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It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Where one person sees beauty, another sees chaos. Personal taste is just that – personal. So how do professionals in the business of making things beautiful succeed if everyone’s perception of beauty, design and taste is different? By focusing on the individual and providing personal service, beautifully.

Award winning interior designer Jeanne Garland has devoted her life’s work to making her client’s worlds beautiful, functional and comfortable. Her goal is to create a timeless and aesthetically pleasing environment that melds solid design principals with each client’s personality. Whether it’s their home or office or decorating for a special occasion, her passion for the art of design is evident by her work and her philosophy. “Design is a three dimensional art. It’s finding the right combination of proportion, scale and balance, and blending that with a client’s needs and desires.”

Early Inspiration

Jeanne’s design sensibility began at an early age. “I had my dad build me a Barbie house when I was around ten,” she recalled. She wanted a pink Barbie house – and dad supplied it – so Jeanne had to furnish it. She took glue and fabric and got creative with a zero budget. “I guess Barbie was my first client,” she laughed.

From there, young Jeanne’s passion continued. “I wanted a pink bedroom so I got to work on decorating my bedroom. I’ve always had a strong desire to beautify things.” Jeanne’s talent and desire to create and beautify through interior design was also evident in fashion. She struggled between the two industries and had to make a tough choice. “I couldn’t decide if I wanted to do fashion or interior design fashion. I knew that I could do interior design fashion in Houston and still play with clothes’ fashion along the way.”

Staying in Houston where she was born and raised was important to Jeanne so inter-ior design fashion became her focus. She attended design school at the University of Houston and Houston Community College and still “played” in the fashion industry. She combined her two loves as a window display artist at Sears and dabbled in oil painting along the way. In 1984, she graduated from Houston Community College with a degree in Applied Science of Interior Design, and her career as an interior design professional began. She became an American Society of Interiors Designs Allied Member and Texas Association for Interior Design certified. She began her career like so many women working out of her home, and later, by forming a firm with partners in a small office space. About 15 years ago, she started her own design firm: The Design Source. She opened in Sugar Creek and quickly, her business grew. After just a few years, Jeanne moved The Design Source to Highway 6 in Sugar Land, Texas to a 5,000 square foot showroom to accommodate her growing business and her now eleven member team.


The Garlands on a family skiing vacation in 2009.

Through the Artist’s Eyes

“Interior design is an art form in every sense of the word,” said Jeanne. “You take a blank canvas and start creating, and you end up with a piece of art with the room that you’ve created.” Creating is a never-ending process for Jeanne. She is constantly researching and reviewing multiple resources to keep her perspective fresh and identify industry trends.

While education was an important factor in Jeanne’s career as an interior designer, so much of the process relies on raw talent. “I believe my design sense is a God-given talent. I am what I do at all times. I see the world as a beautiful place, and there are things you can put together to make it even more beautiful.”

The Personal Touch

Knowing what those things are – and how they fit into her client’s worlds – is Jeanne’s gift. And, her personal approach to providing affordable design based on her client’s individual needs and budgets is why her clients keep coming back. “Our goal is to work with anyone’s budget – to provide affordable design solutions. In my business, it saves you money to work with a design professional. After we help you, you have the right sofa and chairs, in balance, in budget, with no regrets.”

No regrets are important when you are investing in decorating, and Jeanne’s approach allows clients the flexibility of incorporating their treasures into a new design. “An advantage to working with Jeanne is that she looks to see what you already have and tries to incorporate it into the new design,” said long-time friend and client Claudia Wendland. “You don’t have to start from scratch. Jeanne gets to know you as a person and enhances the beauty of the pieces you already own with her own creative ideas.”

Over the past twenty-five years, Jeanne has helped with all of Claudia’s homes, and forging long-term relationships is important to her. “Personal relationships are so important. If I can provide excellent design service and achieve your goals, you know that you can count on me to help with future projects.”

“Jeanne designed my dining room ten years ago, my living room nine years ago, the kitchen and family room six years ago and our master bath and bedroom about two years ago,” said client Karen Butcher. After purchasing their home built in 1956, Karen knew she was going to have to work on making it the home she and her husband wanted in phases. She had specific architectural details, such as original hardwood floors and crown molding that she wanted to maintain in her design concept, and Jeanne’s design complemented and enhanced the homes’ original beauty. “Even though the work was completed at different times, everything flows from room to room,” said Karen. “Each room is just as she left it – we haven’t changed a thing!”

While renovations and design are a large part of Jeanne’s business, the scope of services she offers is quite broad. “We accommodate a client’s needs from A to Z,” said Jeanne. From concept to design, Jeanne works with architects on the planning and designing of new homes, and she not only provides furnishings and accessories, but custom window coverings as well. She and her team also offer decorating services for special events. Holiday decorating keeps The Design Source busy during the holiday season, and Jeanne’s team even provides design for special events. “The year the Super Bowl was in Houston we had to transform a club in town into a disco for a party for Janet Jackson,” recalled Jeanne.

Artistic Achievements

Jeanne has won numerous awards during her 28 year tenure in the design industry, and her work has been featured regionally on both industry and consumer magazine covers. Jeanne was selected to participate in the 2006 Houston Gulf Coast Street of Dreams pro-ject in West Galveston Bay and has designed showcase homes for a multitude of custom builders. She was selected as the designer for the KHOU House Spectacular, and she has been featured on KHOU’s Great Day Hou-ston’s Room Rescue where she solved a design dilemma for a viewer. On Fridays, the television show would select a viewer with a design issue and bring in Jeanne to solve it. “We had a very limited budget, and it was very fast and furious,” said Jeanne, “but it was fun.”

While her work keeps her busy, Jeanne enjoys spending time with her family. She and her husband, John, have two grown children and three grandchildren: Castle, Allie and Jake. An avid tennis player, Jeanne now takes Fridays to “stop and smell the roses” to recharge her creativity, but design is always on her mind. “I am always rearranging to make things more beautiful, more comfortable and more functional.”