Michelle R. Smith relocates between cities while reusing her favorite furniture, keeping the original layout and moving pieces directly into new spaces. She relies on an intuitive process rather than detailed furniture planning, trusting that items will find appropriate places. When she moved to a Westchester County home, she treated the renovation as a “chill” project by preserving the layout and focusing on strategic millwork and surface refreshes. She uncovered interior stonework where possible and otherwise applied uniform paint, using Benjamin Moore’s White Blush. The home’s original architectural features, including rooflines, masonry walls, and chunky marble accents, guided the reinvention of the interiors.
"For many interior designers, moving to a new home is an excuse for a shopping spree. But not so for Michelle R. Smith. Over the years, as the seasoned decorator has migrated from Manhattan to Brooklyn or Brooklyn to New Orleans, she has always packed up her favorite things and redeployed them as dynamic vignettes in fresh contexts. "I don't obsess over anything-I just know it's gonna work out," Smith says of her personal and intuitive process. " I've designed enough spaces for myself to know everything will find a place. I don't even do a furniture plan. Just move it all in.""
"That is not to say she hasn't picked up some new tricks-and yes some new treasures-along the way. Take her home in Westchester County, a case study in pastoral romance, clever fixes, and reinvented traditions. Two years ago, Smith, whose design firm is Studio M.R.S., was living in the Garden District of New Orleans but pining for the excitement (if not the nonstop pace) of the Big Apple. So she and her partner, the documentary filmmaker Sebastiano Tomada, set their sights on the city's northern suburbs."
"Smith, at the time pregnant with her second child, began on what she now calls "a chill renovation," keeping the layout, adding strategic millwork, and refreshing surfaces. Wherever she could, she unearthed interior stonework, otherwise giving walls uniform coats of Benjamin Moore's White Blush paint. (Exceptions included t"
"The interiors, updated by a past owner, didn't gel with her own taste, but the original bones still wowed, especially the dynamic rooflines, internal masonry walls, and chunky marble accents like lintels and sills. Smith, at the time pregnant with her second child, began on what she now calls "a chill renovation," keeping the layout, adding strategic millwork, and refreshing surfaces."
Read at Architectural Digest
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