Apolskis at Home With Tennis, Baseball and Interior Design

Jennifer Apolskis is a self-described stay-at-home mom who doesn’t really like to stay at home.

She likes to be out and about, either cheering on her son, 10-year-old Alexander, who plays tennis and baseball, or indulging in her artsy side as a budding interior designer.

“I don’t sit at home well,” she said.

Life has changed since Apolskis left the fullt-ime workforce about 10 years ago. The former field recruiter, leasing agent, events coordinator and pharmaceutical rep has settled into motherhood, something she wasn’t sure she’d be able to do.

She and husband Rick Apolskis, a former offensive tackle for the Arkansas Razorbacks, were having trouble conceiving, but a “miracle” happened 10 years ago, when Apolskis was 35 years old.

Alexander was born.

That’s when she gave up the pharmaceutical gig and became a stay-at-home mom. But a curious thing happened between then and now. Friends started asking her to help them decorate the interiors of their homes. She did this on a “very part-time basis,” keeping in mind that family is the most important thing.

The bug, however, had bitten, and these days, at least professionally speaking, Apolskis can’t truly see herself doing anything other than home and office interiors.

Apolskis was 32 when she was featured in the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class in 1999. At that time, she worked as a field rep for the Community Blood Center in Springdale.

Now that Alexander has gotten a bit older, Apolskis is finding more time for her professional endeavors.

“I’m finding the balance between getting back into the business world and my family,” she said. “My son does travel baseball and tennis, and I want to savor his little life and that’s why I haven’t gone back to work full time.”

Last year, she formed a limited liability company, Apolskis Interiors and Design, and recently created a website at apolskisdesign.com. Her niche is stage-to-sell real estate, redesign, corporate interiors and holiday décor.

Recent clients include Abbott Laboratories, Raymond James and PepsiCo.

“I like the fact that I can help it be their home away from home,” she said, referring to her office designs.

Apolskis has also gotten off to a good start in stage-to-sell and works closely with Rogers real estate agent Marnie Jackson of Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette.

Over the last three years, Apolskis has staged homes listed at more than $1 million as well as homes listed at $150,000. The list price doesn’t really matter. Apolskis approaches each job with gusto.

“On almost all my listings, I hire her,” Jackson said. “It makes the house look better and the homeowners love it.”

Apolskis doesn’t stand around and point her finger. She rolls up her sleeves and does the dirty work. By taking on the physical aspect of the job, and by using what homeowners already have, she saves realtors like Jackson a good chunk of change.

“I don’t think there’s anyone around who does what she does,” Jackson said. “She comes in and works quickly and starts moving furniture around. My photographs [of the listing] always look better and my properties sell faster.”

In terms of redesign, Apolskis tries to get the most out of what people already own so they don’t have to spend hundreds, or even thousands, at a furniture store.

She believes in buying locally and using friends and family to help instead of hiring professional movers. Her guiding philosophy is simple: “You think you don’t have things to work with, but you do,” she said.

Apolskis admits she’s not the most detail-oriented person when it comes to the nuts and bolts of running a business: accounting, marketing and contracts. When she’s ready to make a bigger splash in the region’s interior design market, she’ll likely hire someone to take care of that end of the business. She said her strengths are in the act of doing — walking into a home or office and figuring out what needs to be done. Word-of-mouth referrals, she said, are the reward.

Over the next seven years, Apolskis is going to take Alexander to plenty of tennis matches and baseball games, and maybe he’ll get good enough in one of those sports to earn a scholarship. But she’ll also be looking at rugs, sizing up dining room tables and breathing life into sun rooms and dens.

“My passion for the future is developing the design business,” she said.