Working on the First Coast: Sisler Johnson Interior Design helps makes more than just profit

Sisler Johnston Interior Designs was opened 30 years ago but has branched out into a business that specializes in detailing the inside of buildings. It reaches well beyond the First Coast and also includes charitable work.

Owner Judith Sisler Johnston has a long history in the Jacksonville area. The business manages to generate about $4 million in annual revenue from her offices off Philips Highway on Florida Mining Boulevard South. But she went through two careers as a teacher and then a psychologist before settling on her current job path.

Johnston is a Florida licensed interior designer and a member of the American Society of Interior Designers. That came after a brief stint in real estate.

However Johnston first entered the workforce after getting an education degree and working as a teacher. Then after getting her masters degree in psychology from Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo., she worked in that field with clinical, hospital and private practice patients for four years in Chicago.

It was her move to Jacksonville in 1977 that started her on the path to interior design and shes since handled projects from large commercial complexes for which she might charge $25,000 for a 50,000-square-foot project, to remodeling interiors at hotels and resorts. Most of Johnstons business is in the Southeastern United States, though shes done projects in Arizona, Colorado and Texas.

Beyond her commercial work, which has included designing the interior of corporate jets and residential space for the U.S. embassy in the Bahamas, Johnston continues to branch out by providing work for charitable organizations. Shes provided design work for HabiJax homes and Builders Care, the charitable wing of the Northeast Florida Builders Association.

Youre a very skilled interior designer. What compels you to work with charitable projects?

Just the opportunity to give back to the community of Jacksonville and the opportunity to demonstrate love for God and other people by helping. And its a good fit for me.

Whys that a good fit for you?

Because Im in the design and furnishings business. I have stuff and I have talents and materials that they need for projects like that. For me to furnish a little old ladys house who got burned out and has no furnishings, I know where to get it.

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Working on the First Coast: Sisler Johnson Interior Design helps makes more than just profit