You may have noticed, but here at Stoneside, we’re all about showing off our people. From our clients to our team, we’re a company built around the idea of cultivating relationships.
Recently, we’ve been partnering with our people all across the country so we can show you just what makes our team so great — and all the different personalities and connections we’ve created by having such a wonderful family here at Stoneside.
This time, we met with one of our top designers, Jason Miller, who helps us in our Houston office in Texas.
,quality(85)/f/54992/640x640/3f163ea83d/stoneside-design-consultant-jason-miller-2020.png)
Jason’s personality is magnetic. He’s full of life, and his enthusiasm for everything ‘design’ drips off of him through the computer screen on our zoom chat. Jason is one of those people who has that indescribable “something” that makes you automatically want to be his best friend. (Plus, he has a fondness for cheesecake and wine, so he’s right up our alley!)
Find out just how he came to be in our Stoneside family, what his life is like in Houston, and why he believes this job has changed him for the better.
It's great! It's different for both of us: my partner's from Minneapolis originally and I'm from Ohio.
I miss the seasons, you know what I mean? I love Christmas and fall and spring and everything. Here, it's like summer with a little cool weather around. So this is different, but it's good!
Love.
When I met John, my partner, we met in Chicago. We were both living there at the time, and his job transferred him down here, but I was designing in Chicago with Roche Bobois (a high-end French furniture company).
So we met in Chicago, and he told me his job was transferring him. We had only known each other for about three months, and we were just head over heels. Then he said, “I have to move to Texas.”
And I was like, oh, I can't go to Texas.
Then all of a sudden, I was just like… you know what, what have I got to lose? So I sold my condo in Chicago and took a big risk. Here we are six years later. Happy. I'm SO happy I made that decision.
I'm pretty much a self-taught designer. I have a Master of Fine Arts degree and an undergraduate degree in musical theatre. I was a performer for a really long time, which makes the people aspect of this really fun for me.
The design aspect really comes from my father — he was a builder. My mother was a design guru and would design things for people in my hometown of Cincinnati. I grew up around fabrics and design plans and construction zones and everything, so it was a really big part of who I was. And… I wanted nothing to do with it.
At this point, he laughs, knowing what was coming for himself as time went on.
So I went and got an acting degree. Later in life after I got that out of my system, I was like, okay, I really want to live a normal life.
I leaned hard into what I'd always done — went back, got a master's degree, and then started doing this. That was when I got to Chicago, because I had been in New York and LA.
I love the human aspect of it. Meeting people and finding out what they actually really want. And need, as opposed to saying “hey, I'm here, shut up and listen to me. I'm gonna put this up and you're gonna love it.”
Each time I meet someone, I really try to get to know them, understand and ask questions. I'm always hearing, “Wow, no one else asked me that. Oh, my gosh, thank you so much. That's a totally different perspective.”
That's why I'm really excited to be here. I never thought I'd find a job like this, where I get to interact with people.
It is! And I've become close friends with a lot of the clients I've had. I love my clients.
Well it’s their sanctuary, right? They're trusting you when they let you in the door. And I take that trust very seriously.
I'm very concerned with: Are you going to LOVE this? Not like, “great, I covered your windows,” but are you really going to LOVE it? Are you going to be happy you made this investment and thrilled with it for a long time?
I think that's what makes us different as a company.
Well, I transferred to Houston with Roche Bobois, the French furniture company that I was working for. So I would go into clients' homes to design their rooms and everything. That was all furniture placement and I still get asked lots of questions like that from my clients now.
Then I wanted to try management, so I took a job as a store manager for Bassett furniture. So it was going from high-end retail to American country. I got to sort of take in both sides: here's a $15,000 sofa and here's a $500 sofa. What do these different people have in common? They just all want their stuff to look beautiful right?
So that was really good prep for this. I stayed as a store manager for Bassett for about a year and a half — won store of the year and Manager of the Year.
I was excelling at leadership. But I really missed designing — I missed it so much. And I was tired of getting up at 6am and getting home at 7pm, working every weekend because it was a retail schedule.
Yes. I just answered an ad — I was just curious and answered an ad on Indeed and was like what's this company about?
I read their core values. I went to their website. And I was like, well, that's interesting. So I signed up for an interview.
It went really fast. I had three interviews, and boom, I was in. I gave my notice at my other job, and within a month, I had made a switch kind of on fate, just like when I moved to Texas.
Well I liked the CEO, Mickey, and there's an energy level to the company that I was like…
So that really spoke to me.
This is my fourth year. I had an opportunity to help design the regional manager program. So I was a regional manager for about six months.
But again, I just missed designing.
Mickey and everyone were really sweet — they just let me slide right back into it. Even though I came back, it was fun to be a part of designing what that leadership team would be for the company. But I loved getting back to selling which is really my happy place.
As cliche as it sounds: heat and glare. Obviously, people need products that solve practical problems… it's too hot in this room, there's a glare on my TV, I don't have any privacy, I need to take care of that.
What's more interesting and exciting to me, is when they don't know how to take the shell of their new house and make it work with their furniture, and kind of blend all that stuff together. That’s the sort of challenge that makes me tick.
Draperies are probably my favorite product because it has a huge impact. And it's more design-oriented.
Trying to find a solution, then having that very realistic conversation: we can’t make it that price point OR here are the changes I can make and still meet your aesthetic needs while giving you something at a particular price point.
Yeah, it's definitely my favorite product. It's something you don't sell as often because of the price point. But when someone embraces it and loves it and sees it as a necessity, you know, I just like taking them down that road of “okay, here's what we can do.”
I love it. You get to play with textures and patterns and you're coordinating things and you're still solving the problems but you're really layering on that really high-end touch.
It is a pricier product. But if you're willing to make that investment, it can just bring a room together. Everything can feel totally different when you put draperies up.
Roller shades. I would say roller shades are 80% of Stoneside’s business.
It's privacy. It's light control, it can change the temperature in a room.
It’s also really convenient. Open windows are really popular now, so everybody likes to take it up, get it out of the way, open things up and let nature in. But when they need privacy, pull the chain, press a button, pull it down, and you've got what you need.
Here in Texas, we remove a lot of Plantation Shutters to put up roller shades. So we're seeing a pull away from that traditional look.
So this will sound weird — I actually like the time in my car. I didn't know I was going to. But I put on a podcast or a book or something or just catch up with friends on the phone when I'm going from place to place.
Also, it's the people I meet for me. I come home every night and I'm always talking. John’s like, how was your day? I'm like, “Oh, today I met Tammy. She’s my favorite new client!”
You just meet the most interesting people. I love it. It's just like I said — I've made a lot of friends. They really open up to you and let you know their real, true, authentic selves. And that's just precious to me. I take it really seriously.
Roaming through Home Goods looking for bargains. Vintage shopping — housewares and things, art galleries, anything.
So if it has to do with home goods and interiors, honestly, when I'm not doing this, that's what I'm doing.
I love shopping and finding a good bargain. I have two dogs, a cat named Maybelline, and two fish. We're big animal lovers and we're always out walking the dogs or just enjoying the outdoors with the animals.
Oh! And gardening. Love, love, love gardening. Our yard is really important to us, and I'm always out trimming something or cutting the grass in this kind of very zen, happy place.
Our favorite restaurant is called Corelli’s — it’s an Italian cafe. It’s run by a good friend of ours, who is also a client. We're probably there two nights a week eating. I love it. Just a good bottle of wine and some pasta and a cheesecake.
Exactly. Carbs and wine.
Oh I love it here. One of the things we love about Houston is the diversity here. I live in the most diverse city in the United States per capita: Missouri City, Texas, which is just south of Houston.
I have more of what we would normally call minority clients than anything else. It’s my favorite thing. My clients are black, Asian, Hispanic, Mongolian, Indian. All the cultures here in Texas have really opened my mind to what design could be.
Because when you meet someone who comes here fresh from another culture, their color palette choices are different. Their textural choices are different. Their ideas of beauty are totally different.
The things they value in terms of their privacy, or taking your shoes off in their home are really eye-opening to me. It's been an amazing experience to go into the homes of all these people who have such different ethnic backgrounds from my own, and learn about them. I have such a respect for that.
I didn't even know about these other religions, other cultures. Everybody values different things. And it's made me a better person to be a part of that and see so much of it.
He loves the people he works with, and finding a solution they’ll love is a part of what makes him (and Stoneside) so wonderful.
We’re proud and excited about having him on our team!
Are you thinking about switching out your window treatments, but just haven’t found the right fit? Reach out to Stoneside, and we’ll set you up with one of our team members. Who knows! If you’re in the Houston area, you may just get to meet him. And if not, perhaps you’ll get help from one of our other awesome design consultants.
Wherever you live, Stoneside stays the same — we believe in people over profits. And we believe in finding you the right fit.
Schedule your free consultation now, and we’ll get the whole process started.
