Paterson, N.J., Interior Designer's Taste Stands Test of Time.

Byline: Joan Verdon

Apr. 27--Ellie Jacobs has been called "the Energizer Bunny of interior design" (she keeps going and going) and a "design icon." At 81, she is one of the most in-demand designers at Greenbaum's Interiors in Paterson.

She has third-generation clients (grandmothers and mothers refer their daughters to her) and has helped furnish everything from starter homes and studio apartments to palaces of the super-rich.

We spoke with her about what keeps her on the job.

The story of your hiring is something of a Greenbaum's legend: You walked in and told the Greenbaum brothers, "You fellows need me."

They did! [Laughing] It was my mother, who used to lunch at Meyer Bros. across the street, and she looked in the window and said, "It's very nice, but they could use you."

My sister was visiting at the time, and she said, "Go apply for a job," because I had worked in Grand Rapids, Mich., before [at several famous furniture companies]. My daughter was little at the time, so I wasn't actively looking. I went, and they said they weren't hiring. I said, "But you need me." They thought about it, and I guess it got them. Nobody ever said that to them. And we've been friends ever since.