Sleek, chic and unique: Blue Springs woman finds right touch to reflect personality in home

The sign on Jani Hall’s front door reads “Joy to all who enter here.” All she really wants is for her guests to tell her that her Blue Springs home is comfortable.

Hall, 57, started interior decorating as a hobby because she stayed at home and took care of her children.

Though she worked some in the retail industry and decorated store windows, Hall said she determined ways to decorate her homes despite a lack of money.

Her decorating and design ideas originate from an odd source, Hall said: Problems.

“If I have a problem, it makes me come up with a creative solution,” she said. “A lot of creative ideas come out of problems.”

For example, in Hall’s great room, she had no electrical source for a light that would hang from the center of the ceiling. However, she wanted a chandelier as the room’s lighting.

“I couldn’t afford to buy one, so I decided to make one,” Hall said. “I was looking for something round to make a chandelier out of, and I happened to think that I have a mirror – I just put it all together.”

Guests often will see their reflection while passing through Hall’s home. There is no shortage of mirrors in any room.

“I love mirrors,” she said. “I love the reflectiveness of them. I love the way they give depth and the sparkle of mirrors.”

In her grandchildren’s play room, Hall built bookshelves that are perpendicular to the wall. This allowed for a window seat between the two bookcases, and then the children’s toys are tucked away from ordinary view, Hall said.

For about nine years, Hall has done freelance design work for family members and friends. She prefers to keep only a few outside projects at any given time.

“I usually don’t like to do it on a massive scale because I like it to be real personal,” she said. “I always try to have their home be their home, not my home. That’s very important to me – I want my house to reflect who I am, so I want their house to reflect who they are.”

Items from flea markets also inspire Hall’s designs and creations “because then you have something that somebody else doesn’t have,” she said.

“It’s not like something that’s been mass produced. It’s something unique, and it’s something different,” she said. “And again, seeing something in a flea market makes me have to come up with creative ways to do something different.”

Once she found four old piano legs and painted them white. Now, two of them decorate the entryway into her kitchen while the other two accent the fireplace mantle.

Hall’s next big project, which she hopes to complete this winter, is building a Murphy bed in her grandchildren’s playroom. A piece of black construction paper with white chalk writing marks the existing wall with the message “Future home of a horizontal Murphy bed/chalkboard.”

She paints or bronzes different items that she buys at flea markets or garage sales. She does all of her own carpentry and lays all of the flooring herself. Reading magazines like House Beautiful, Veranda and Traditional Home, as well as touring others’ houses, provide an endless supply of ideas for Hall.

“I love to go through other peoples’ homes, and that’s why I had people come through my home,” Hall said about including her home as part of the Blue Springs Historical Society’s annual Christmas homes tour in November. “I love to get the feel of their home; you get a sense of how they live.”

Hall and her husband built their house during the late 1970s. It includes an extensive garden in the backyard, which Hall described as her “real love.”

For those decorating their homes, Hall’s advice is as simple as her designing: Make it personal.

“Make it your style,” she said. “A lot of times you need help with scale, proportion and colors – I understand that. To me, creativity is God given, but the cleverness is what you do with that talent. I like to see a house that’s clever. Put a little more thought into it.”