[INTERVIEW'D] Keeping Up With Jeff Andrews

Jeff Andrews is an Los Angeles-based designer who has an impressive roster of celebrity clients. 

In this interview, he tells us about the Kardashians, designing a room for Dexter, how much adores Skechers Shape-Ups, and how tall Ryan Seacrest really is.

You just recently designed Khloe and Lamar's place.  How did you get hooked up with the Kardashians?

I started with them because I was actually working with Ryan Seacrest and he introduced us.

He’s super short, right?

[Laughs] No, he’s like my height!

Oh, so he’s really tall, right?

[Laughs] He’s like 5’ 9”, I would say.

Everybody just always makes jokes about how short he is, so I figured he was like Tom Cruise short, like 5’ 4” or something. 

Nope, he’s not that little!

Did you meet him when he first started?

It was about five years ago, so he was already a mogul [laughs].

So when we see Khloe and Lamar’s place on E!, we’re looking at your handiwork?

Yep.    

Khloe’s office is pretty masculine.  It’s like a library. 

It's kind of masculine but it has some glam in it. It's like glamorous masculine chic. If there's such a thing as that.

Were they easy to work with?

They were amazing! I love her. She's so fun.  Everything has to be sparkly and oversized. She's pretty specific about what she likes and doesn't like.  We hit it off right away.   

And then you did her mom's house?

Yeah, I just finished a huge renovation on Kris Jenner's house. People are gonna freak out when they see it.

What did you do?

It's dramatically different. Everything, top to bottom. It just looks completely, 100% different.

Did you have anything to do with that ridiculous naked picture of Kourtney pregnant in Kris and Bruce's bedroom?

[Laughs] Well, when we renovated, we did a whole wall of family photos and that one made the cut. It's still there, it's just not in the bedroom.  We actually did a wall of a portrait of each girl when they were really little and then a glamazon portrait of them all grown up underneath it.

So it's not like a cheesy photo wall that people have going up their staircases?

No, it's very tasteful.

As tasteful as a naked photo of your adult daughter can be.

Yeah. A pregnancy photo like that is kind of a standard thing with people in the limelight [laughs].

So Khloe and Lamar just got their own show, they’re doing a perfume.

Yes!  Unbreakable! [laughs] I think it smells good, I like it.

Is it for men and women?

Yep, it’s unisex. 

Those Kardashians think of everything.

Kris Jenner is a mastermind.  People don’t give her enough credit.  She’s one amazing woman.  And now I’m working with Kourtney too.

What do you think about Scott?

I haven’t really spent too much time with Scott, but I think he’s pretty hilarious.

Do you think it’s really just for the show that he’s acting like an asshole the whole time?

I think that with Scott, what you see is what you get.  I think it may be amped up a little bit when the cameras are rolling, but he doesn’t hold back.

Does he really dress like that?

Yep.

Like, it’s not a joke?

Nope.

I watched an episode where he went shopping and bought a walking stick.  How can that be real?

He’s very formal!  It’s funny, we were going to this cocktail party and I was at Kourtney’s house the day of and I asked Scott if he was going to get really dressed up and he was like, “Are you kidding me?  I always get dressed up.” I guess it was kind of a dumb question.

Enough about the Kardashians.  You also did the Dexter room in the Showtime House. I was there once for an event and I thought it was awesome. Tell me about that.

Showtime came to me and a bunch of other designers and asked us to do a room based on one of their series.  I chose Dexter because Michael C. Hall is actually a client of mine, so I was able to get into the mind of Dexter and pick his brain to see what I was going to do with the room.

My big thing was that I didn't want it to look like a set. It's so easy when you're designing something around a TV character or show to have it end up looking like a set. I wanted it to really look like it was a livable space. And I decided to design it as if I were actually designing it for Dexter.

So there's a hanging bed in there.

Yep, it was hung from antique hooks.

The Showtime House is great but I've been to a bunch of events there and they actually have staff protecting the items, like the bed, because people want to sit down on it.

Well, the bed is actually pretty sturdy. We were swinging around on it.

It kind of freaked me out. Like, even when no one was on it, it was moving.

It makes you a little dizzy.

You've also got a butcher block with real knives in there which is also concerning in an open bar scenario.

[Laughs] Well the thing is, Dexter is very meticulous and very neat, so I wanted everything in the room to be well chosen and thoughtful. Like all of the books on the bookshelf were things that Michael told me that Dexter would read, like books on anatomy and oceanography. We were really into it, and we had a great time doing it. It ended up being kind of hard to separate out Michael the real person from Dexter the character.

Is he a lot different?

Yeah. He has a really great sense of humor. He's a little on the dramatic side, but in a funny way. He doesn't take anything too seriously.

When we do these interviews, we always ask people what was the last thing they bought for their home. What did you buy?

I bought a coffee maker.  My office is in my house and I have three girls working here every day, so we all need to be caffeinated.  We actually just bought it today.  I got the big daddy of the coffeemakers.

No crazy espresso machine?

I thought about doing that but then I’d really be bouncing off of the walls. I think if I had shot after shot after shot, I think I’d want to shoot myself.

I’m a big Red Bull junkie, I can’t get enough.

[Laughs] I love it.  Do you mix it with vodka?

Of course!  Do you?

Only in Vegas.  It keeps you going. 

Are you a big drinker?

I like wine.

Red or white?

I like both, but I’ve been into red lately, mainly because I can lie to myself and say it’s good for me. 

Right, but that’s only one glass a day. 

I know!  What a trick!

But I guess if your only vices are coffee and red wine, you’re doing okay.

Yes, coffee and red wine and running.  I’m a big running guy.  This is actually really funny but I’m really into those Skechers Shape-Ups.

Oh, come on.  Really?

Well, I work for the family who owns Skechers and I got a pair, and I’m telling you, they’re amazing.  They’re so comfortable and they work you out.  They’re awesome.

But they look like balloons on your feet.

The black ones aren’t that bad.  I just wear them with baggy black sweatpants and they’re not as noticeable.  They’re not like the ones with the girl in the commercial where they look like space shoes. 

Right, they look like moon shoes!

Okay, so they’re not the coolest looking shoes, but they work. 

And that’s it!  That’s my life.

Skecher’s Shape-Ups, Ryan Seacrest, the Kardashians, and wine.

[Laughs] Pretty much.  I can’t complain.   It’s a good life.

Follow Jeff Andrews on Twitter @JeffAndrewsDSGN // Follow Amanda on Twitter @AmandaWaas