Flipping Out Q & A with House Flipper Turned Designer, Jeff Lewis
By: Judith Wallace
Having developed some of the most coveted homes in Los Angeles, Jeff Lewis has earned the title of America’s most well-known house flipper. Lewis has created a brand of properties that are in harmony with and are exemplified by the exterior and interior living spaces. When it comes to renovation, Lewis believes in finding the true integrity of the house, then breathing life back into the space in a way that will connect with a certain type of buyer. By taking his well-rounded knowledge of more than 20 years of design and renovation, Lewis has brought his business, “Jeff Lewis Designs” to the next level. Lewis designed House Beautiful Magazine’s “ 2010 Kitchen of the Year” showcased in New York City’s Rockefeller Center and launched an exclusive line of products for QVC and Alluminare.com. He is currently managing multiple projects around the country with the help of his loyal staff. His team knows just how to manage Lewis’ unfiltered personality but every so often, someone still pushes one of Lewis’ buttons and provoke a major flip out.
How you characterize the Jeff Lewis esthetic?
Jeff Lewis: I lean more contemporary and my looks are definitely more streamlined. And I like big open spaces. I don’t really like a ton of furniture. I’m not one of those people that over accessorizes. Let me tell you a little trick of the trade that designers do which I don’t. I work out a different fee structure. So I don’t mark up everything that I buy for my client. The reason that you’ll see a lot of homes that are over accessorized and over furnished. And they hang something on every single wall and they put something in every corner. Well, news flash, here it is. They mark up every single thing they buy. They have a vested interest in over selling furniture and accessories to you. So that’s the problem. What I would suggest to you is you work out a flat fee with a designer or an hourly. You don’t want to do the mark ups because – the more furniture they sell you the more money they make. So that’s why when you open up these magazines and you say, my god, I can’t even walk around that room. When I did the kitchen for House Beautiful that’s what it was called. It was basically said that what I do is soft modern. Taking a very modern space but warming it up. Because that’s the problem that people love contemporary design. It does tend to feel chilly and it’s not always so family friendly. We have clients with $30,000 budgets and we have clients with $2 million budgets. But really anybody can walk in the most expensive stores on Robertson in West Hollywood and beautify a space. If you have no budget – that’s easy. What’s difficult is taking a $30,000 budget and making three rooms look beautiful. And not just furnishing them but painting them and putting in moldings and putting in floors and wallpaper. And there’s two projects this season that you wouldn’t believe what I do for 30 grand. And that’s really what takes some skill and talent. Otherwise, if you have no budget. Anybody can make a space look beautiful.
Do you think there are any negatives for your business being on television?
Jeff Lewis: The only thing is that I do have a lot of clients. And I would say that at least half of them don’t want to be on TV. So that actually creates a little bit of a problem for me. Because I have to push them back to when we’re not filming or I have to see them only on weekends and evenings. So actually I end up working longer hours and more days to service these clients outside of the filming. Because we film from 9:00 to 7:00 everyday. So that’s the only thing that’s a little difficult. But otherwise in regards to this being on the show has helped my business tremendously. I mean it’s given me a platform and exposure that I could normally – I could never have or afford.
Do you have any summer decorating tips?
Jeff Lewis: Well I think that right now the most popular color I’m seeing is gray, specifically the charcoals. People are going back to the 80s when we would just go in and spray everything white. And ironically that’s kind of what’s happening right now. Everything is white and gray, white with gray accents and black accents and I’m seeing a lot of polished chrome and a lot of glass. And what’s interesting to me in the last probably eight years, six years, it doesn’t matter what the exterior of their homes are. They are wanting a contemporary blend. And that’s actually good for my business because that’s my esthetic. So even if they have this cute little craftsmen bungalow. They’re coming to me and saying we want an updated, sophisticated, modern. We want to do a blend. I’m working a lot with these older homes which we have a lot in Los Angeles. I’m trying to leave these original details that bring character to the home. But then I’m also trying to bring in some more contemporary elements.
What have you learned about yourself in doing this show?
Jeff Lewis: I learned that I’m an asshole. That’s what I’ve learned. I don’t know if people realize this about me but I’m actually a pretty self aware person. There’s nothing you can say about me that I don’t already know about myself. And that’s why those blogs don’t bother me. Those nasty hateful blogs. Some of them I find amusing actually. Because they’re nothing that I don’t know already. And there are things, certainly, that I need to work on. And that I do work on. I’ve said this over and over and over again. I don’t walk into a room and just be a jerk to be a jerk. I always start with nice. Unfortunately, in my business nice doesn’t always work. I always ask people nicely. Repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly and if I don’t get any response then that’s when I have to get angry and I have to unfortunately enforce boundaries. It’s not something I want to do, it’s not something I like to do. But I have a business to run and I have projects to do and not everybody’s cooperative. I’m very passive aggressive, it’s so annoying. Well, I’m also honest about what I can change about myself. And Jenni is really sick of me teasing her all the time. And I said you just need to understand this. I will do this until the day I die, that will never change. That’s just something that I can’t change about myself. I won’t, I can’t. I love joking around. I love being sarcastic.
What have you done throughout to try adapt or change that in some way?
Jeff Lewis: Absolutely nothing. Just embrace it. I think what was the bigger impact was when the market fell and the flipping business came to a complete screeching halt and I had to start working for clients. And I didn’t have the money that I had in the previous years. That was really the biggest dose of humility. And I think that’s what gave me a little bit more empathy and little bit more sympathy for people. And I think when I look back and it was probably one of the best experiences that I’m out of the woods. It was probably one of the best things that happened to me.
Will we see your romance on the show?
Jeff Lewis: Yes, but you’re not going to see like sex scenes. That’s where I draw the line. I view this as kind of a workplace dramedy, most of the action happens between 9:00 and 7:00 and that’s when we film and I’m not comfortable with diving too deep in my personal life, but. I didn’t really even want to go there with the show. But (Gage) my partner works with me and there was really no way we could film around him because he’s such a big part of this business now. So it was either that, or it was either give up the show or open this up. Open this part of my life up. I didn’t really want to lie and say this person is an employee but we’re not dating. I didn’t feel comfortable doing that either.
Will we see your personal fights with him on the show?
Jeff Lewis: It’s kind of difficult – it’s like a balancing act. Because I don’t take things so personally. Like if something goes on at work, after hours I can just let things go. But my partner isn’t necessarily like that. If we had a disagreement at work, that does carry over after hours and that’s difficult. That’s difficult to handle. So, yes, you can’t really get around that stuff. You’ll notice. And I think that people that have spouses that work together they could probably relate.
Were you hesitant to date another person that you work with?
Jeff Lewis: Well actually it was the reverse. I was dating someone who had his own business. And then, he was in the garment industry and how well’s that doing right now? So it didn’t really make sense. He could’ve continued that or he could’ve gone into another industry. But I needed help and it actually worked out really well. So I would say that with everything, all the opportunities and all the leads that he’s had and all the everything that he’s generated. I would say my income’s gone up like 20 at least 20%. I mean it was a position that I needed filled. And I had been hesitating and it actually just really worked out. So just to clarify I was dating first and then I brought him into the business. I don’t really date employees until now.
You butt heads with Jenni constantly, but always seem to work it out…
Jeff Lewis: I guess after 11 years together it still works. Any relationship I think you certainly have ups and downs. We’ve been through a lot together. We both support each other in really, really bad stressful times. We have a really good line of communication so we think nothing of just sitting down and hashing things out and it’s normally in the car because we’re a captive audience or on a plane. And we really just tell each other what we feel and it doesn’t always feel good and we might raise our voices it might be kind of dramatic but we get it out.We get it out and we work it out. And that’s what it is. We’re both very committed to working this stuff out. Her timings sometimes a little off but I do appreciate her opinion.
Is Jenni dating anyone?
Jeff Lewis: She’s dating somebody and guess what, he has a job which is a real improvement over the last one. He’s a doctor. He’s not a chiropractor.
Jenni’s theme song for Watch What Happens Live is pretty cool. Do you think she has a musical career?
Jeff Lewis: Oh, please don’t encourage that. Which will never ever happen, she’s talked about it for six years. There is no rap career. There is no rap career. No more questions about this. She’s a one hit wonder.
Now that you know where Jenni lives, how’s that going?
Jeff Lewis: She has two security gates. I followed her home from the airport. But it was on my way home by the way. It’s a long story.
Why do you think you cannot keep an employee?
Jeff Lewis: I don’t understand why we can’t keep an employee. I don’t get it. And it’s not just me. These kids that are getting out of college and they want to be VP in three weeks and they don’t get what it takes to be successful. I think one of the reasons why Jenni have been together so long is that we both know, nothing comes easy. We work really, really hard and we don’t expect to have something the next day. It takes years and years and years to achieve what we’re trying to achieve. These kids that come out of school today, they’re just impatient, they’re entitled, they’re not willing to put in the work. A lot of them too are willing to just screw you over in three seconds and that’s, that’s something that’s scary really.
Two employees get fired this season. Can you tell us who they are?
Jeff Lewis: Yes. I will tell you that one is very expected. And then completely out of the blue something happens. And the other one is completely unexpected which really turned the office upside down. So, and that happens right around mid-season. So one is expected one is completely unexpected. And now we’re kind of scrambling over here because we’re still filming and I’m trying to fill their spots. So you’ll have to watch and see but one is really like out of the blue.
Are you helping with Sarah’s wedding preparations and if we’ll see the ceremony on the show?
Jeff Lewis: Trust me, I’ve been really pushing for that. And I tried to bribe her but, I’m right now to no avail. I’m really, really, really trying but I don’t think it’s going to happen.The thing about these women they plan these weddings since they’re 14 years old. And I think all the decisions were made 20 years ago. So as much as I want to help, I’ve offered my opinion. This happened with my sister-in-law too. They don’t really want it. They already have these folders and they have these books and they have pictures of everything they want. And it’s been planned for years. I mean it’s pretty crazy. It is too bad because it could be a beautiful wedding if I was involved.
How much screen time will your pets get this season?
Jeff Lewis: A lot, one of them in particular. We had a little drama with one of them. But everything’s fine now. But I probably shouldn’t have teased, I’ll get in trouble. It ends up working out but it was really kind of traumatic for me. But it’s okay now. You’ll see a lot of the pets.
Have you ever consider doing an intervention on the homes of the Real Housewives of New Jersey.
Jeff Lewis: Out of all the Real Housewives, which house would I redo – all of them. All of them. How about that?
Flipping Out will premiere on Bravo, on Wednesday, July 6 at 9:00 pm.