What We Do
Based in Denver, Colorado, DENY Designs is a modern, think-outside-the-box home furnishings company. DENY empowers its customers to transform dull, everyday household accessories into fun and original statement pieces by adding a personal image or selecting artwork from the DENY Art Gallery. With each purchase from the Gallery, our team of talented artists earn part of the proceeds, enabling DENY to support art communities all over the world while also spreading the creative love! From custom furniture pieces to textiles, if it’s in the home décor category, DENY puts its own unique spin on it!
How We Do It
We don't believe in inventory. Nope! Instead, we print each product after it's ordered so that it's 100% custom-made for each and every customer. How is the finished product created? It would be boring if we printed our products like every other company out there, so being the forward thinkers that we are, we're one step ahead of the curve using a dye printing process. Bet you're wondering what the heck that is! In a nutshell, the ink is dyed into the fibers of the fabric (for textiles) or the coated aluminum (for our hanging art pieces) instead of the traditionally used direct print. This gives DENY's products a huge advantage, as our colors stay as fresh and vibrant as the day the product is received! Fade-resistant products make for happy customers!
Who We Are
We’re a small, passionate group of people whose right side of the brain dominates the left side. We want to inspire and be inspired. We want to create and be visionaries. And we want to share all of this inventive talent with the world, one customer at a time.
Dustin Nyhus, CEO & Founder
A Denver native, Dustin Edward NYhus is the namesake behind DENY Designs. But he’s more than just a name. He’s a creator, visionary and he’s got mad skills when it comes to designing and building furniture. It’s in his blood, as he grew up watching his father and grandfather build just about anything and everything. It inspired him and naturally, he followed in their footsteps. After graduating with a degree in Industrial Design from Metropolitan State College of Denver, he took off to sunny South Florida to design boats for Bertram Yachts. But as we all know, you can take the boy out of Colorado, but you can’t take the Colorado out of the boy. So, Dustin moved back to Denver and spent five years in wholesale manufacturing before he got the brilliant idea to combine both of his work experiences. Alongside his wife Kim, Dustin created DENY Designs and continues to be the brains behind the operation. You name it, he oversees it. He’s a busy guy living out his dream...and he’s just getting started.
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Kim Nyhus, Co-Founder
Originally from South Florida, the creative and fashion-forward Co-Founder of DENY Designs inched her way to Denver over the last 10 years. How’d she get there? By way of Dallas, where she attended SMU (go Ponies!) and met her future husband. After graduating with a degree in Advertising Management, Kim decided to move to the freezing cold, all in the name of love. Why else would she trade 80-degree weather and flip-flops for snowy days and UGG boots? And thankfully, it was a good move on her part because after working in advertising, event planning and television production, she ended up marrying Dustin, having twin boys (the cutest babies ever!) and starting this rockin’ company we call DENY Designs. Together with Dustin, Kim manages every detail of the company making sure that their creative vision comes to life from the carefully selected, highly talented DENY artists to the exclusive line of products that are offered.
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Aaron Rames, Director of Accounting and Finance
This Colorado boy sure likes to crunch some numbers. And that’s a good thing. Because there’s a heck of a lot of DENY numbers to tackle these days! Our mathematical wizard graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Regis University in Denver, Colorado and he’s two shakes of a lambs tail away from getting his Masters in Business Administration. Aaron’s the brainy one with a background in auditing and financial reporting. He’s also a bit of a snob when it comes to beer, food, music…really, just about anything. But he still loves to have himself a good time and snowboarding, camping, gardening (is that really fun?) and bicycle commuting (seriously?) are at the top of his list. He pays the bills, keeps us afloat financially and makes sure we’re tight with the government peeps. Basically, he tackles all of the important stuff that no one else wants to do, all while keeping a smile on his face, and for that, we heart him.
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Sara Jackson, Retail Relations Manager
Sara Jackson is the perfect mix of Texas and Colorado. Born in the Lone Star State, but raised primarily in Denver, Sara headed back to Dallas to attend SMU, where she graduated with a degree in Advertising Management. After spending seven years in Austin with her dashing husband and two sweet daughters, she’s finally back in Colorado! With over 10 years in sales management experience, Sara is incredibly driven, hard working and one smart cookie (we won’t let her love of trashy vampire books diminish that). With her level of expertise and fierce negotiating skills, Sara was the obvious choice for our Retail Relations Manager position where she works with all of DENY’s retail partners including e-commerce, brick and mortar and special sale events. With our ever-growing company, that’s one big challenge, but we’ve got a feeling she’s up for it!
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Abby Czarniecki, Customer Relations Manager
Middle America…represent! We’ve got a Missouri girl on our hands and she’s pretty darn rad! Growing up in Columbia, Missouri (or Missoura as those MO natives like to say), Abby graduated from Webster University with Film Studies and English degrees. And being the crazy girl she is, Abby moved to Denver five days after receiving a job offer in the television production world. With no place to live, not a friend in sight, she headed west and hasn’t looked back. Our resident foodie spends her free time discovering the best restaurants in Denver. She’s so darn serious about food, that when her husband proposed while she was intently eating ice cream, she had no clue what was going on…can you blame her? So, if you hear a little crunching in the background when you call DENY Designs, don’t be alarmed…it’s just Abby, munching away on her Ants on a Stick (we’re not kidding). As our Customer Relations Manager, she ensures that our customers are happy as clams and if for some reason you’re not, well, then…she’d be happy to share a few restaurant recommendations with you to lighten the mood. Did we mention? Abby likes food.
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Lenay Snyder, Social Media Coordinator
Lenay Snyder is a born and bred Denver native creative! After heading to Colorado State University to study Business Marketing, Lenay followed up her education with incredible work experience in the worlds of journalism, television media and event planning. She’s an inspiration when it comes to creativity, working in prints, jewelry, event design and restoring “Elsie Jewel”, her 1960 Shasta trailer. And yes, she did name her trailer, but that’s what makes Lenay, “Lenay!” With all of this amazing artistry, she is the natural fit for the voice of DENY. Lenay is our social network and helps us interact with you, our customers, via sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Wanelo. And our inventive blog? She writes that too. “Creativity is a lifestyle.” That’s Lenay’s motto and one that DENY believes in too.
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Rebecca Cope, Artist Relations Coordinator
This fifth generation Western Coloradan has a passion for the arts, hence why she oversees the Artist Relations department. Rebecca loves a good arts and crafts project and has all of us in the office oohing and aahing over the cool headboard she made from scratch for her bed. But that’s not all. She sews, knits, scrapbooks, paints, photographs and is totally into woodworking. Yep, “Crafty” is her middle name. With a BA in Mass Communication and a Minor in Art from Colorado Mesa University, Rebecca has a background in Broadcast and Cable Television (even though she doesn’t even own a tv…what?!). Now she’s bringing her experience full circle again and diving into the world of the arts here at DENY. Rebecca works with all of the amazing DENY artists that you see on our site, keeping the lines of communication open and ensuring that our artists are represented in the best possible manner with the highest quality of art. And in her spare time, she’s always on the hunt for new talent to grace DENY’s Artist Gallery so that we can give our customers a fresh place to shop.
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Darrell Jackson, Production Manager
Meet Darrell, Sara’s other half. Yes, here at DENY, we like to keep it in the family! He joins us from Austin, but don’t be fooled by his Texan ways…this is a Colorado native we’re talking about! An avid fisherman (he likes vintage fishing books, fly fishing and ultra light spin fishing), he’s a little hesitant about making the transition from bass to trout. In his words, trout are just a little more inferior of a fish. Hmmm…after dropping some lines in the Colorado rivers, maybe Darrell will have a change of heart. With a BA in Construction Management from Colorado State University and many years in the production industry in Texas, Darrell now manages both order and warehouse production here at DENY where he fulfills many of the orders that come in the door. He also has a very heavy hand in product research and development and will be cracking the whip to make sure that innovative ideas are transformed into amazing products for our customers.
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Deana Lewsey, Customer Relations
You know how New Yorkers get a bad rep? Well, we’re here to prove that theory wrong and her name is Deana Lewsey, the nicest person in the entire universe. Bold statement, we know. Chat with her one time and you’ll see exactly what we mean. And you’ll have ample opportunity, since there’s a good chance you’ll get Deana on the line when you call DENY Designs. As part of the Customer Relations team, Deana handles the good, the bad and the ugly, but always with a big ole happy face. Raised in New York, Deana attended Sage College of Albany where she studied Fine Arts and Business Management (quite the combo). She even had the opportunity to spend a semester abroad in London. Her biggest regret while there…not purchasing that old brass “Loo” sign. If anyone can find her one, they win a prize! Deana loves herself some home design, so it’s quite perfect that she packed her bags and moved to Denver to share that enthusiasm with the DENY team.
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Rachael Jelnicky, Customer Relations
We’ve got another Floridian up in this house! Originally from Palm Harbor, Rachael attended Florida State University and studied Creative Writing and Business. Having moved to Colorado in June 2012, she’s now loving what Denver has to offer including the mountains, brisk weather, healthy lifestyle and awesome music scene. Rachael’s artsy, athletic (she’s been a competitive volleyball player since she was 12!), and a real people person, which makes her a natural fit for the Customer Relations department. When our customers have a question or issue, Rachael’s there to help you through it and we think you’ll enjoy talking to her as much as we do!
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Paola Unger, Order Management
We get a heck of a lot of orders here at DENY (which is uber fantastic) and Paola oversees them all. She’s a critical part of the team, examining each and every order to make sure that it is being processed correctly. Paola’s got the weight of the world on her shoulders, but she’s strong like bull! We gotta say, her level of detail, can-do attitude and “petal to the medal” work ethic don’t hurt either.
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Oscar Romo, Art Direction
This guy loves himself some emoticons. Seriously, he can’t complete a written sentence without one. But they make us laugh…like, a lot. It’s a good thing he’s technically savvy because he is responsible for making sure the site is running as it should. See some cool art that just got added to DENY Designs’ site? Yep, Oscar uploaded that for you! Found a new artist that kicks a lot of butt? He added that to too! Oscar keeps our site fresh and current, so that we’re not yesterday’s news.
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Contact DENY Designs
DENY Designs
P: 1.800.973.6091
E: support@denydesigns.com
Twitter: DENY Designs Twitter
Facebook: DENY Designs Facebook