 29 this year, Loftis had an early jump on the competition.
“I used to take shoeboxes and glue pieces of magazines in them,” Loftis says, recalling early memories of arranging spaces. “I knew from a very early age that I wanted to do this. I was a lucky one.”
That early focus propelled the Eastpointe native through Baker College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in interior design, and into her current role as lead interior designer at McIntosh Poris Associates in Birmingham.
She deviated from her chosen path just once, slightly. “I considered becoming an architect,” Loftis says, “but the more I got into using AutoCAD and learning more about it, I realized it was a little bit more technical, and I wanted to focus on the design aspect of things.”
Through college, Loftis worked as a junior interior designer at The Teich Group in Royal Oak. When she was hired at McIntosh Poris in 2007, she was introduced to her favorite project to date: a 10,000-square-foot private residence in Orchard Lake, complete with a European-style wine cellar, men’s and women’s locker rooms, a home theater, and a tunnel bar. The master suite is pictured above.
“All the spaces were really fun because we spent a lot of time picking out all the details,” Loftis says. By “a lot of time,” Loftis means three years. “The owner on this job had a lot to do with the design of the project. We had to make sure that what we wanted and what he wanted all meshed together.”
But that’s to be expected in any residential project, much less a sprawling, upscale mansion. If all goes well, though, the payoff is well worth it, Loftis says. “Actually coming to the point where somebody can walk in and love what they see — it’s really gratifying.”
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