A Lifelong Passion.
en Murphy founded OM Design Consultants to share her passion for creating homes that feel relaxed and restorative with a design approach that balances the clean lines of a modern aesthetic with natural elements. O M Design Consultants work with clients who crave connection with nature to feel relaxed and restored in their homes. Our design approach is rooted in applying biophilic principles to an organic modern design style that balances the clean lines of a modern aesthetic with natural elements.
Jen’s passion for creating homes that feel relaxed and restorative stems from the belief that we all deserve to live in a home that helps us feel calm and improves our overall well-being.
As a child, Jen begged her parents to let her redo her bedroom. She removed the dizzying multi-colored, small-print flowered wallpaper, matching bed spread and bright green shag rug. She transformed the space into a room that reflected her style by adding a window for extra light, staining the wood floors a darker tone, covering the walls in a white wallpaper with a slight texture and adding a large antique dresser.
This first design project is where Jen learned that the interiors of a room can change how you feel. The abundance of natural light, light walls with contrasting rich hues found in the flooring, furniture and accent pieces made the once busy and overwhelming space feel…calm.
After college, where Jen earned a BA in English and a teaching certificate for New York State, she moved to Boston, MA., a city she loved for its history, beautiful architecture and proximity to the water. Jen’s love for interior design continued when she began working at Laura Ashley, Inc., the British textiles design company, in their U.S. headquarters. Situated above the Laura Ashley Home store on St. James, the tight-knit team progressed through the days with excitement and creative energy. While there, Jen gained exposure to all of the different parts of the business, from sales training to design and window display.
Though Jen loved her time at Laura Ashley, she had a plan to earn a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education, which she completed in 1997. After working for a year in a public elementary school west of Boston. Jen was given a wonderful opportunity to apply her knowledge of how people learn as a project manager in a management and leadership development department at Fidelity Investments (Fidelity). Jen spent the next 14.5 years managing business unit and enterprise-wide projects. and really learned about the importance of having clear business processes and procedures. Something Jen has worked hard to incorporate into her design business.
Jen furthered her knowledge of managing a business by earning an M.B.A. from Boston College’s Carroll School of Management and a certification through their Leadership for Change program, while continuing to work full-time. This period of time marks when Jen’s different interests started to converge. Though learning how to run a successful business through the traditntal M.B.A course load was incredibly valuable, the Leadership for Change program really allowed Jen to explore how she wanted to make her mark in this world.
Environmental issues had been an interest of Jen’s since high school, but hadn’t been a focus professionally and she wasn’t sure how to make an impact on global issues that seemed so insurmountable. The Leadership for Change program gave Jen the tools necessary to build responsible and sustainable businesses within a changing global environment. After three intense years of working full-time and earning an M.B.A., Jen was granted a sabbatical from Fidelity. She move to London and spend time with her (now) husband. While in London, Jen enrolled in an introduction to interior design course at Chelsea College of the Arts and volunteered at the London Sustainability Exchange (LSX). At LSX, Jen met with business managers in a variety of sectors to discuss and measure their progress toward a set of sustainability metrics, allowing Jen to see first hand how businesses adapted their processes to further the goal of a more sustainable London.
Over the next few years, Jen continued to integrate her interests in interior design and the environment through the following positions:
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Jen created and co-lead the Green Team at a local elementary school. For six years, Jen developed lessons and hands-on activities for a group of students to learn about the environment and the role they play in protecting it. The founding principle of the program was that we protect what we value, so the goal for Green Team was to help children learn to value our natural surroundings and resources.
Jen also served a member of the Hingham Residents Against the Compressor Station and worked to raise awareness and opposition to the proposed compressor station in Weymouth, MA. Though the compressor station was eventually built and is currently in operation, the small team had a very big impact on increasing the awareness of environmental justice issues in the community.
In 2017, Jen was appointed by Hingham’s Select Board, to the Foster School Building Committee. Currently in its seventh year, the committee is proud to have followed through on our plan for a carbon-free, net-zero design by installing ground source heat pumps and a geothermal well field to provide heating and cooling to the school. This project represents the first of its kind in a public building in Hingham and is one of the first public elementary schools in Massachusetts to use geothermal for heating and cooling.
RESIDENTIAL INTERIOR DESIGN
During this time Jen also held a part-time position for a nationally recognized interior design firm, Trellis Home Design. Her role was to manage the Quick Books account and help develop onboarding materials. This experience furthered Jen’s knowledge of how a successful interior design business operates behind the scenes.
Jen holds a Massachusetts Real Estate License, which provides another lens Jen can apply to design projects when enhancing a home’s monetary value is a priority for the client.
O M DESIGN CONSULTANTS IS BORN
O M Design Consultants was created as a natural marriage of Jen’s love of design, appreciation for the environment and her innate need to be surrounded by nature.
O M Design Consultants incorporate biophilic design principals into each project. Biophilic design is the idea that bringing natural materials into your home will allow your body to better sync to the rhythm of nature, which is good for your overall health and well-being. The biophilic design principles applied vary by project and may include; enhancing access to natural light, connecting to nature, incorporating natural elements like wood, stone and greenery, layering colors in varying hues, and sourcing products and materials that are reflective of items found in nature in terms of their shape, patterns, color and texture. The result is a luxurious and restorative space for you and your loved ones.
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