About

Hi! My name is Jill Watkins and I love design. Ever since I was a child sharing a bedroom with my younger sister, I wanted things to be “pretty.” As a teenager, I remember looking around the house I grew up in thinking, “I’m going to have something nicer than this.”

Over the course of many apartments and several houses, I always found joy in making my surroundings beautiful. I married in my early 30s and, because we never had children, I was lucky enough to travel the world. Visiting museums and gardens all over the world fueled my interest, love and knowledge of art, design and landscape. After getting a degree in business and working in commercial real estate for 15 years, I wanted to pursue my passion for decorating. I took a design curriculum at the University of California, Irvine, and became a docent at The Decorative Arts Society in San Juan Capistrano. Soon, I began transforming homes for friends and clients and have been “co-creating” ever since. Over the years, I noticed I enjoyed “re-design”—the process of working with what my clients already owned—more than the traditional larger, and more expensive design jobs that start from scratch.

During COVID-19, I was grateful I had beautiful surroundings in which to shelter in place but I wondered how many people didn’t—either because they never noticed how important their surroundings were or because they couldn’t afford to hire a traditional interior designer. So, out of this quiet time, YOUR DESIGN GURU was born, geared toward the DIYer or budget-conscious. Coming from a family of educated women and a degree in business, it took me awhile to reconcile the fact that interior decorating was more than a frivolous pursuit. I came to understand that beauty is a spiritual precept and an essential part of life. “Beauty is the promise of happiness!” [Stendahl].