Welcome! Today in The Lounge, Nick sits down with Jimmy DeLaurentis of Jimmy DeLaurentis, a Philadelphia native with a strong connection to his Italian heritage. He has a big spot in his heart for his family, his dogs, and loves to go big or go home. Even when he goes big with his projects, he’s always looking to go bigger in the future. Jimmy not only envisions a sleek space for interior design but creates his own furniture for not only people but their four-legged companions as well.

Graph Paper in Hand Sketching Out Plans

Even as a young kid Jimmy was carrying around graph paper drawing up floor plans just like his dad did for his contracting projects. Jimmy’s floor plans, however, focused more on the space itself and how furniture would look and be situated in the room. He went right into a fine art school for a year at Bucks County Community College then switched over into an interior design school. He graduated with only seven other interior design students when it first started out with 100.

Catching the Eyes of Others

Jimmy started to work in small odd jobs dealing with interior design for a while, then got a job with Ralph Lauren which first started in sales in the home department. The creative team from Ralph Lauren in New York came down to visit his store to redesign the layout. Jimmy jumped right in, helping them remake the store’s design, his talent for interior design caught the eye of the New York creative team and they offered him a job in New York. It was a great learning experience for him, being on the visual team of redoing the stores in lower part of New York. After working with Ralph Lauren in New York for several years he moved back to Philadelphia, that’s when Jimmy realized that he wanted to go back into his own interior designs and be his own boss.

The Kick Starter for his Designs  

One of his first independent clients had a huge three-story house that needed her whole house redesigned. Jimmy took on the task head-on, the client was so in love with his work he then designed her daughter’s house in Boston, then the daughter’s best friend’s house, and so on. His vision and creativity came out and it really showed for each client, which really helped  kick start his business. Jimmy loves interior design; he just knew he wanted to branch out into other areas of interior design. He first started creating a candle line with their own unique scents. Along with the candles he started creating his own furniture. His furniture line was launched three years ago at the World Market in Las Vegas. Jimmy’s private label furniture collection is called JAMES with his Classic and Amalfi lines. When he designs a space for the home he layers in his own creative designs with his furniture and candles.     

Check out his website at Jimmy DeLaurentis and his furniture lines at JAMES.