Photography by Jessica Turner.

Jessie Carrillo spent 12 years teaching adults about art at the Brooklyn Museum, the Denver Museum of Art, and most recently, for five years at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Now it is her business to teach people how to curate their own homes.

She launched A Charming Home, a professional organizing service that focuses on “beauty and intention” to transform her clients’ spaces, in 2020.

Carrillo’s own home on Ravinia Drive is a testament to her work.

The 84-year-old house she shares with her husband, Abraham, and their 3-year-old daughter, Cora, comprises just under 1,100 square feet, and they make every inch count.

Abraham is from Oak Cliff and grew up down the street. They don’t intend to move, but their lot is big enough for an addition, which they’ve considered for the future.

“We’ve done a lot of work on it, but now all we have left are the really big projects,” Jessie says.

Their most recent accomplishment was moving the washer and dryer into the garage, which isn’t quite big enough to fit a car, and transforming the 50-square-foot room off their kitchen into what Jessie calls a butler’s pantry.

Patterned floor tile draws the eye to an oversized painting and vintage light fixture at the end of the narrow room. A slim, wooden chef’s table that Jessie uses for her desk can be cleared off and used as a buffet for serving at the marble-top café table and wicker chairs.

She found a glass-front cabinet at Ikea, as well as shelves that hold clear canisters for snacks, cereals and baking items to create “systems that make it more accessible and prettier instead of hiding everything in a cabinet.”

Hooks near the back door hold a watering can and other small garden tools and gloves. This little bonus room also keeps trash and recycling out of the kitchen.

“I’ve had to be clever about multi uses for every room,” she says.

The kitchen had been renovated already, but Carrillo painted the white cabinets a sage green when Cora started toddling to conceal baby fingerprints.

The room stays very functional, curated with only the high-quality pans, utensils and dishes that she and her husband are likely to use regularly. She has indulged in a barware collection, which she displays in a slender, industrial-style wheeled cabinet in the dining room.

Otherwise she prefers to keep possessions to a minimum.

Their two bedrooms have one walk-through bathroom between them, and each bedroom had only one closet.

After her daughter was born, Jessie had to move her clothes out of the second bedroom. She redesigned their main closet for her husband to use and designed a $1,000 wardrobe closet from Ikea for herself. All her clothes and shoes fit into this one closet, which has hanging racks and drawers.

“It’s teaching me to keep a very tight wardrobe,” she says. “I’ve had to be very thoughtful about everything I’ve bought in the three years that we’ve been here.”

She also reworked Cora’s closet, removing the two old hanging racks, painting a feature wall and installing a $200 system that’s easy for her and her parents to use, and can be adjusted to her needs.

In the “go area” by the front door, there are hooks low enough for Cora to reach herself.

“When I work with clients who have kids, I do bring a Montessori approach to their spaces,” Carrillo says. “I think kids get overwhelmed by the amount of stuff just like we do, and they lose interest in their things if there are too many options.”

In the one bathroom, Carrillo organized the cabinets with clear plastic bins that are labeled into groups like “facial care” and “nail care,” so that the organizing systems are simple enough to follow. She calls it “macro-organization,” corralling things into broad categories rather than focusing on details.

An enormous baroque mirror makes a statement in the living room, heavy and overstated in contrast to the contemporary furnishings. If you can’t see the floor underneath a piece of furniture, it’s probably too bulky for a small space, she says.

Jessie says she has always been this way. She is a neat and tidy person who loves having everything in its place.

But in some ways, she’s just like the rest of us. The pink microfiber couch in the living room is the one she bought after college, and she intends to keep it until her child-rearing years are over.

“Keeping a tidy home, and keeping things orderly makes more room for the things you actually want to be doing in your life,” she says. “Especially now that I have a kid, it’s very clear that if I can get this part of my life down, it gives me a little bit more emotional room and time to hang out with her and do art and all sorts of fun stuff like that.”

Before & After

Tidying up utilitarian spaces

Jessie Carrillo’s organizing business allows clients to choose their level of service.

“The game plan” is for those who want to do it themselves. She offers consultation and step-by-step guides to edit possessions, as well as recommendations for storage solutions and closet systems that clients can purchase and install themselves.

For “the makeover” she does everything from space planning to hauling away donations.

Decluttering helps people be more thoughtful and appreciative of their possessions, she says.

“What’s my actual style, and what’s my actual lifestyle? That’s something I tend to work with clients on at the very beginning,” she says. “I help them work through that very difficult decision-making process.”

acharminghome.co

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