Call it idle curiosity, or call it good business sense, but most people want to know some of the background of their interior designer. The successful relationship between the designer and their client has a tendency to become a personal one due to the very nature of the process of planning, renovating and furnishing the private living space of the client. I am providing the information below to satisfy that interest, and to give the prospective client insight into my personal creative process and approach to the business of design.

I was born in 1950-in Rock Island, Illinois. My father was an electrical engineer with a specialty in electrical systems power planning. In collaboration with others on the Mid-Continent Area Power Planners he was responsible for much of the power grid in the Midwest. My mother is a housewife and has been extensively involved with Catholic charities for most of the past 50 years. She has also done volunteer hospital work for several years.

I attended private Catholic schools through high school. At the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana I majored in personnel psychology with a minor in mathematics, graduating in 1972 with a Bachelor of Science degree. After several years working in executive training programs in the retail industry, I struck out on my own.

In 1977 I formed my own painting and wallpaper contracting business and began work on my degree in interior design at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. I successfully ran the business until I moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1982 where I spent nine months renovating our home and attending the design school at the University of Cincinnati.

In 1984 I was offered a position as an interior designer at the A.B. Closson Jr. Company. Closson is considered the top interior design and furniture source in the greater Cincinnati area. While there, I was responsible for the design of the sales floor at the Kenwood location as well as my individual design clients.

In 1986 I moved back to the Detroit area to take a position as an interior designer at Kennedy and Company, a private, high-end interiors firm located in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. After a period of two years I was the senior designer behind D.J. Kennedy. I remained with the firm for nine years until I moved to Chicago in 1995.

I formed my own interior design business in 1994 operating between Grosse Pointe Farms and Chicago. By 1995 I was in Chicago full time, and I incorporated the business in 1996. My client base ranges from Chicago to the North Shore to Hinsdale, Illinois. I have also worked in Manhattan, Palm Beach and the Rhode Island shore.

Email me directly at Jim@JERuudInc.com.