MOVING from boulder to berkeley... x00xx

February 24, 2026 in family room, family, art, hank, kitchen, living room, quilts, residential interior

in the fall of 2023, my son was a senior in high school and my daughter was in her last year of middle school. we knew we would be facing big transitions for both of them the following year as theo would begin college and lucy would start high school. after fourteen years in colorado, we decided to make those transitions from my hometown of berkeley, california. i am eternally grateful to my first husband and to my children (hank needed no convincing - he LOVES the temperate weather of northern california - boulder got both too hot and too cold for his liking) for supporting this move as it allowed me to spend so much more time with my father in his last, sweet chapter and to finally reground myself in the bay area, where my heart feels best.

my new house in BERKELEY! x0x0x

February 17, 2026 in dining room, family, art, hank, kitchen, living room, photography, quilts, residential interior

when i returned to my hometown of berkeley, california after living in a variety of cities over thirty years, i wanted to create a home that represented all of the adventures i shared with my family across the globe. this 1880s farmhouse in southwest berkeley, that was completely renovated and modernized, felt like the perfect canvas.

a wooden staircase leads to the home’s main entrance on the second floor, which includes the living room, dining area and kitchen, the primary bedroom and ensuite bath and another upstairs bedroom and bathroom. a long deck extends off the back of the house and is accessible from sliding glass doors in both the primary bedroom and the kitchen. the downstairs has an office, which doubles as a guest room, a third bathroom and a lounge area with floor to ceiling cabinetry and bookshelves. the third floor is a long, wide library with access to the roof deck that has views of the bay bridge and san francisco.

the exterior of the home is painted a deep charcoal with navy undertones and white trim. cedar siding centers the staircase and the front door. the interior palette includes clean white walls throughout, white oak flooring, cool grays in the tile and blond wood kitchen and bathroom cabinets all punctuated with matte black hardware, lighting fixtures and black steel railings. texture and color pops are brought in with the art pieces, rugs and textiles, giving the home vibrancy and warmth. the fifteen foot ceilings on the main floor give the space an open, gallery-like feel. we had fun playing with art placement, hanging pieces at various, sometimes unexpected heights.

february's FEATURED QUILT of the month by my mother, ann rhode! x0x0x

February 03, 2026 in art, quilts

(river run 2024 by ann rhode, 69W x 69L”)

river run is made with one block, a half-square triangle made two ways. some are made with only one fabric and some are made with a strip on one edge.

the colors are a contrast of warm neutrals with soft rusts in the strips contrasting with the cool blues to make the river against the sandy shore.

annette chavez fountain beautifully quilted river run using ripples in the water and pebbles in the sandy parts.

january's FEATURED QUILT of the month by my mother, ann rhode! x0x0x

January 06, 2026 in art, quilts

(challenge 2024 by ann rhode, 31W x 32L”)

twice a year ann attends “quilt camp” where she meets up with quilting friends for a week of quilt work, creative collaboration and socializing. they often “challenge” each other to design a piece with a certain fabric or pattern. this quilt is the product of one of these challenges. the blue and green background fabric was chosen as the challenge fabric. ann made a series of pillars in different fabrics and heights. she grounded them with contrasting horizontal stripes. for ann, it was a fun exercise and a way to play with value, proportion and pattern.

december's FEATURED QUILT of the month by my mother, ann rhode! x00xx

December 02, 2025 in quilts

(fuchsia 2021 by ann rhode, 42W x 43L”)

this quilt started with an inspiration photo of fuchsia blossoms with bright green stems. ann wanted to capture the intensity of the lush, vibrant colors.

november's FEATURED QUILT of the month by my mother, ann rhode! x0x0xx

November 04, 2025 in art, quilts

(violet garden 2021 by ann rhode, 68W x 45L”)

ann describes creating “violet garden” as an exercise in designing an intermittent “fence” or grid that allows you to see the florals behind it. she liked the idea of looking through something to view the unexpected.

violet garden is machine pieced and machine quilted. fabrics and batting are all cotton.

come to a POP-UP ART SHOW featuring ann rhode's quilts (and to celebrate jennifer rhode design launching in california!) x00xx

October 14, 2025 in family, quilts, photography, art

* i am reposting this story i wrote about my mother’s quilts a few years ago, in preparation for one of her shows to explain her design process. i am so excited for you all to see what she is sharing at our pop-up on october 17th x0x

celebrating the california launch of jennifer rhode design with a pop-up ART SHOW! x0x0x

September 25, 2025 in art, quilts

hi friends! it has been so amazing to be back in my home state of california and i am thrilled about relaunching my interior design business here. to celebrate, we are hosting a pop-up art show featuring:

* the paintings of sarah kinn, a dear friend and boulder based artist whose bright, colorful pieces are all over my house as well as in the homes of many of my colorado clients. she is coming out to berkeley to paint and create in the california sunshine and to share her work at our pop-up. a few of her gorgeous paintings…

september's FEATURED QUILT of the month by my mother, ann rhode! x0x0x

September 02, 2025 in art, quilts

(floating, 2021 by ann rhode, 80W x 84L”)

ann created “floating” in another attempt to reduce her scrap bag. the printed strips were all leftovers from other quilts. she estimates over 200 different fabrics were used, which gives a sense of the incredible size of her fabric collection. the scraps were organized by width and then arranged with the lightest value prints at the top and increasing to the darkest at the bottom. the horizontal solid strips were appliquéd in place after.

floating is is machine pieced and machine quilted. fabrics and batting are all cotton.

august's FEATURED QUILT of the month by my mother, ann rhode! x0x0x

August 12, 2025 in art, quilts

(flower power, 20XX by ann rhode, 62W x 62L”)

ann created “flower power” to showcase her collection of big floral prints. when designing it, she felt it needed the darker verticals with the thin strips to give some structure to the piece and to encourage the feeling of dappled light peeking through. the wider horizontal strips provide tranquil pathways across the lighter triangles.

this piece did not end up making much of a dent in her big print floral collection!

flower power is machine pieced and machine quilted. fabrics and batting are all cotton.

first featured QUILT (for sale) by my mother, ann rhode: TEA POTS

April 02, 2025 in art, quilts

(teapots, 2019 by ann rhode 54W x 54L”)

for ann rhode, designing a quilt often begins with a geometric challenge. in creating tea pots, she originally wanted to make a one block quilt with curved seams. ultimately, she needed two blocks to make it pleasing. the emergence of the tea pot was a surprise!

ann used japanese yukata fabrics to build the tea pots, supported by solid fabrics and other small prints. the warm background fabrics offset the deeper blues, greens and reds of the tea pots. 100% cotton fabrics and batting were used. the quilt is both machine pieced and quilted.

contact jennifer@jenniferrhode.com for pricing information. to see the full array of quilts avallable for purchase click here.

my mother's quilts are now AVAILABLE (for purchase)! x0x0x

April 01, 2025 in family, residential interior, quilts

(this quilt has been hanging in my bedroom for over twenty years… i LOVE it! x0x0)

one of the BEST things about moving back to california is being near my parents. it is so easy to pop over to their house and see what they are up to. most of the time, my mother is in her studio working on a quilt or three. i love to watch her process and i also love having her work hanging throughout my house. her quilts are more like fabric paintings in her use of color and the way she upends traditional patterns and reconfigures them or creates original blocks. her quilts add warmth, texture, color and dimension to my house and now you could have one in your home as well! i will be featuring a different quilt each month. contact me if you are interested in more information: jennifer@jenniferrhode.com the full collection is on view here.

middle school bedroom

October 18, 2022 in art, family, hank, quilts, residential interior

the summer before my lucy started middle school she wanted to buy new school clothes. in the past, i typically just dipped into the girls’ section on a target run and picked up dresses and leggings and tees in bright colors that featured unicorns, rainbows, hearts and glitter. i loved selecting happy outfits for her and she was always delighted with what i brought home. this time, however, she wanted to come along and weigh in on everything. at first i thought it might be fun.

HAPPY, HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY (in two days) to my WONDERFUL mother! x0x0x

January 25, 2022 in art, family, hank, quilts

(my mother’s high school senior portrait)

my mother is a study of contradictions. she grew up on a farm in the very small town of atlantic, iowa. she embraced the no-nonsense, stiff upper lip, super kind, mid-western values (AND the comfort food, which i grew up with) but always felt misplaced on a farm. she did not enjoy collecting eggs at the crack of dawn - she says the hens were ruthless and would pinch the backs of her hands and twist her skin… i have to ask her why she didn’t wear gloves - or get particularly attached to her 4H cow (who she showed in penny loafers, not work boots) or adopt a runty pig like fern that she bottle fed and doted on. no - she moved to the “big city” of minneapolis straight away after college and started working in fashion. she preferred urban sidewalks (where she could wear pretty shoes) and buses to fields and tractors. she was thrilled that her job as a junior buyer for dayton’s department store took her on regular trips to new york where she could soak in the energy and art and architecture and bagels (which she’d never had before) of the biggest, most exciting city in the country.

wildflower nation supply

July 13, 2021 in art, photography, quilts

the pandemic era presented us all with a multitude of challenges and stressors and dark moments, but there WERE some beautiful, uplifting events and one of my favorites was the opening of boulder’s newest home shop, wildflower nation supply. i am so grateful for the moxie and vision of elizabeth prentiss and erica simon in creating this absolute jewel box of a destination. my heart sings with joy each time i visit as there are so many treasures to discover in their shop with the big porch on 17th street right off of pearl.

published in boulder county home + garden

November 06, 2019 in art, dining room, living room, quilts, residential interior

i am so excited that a piece i wrote about using textiles as wall art is the cover story for boulder county home + garden magazine’s fall-winter issue. THANK YOU to heather knierim of HBK photography for the beautiful photos, to my clients for allowing me to share these projects and st. frank and the super talented fiber artists: my mother, aysun and aysel demir of wallknot and designs by filia for their creations.

(*the editor did add two artists to the article - the first and last projects included in the story are not my projects.)

the oldest men's club

September 25, 2018 in art, quilts

twenty-seven years ago, in 1991, my mother was infuriated by the clarence thomas/anita hill sexual harassment hearings. she kept the TV on as she worked in her studio and was struck by how a panel of old, white, male senators aggressively and ruthlessly interrogated the poised, young attorney, anita hill, questioning both her integrity and character.

harvest season

September 20, 2018 in family, garden, hank, quilts, recipe

i don’t know what factors came together to produce such an enormous bounty of fruit on my farm (i.e. my backyard) but the output has been tremendous. i decided to have a couple of neighborhood harvest parties so that i could get some help picking all the apples and then the plums that ripened a few weeks later. i thought i could pull off a tom sawyer “painting the fence” caper and make my friends think it would be FUN to harvest with me. i would provide snacks and drinks and my neighbors could do the labor. i was imagining something like the barn raising parties they used to have on little house on the prairie. pa would be out there entertaining everyone on his fiddle (i could play macklemore on my sonos), ma would would lay out cornbread, fresh, grilled deer meat and homemade pies (i made a run to trader joes), the children would be running around (i have a couple of those) and the grown ups would build a barn (the neighbors would pick my apple tree and plum bush clean) so i wouldn’t have to gather up any more rotten fruit or worry about the bears coming into my yard and leaving giant poops or mauling us.

what if... quilts by ann rhode

August 28, 2018 in family, quilts, photography, art

my mother, ann rhode, is the rare artist who primarily approaches her creativity with logic, rather than emotion. she is a problem solver who revels in puzzles and mazes and geometric explorations. she frequently alters traditional or established quilt blocks to construct new patterns and pathways for the eye to follow. she creates movement and depth in her quilts by varying color value or combining unexpected prints and hues. her pieces are both mathematical challenges and painterly in her color use.

my mother's quilts

November 29, 2017 in family, residential interior, quilts

around the time that my younger brother started kindergarten, my mother decided she needed a creative outlet of her own, beyond meatloaf and bedtime stories. i remember coming home to find the downstairs bathtub filled with long, skinny sticks soaking in water to soften them so my mother could make baskets. there was also the collage period when the dining room table was covered in colored bits of paper from my mother’s art class. eventually, she volunteered to help make a raffle quilt to raise money for our elementary school. and that, i think, sealed the deal.