Jim Wilson Interiors of Springfield is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and its namesake says he never tires of seeing an interior design project come to fruition.
"It's a great feeling, it's extremely fun to see something come to be that you have been working on," Jim Wilson said. "From taking flooring and fabric samples to the client to seeing a room evolve and exist, it's very fun to experience that."
The 69-year-old Wilson is still very much active in Jim Wilson Interiors, located in The Gables, and the business also encompasses the Homescapes store, a retail outlet for home furnishings and gifts. Wilson has also taken on a design partner, Nickey Sperry, and the two business co-owners' tastes and design styles complement each other.
"We work together on design projects, and I plan to continue working. Fortunately, I now have a situation with Nickey that allows me a little bit more of a relaxed schedule so I can enjoy my grandchildren," Wilson said. "We don't see a need to change anything. It's been a successful 40 years so we don't want to ripple the waters."
Wilson's long and storied career began when the Morrisonville native went to college at Bradley University to study architecture. Wilson was advised that the job market at the time wasn't great for architects, and about the same time he met a fraternity brother whose family owned an interior-design business very similar to what Jim Wilson Interiors became. Wilson transferred to Iowa State University and graduated with a degree in interior design.
After graduation, Wilson landed a series of jobs in the Springfield area retail industry, including stints at Myers Brothers, Famous-Barr and 1501 Interiors, a subsidiary of Central Office Equipment. From there, he left to start Jim Wilson Interiors in 1984. Wilson brought a few 1501 Interiors clients with him but knew he needed to drum up a lot of new business on his own.
"It was pretty scary, but I was young at the time and it seemed like the right thing to do," Wilson said. "Fortunately, with the flow of projects and new clients coming in, the work came at a nice, steady pace."
There were only two periods of time during which Wilson was concerned about having enough business. The first was during the Gulf War conflict in the early 1990s when "everybody stayed home and watched it on TV, and no one came out to shop." The second was during 2008 "when the economy went belly up and everybody put the brakes on; it was a tough time to get through that," Wilson said.
But get through he did, and Wilson has worked for scores of residential and commercial clients over the decades to design interior spaces and help people pick out flooring, furniture, wall and window treatments and even dinnerware on occasion.
"We did a Florida home where we went in ahead of the client and supplied all of the dinnerware, ran it through the dishwasher, provided the sheets and made the beds," Wilson said. "So when they walked in the door they could have a party right then. It was literally a turnkey operation."
Wilson is also happy to provide a wide, varied and ever-increasing selection of home décor and gift items, from furniture to lamps to greeting cards at the Homescapes store located in the same building as Jim Wilson Interiors.
Over the past 40 years, Wilson has witnessed interior design trends change from traditional designs to a more casual style. Clients also see designs they like on television or social media and often come into Jim Wilson Interiors with a particular style in mind.
Wilson and Sperry begin each design project by going to clients' homes or businesses to see the space and to gauge the owners' personalities. The two designers then put together choices of plans, fabrics and finishes from which the client may select. The process continues until the client is happy, and then the physical work on the space begins.
Sperry became a co-owner of Jim Wilson Interiors last year after assisting Wilson for several years with design work. Sperry has a graphic design degree and worked for the corporate world for several years before becoming creative director for a local restaurant-design business. During that time Wilson approached her firm regarding a restaurant project he was working on, and Sperry had to drop off some paperwork as part of that project.
"I walked into Homescapes and it was amazing. I thought, where has this been all of my life?" the 44-year-old Sperry said. "I love beautiful things, and I wanted to find a way to be a part of that."
"I just took the leap and approached Jim and said, 'My restaurants are my portfolio,'" Sperry said. "I told him I had a lot of other assets I could bring – he took a chance on me, and here we are four years later."
Sperry said that their design styles complement each other.
"When we go to market to shop for new items, we gravitate toward the same pieces for the most part," Sperry said. "He leans a little bit more toward timelessness, and I like to use a lot of color at times, but behind the scenes we work on almost all of the projects together."
Wilson and Sperry both view their clients as friends because they get to know them so well during the design process, and the business has numerous multigenerational clients as a result. Wilson and Sperry have also become good friends.
"I'm very lucky that Jim had faith in me, because the passing of the torch isn't always easy," Sperry said.
Wilson feels equally blessed.
"I'm just as lucky as she is," Wilson said. "This was really kind of meant to be, and it just happened on its own. There's now a succession plan for Jim Wilson Interiors, and I feel very lucky that this has worked out so well."
