Grad wins her own HGTV show
A KU alumna won the “Design Star” home design competition.
By Sachiko Miyakawa (Contact)
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
Jennifer Bertrand reached the peak of exhaustion after six weeks of design competitions. She hadn’t had a day off during the competition and her emotions were high. She was anxious to create the best design for her client on Home and Garden Television’s “Design Star” television show.
Her final assignment for the show was to design and build a kitchen, dining room and living room for a family whose house was damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Photo by Tyler Waugh
Jennifer Bertrand, winner of HGTV's "Design Star" poses in front of her mural at Salon Reaction in Overland Park on Wednesday. Bertrand designed much of the salon, including the sinks and lamps.
“I didn’t even think about the fact that it was the final to win the show,” Bertrand said. “I thought more about the family, and this family hadn’t had a kitchen for three years.”
Bertrand, 1998 graduate and designer from Olathe, won HGTV’s “Design Star” competition earlier this month. She also received her own HGTV show, which will start in January.
Bertrand auditioned for “Design Star” because she always dreamed of having her own show and didn’t want to regret not taking the chance.
“I always thought I wanted to do something on a big scale,” Bertrand said.
Hosting her own show combines two of her passions: designing and teaching.
“All my worlds collide and everything comes together,” Bertrand said.
Bertrand said she would look forward to teaching design, decor and art.
Lee Skoglund, Bertrand’s sister, said the best words to describe Bertrand were “fun” and “energetic.”
“What made her the best candidate is she really cares about what people want and how the design will function,” Skoglund said.
Bertrand was always around art. Her father is the director of a museum in Saint Joseph, Mo. Her mother is a sculptor.
Bertrand also experienced art in different countries. Her father was in the military when she was younger, so she lived in several places, including Germany.
“As a kid, I grew up going to all the different castles and chateaus in Europe,” Bertrand said. “That’s where I started to fall in love with design.”
Bertrand learned about other cultures and different beliefs and values, while traveling to other countries.
“When you are a designer, you can just design the way you want to,” Bertrand said. “I have to be able to change my style to fit to whoever I’m working with.”
Bertrand earned a degree in visual arts education from the University in 1998. She belonged to the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and juggled multiple jobs along with her academic responsibilities. She said the University allowed her to meet a variety of people and exposed her to different art media.
She went back to the University to continue her studies while she was working full-time on her business. She earned a master’s in education in 2007.
Bertrand taught art in the Shawnee school district and in Italy before she became a full-time designer.
She runs a small design firm in Olathe with her husband, Chris Bertrand. They design everything from interiors of residential homes to restaurants and condos on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Mo. She said being on television brought more business opportunities to her firm. She said she would continue to work for the firm after the show began in January.
Chris and Jennifer Bertrand now spend a lot of time working together and they sometimes have to work on weekends. He said they both had strong wills and sometimes they clashed during work. But he said he always enjoyed working with her.
“She has an amazing ability to connect with people,” Chris said. “She’s good at making people feel comfortable.”
— Edited by Ramsey Cox
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