Cool Cribs: A First Look at JCI's Funky New HQ
Jones Commercial Interiors president Andy Jones took his love for collecting vintage items and turned it into a funky new HQ for the design firm. The focal point for the Deep Ellum warehouse conversion: colorful travel trailers that now serve as offices and meeting spaces. Andy walks us through the space.
Andy (right, with Bradford’s Susan Singer at an open house earlier this month) tells us JCI took a 10k SF multi-level space within a WWII industrial building at 3900 Willow St. Among the office features are six fully renovated vintage travel trailers (from the 1950s to the 1970s) converted into private offices with custom decks, lighting and design schemes. JCI’s only function is to design office space, Andy says, so three years ago he began hatching this off-the-wall idea for a design studio, and two years ago he began buying broken-down vintage travel trailers, gutting them and turning them into offices.
Turns out a camper makes a perfect office, Andy tells us. It’s quiet, has lots of windows, is fun to decorate, and is very human in scale, he says, and working in a trailer is like writing by candlelight in a hobbit hole. It’s intimate, but not claustrophobic. It’s low tech but has everything you need. Pictured is Andy’s office, aka the Helga trailer. She is a 1950 Schult 22-foot Camp Model (early mobile home) named Helga because of the German association, Andy tells us.
The trailer renovations were all done by Andy, his CEO Debra Hayner, CFO Adrienne Holst, and friends and family working in the evenings and on weekends for two years to restore trailers, build workstations, and construct wood decks while setting up the ideal event/office/design space. Here’s the interior of the orange, olive and silver Helga trailer, which was purchased in Hillsboro. Designed with a bunkhouse theme, the exterior was painted and the floor is reclaimed gym flooring. The bathroom and kitchen were removed and the interior was gutted with a corrugated plastic ceiling (painted silver) added. Interesting tidbits: the chair rail is old fire hose and the upper cabinets are original but repainted.
The Ethel orange and silver exterior is at the office front entry. The 1963 Mobile Scout 14 ft. camper was built in Arlington and serves as the office manager’s trailer. Purchased in Tyler, this one had no walls or a floor, Andy says. Andy says the concept for the trailer park office was to create a fun environment for clients to relax and get into a creative frame of mind.
The silver 1966 Avion 22-foot travel trailer (a spinoff from Airstream) features maps and other stickers that are original to the trailer. Purchased in Seven Points at a flea market, the exterior and interior are all original sheet metal. The trailer was named Pinkie because the original bathroom (which was gutted during the renovation) had a Pepto Bismol pink sink, shower, toilet and walls.
The 1965 Midway Mid-jet 12-foot camper named Blossom features a red and white floral exterior with turquoise trim. Purchased in Tyler, this is the CEO’s trailer, which came with the red/white floral exterior.
Blossom’s interior was gutted and the kitchenette’s original red stove/oven was saved and converted into a side table. The beach theme features reclaimed gym floor and bamboo ceiling and burlap walls. The upper cabinets are original but repainted and recovered with driftwood cabinet pulls. The vintage surfboard was a gift to the CEO for her 50th birthday from the CFO. The deck furniture is all thrift store/reclaimed and repainted/refurbished.
Stevie is a grape, lavender and white early 1970s Meade Riverside 12-foot camper purchased in Terrell. This one was found as hoarder storage, filled top to bottom with random junk. Used as the executive assistant’s trailer, it has a gypsy theme in honor of its namesake, Stevie Nicks. The deck furniture was repainted and customized with purple fringe.
