Somewhere between "Sophisticated Traditional" and "Eclectic Classicism." Our lives and tastes are multifaceted so our rooms need to support that sensibility. In a catch phrase? Elegant living for the modern family.
How has your design aesthetic changed during your career?
It is blooming as we speak! As your toolbox of resources grow, you expand as a designer. We should always be filling our toolbox while simultaneously honing our minds eye. I would say my work is more closely edited, better scaled and more organic in feeling than before. I definitely make fewer arbitrary design choices…. I think a room should be poetic and balanced in nature with a layering of meaningful elements we draw energy and inspiration from. The foundation should always be a spatially smart and inviting furniture plan made up of graceful shapes.
A great room embraces you, draws you into it. It shouldn't muscle you. It just lures you into taking your calls there or curling up and reading the paper in a perfectly comfortable chair there. I believe in beautiful "living" rooms. I think that was the best coined title for a room. It's ironic that the "living" room evolved into the fancy "hands off the furniture" room no one dare venture into! (henceforth nearly two decades of plastic furniture covers!!!) I think I would most want to be remembered for putting the "living" back into living rooms. I would feel that I contributed to humanity in a big way if that became my legacy!
"I think I would most want to be remembered for putting the 'living' back into living rooms." - Windsor Smith
Who or what inspires you?
Possibility inspires me, that’s why a career in interior design is so alluring. Its all about seeing possibility in a blank space. My sons inspire me…. Palladio inspires me. The human experience and triumph over adversity inspires me. The Taj and the work of Ando inspires me, Eden Rock inspires me, Allesandro Safini's voice inspires me…. Beyonce's version of the National Anthem for the Super Bowl inspired me!!! Innovation and innovators inspire me, those who make us rethink status quo….
In the aesthetic world, Past visionaries like Coco Chanel, Syrie Maugham, Elsie De Wolfe, David Hicks, Charles and Ray Eames do the trick of inspiring….. Present day innovators like Ralph Lauren, Donald Kaufman, Fortuny, George Smith, Waterworks, Resource innovators and connectors like Michael Bruno for 1stdibs, Apple, Google, Ask Jeeves, the inventors of Basecamp software; whoever invented the digital camera for Kodak? That guy inspires me!
Who has been your biggest style influence/mentor?
Not to be redundant but Ralph Lauren for lifestyle as a whole, I subscribe to all of his vision. I am influenced greatly by design concepts…… Coco Chanel for making black a fashion color and creating "the little black dress"…. Design within reach as a concept influences me in business..
For personal style Slim Keith (she discovered Lauren Bacall - leave it to a beauty to recognize one), Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, Babe Paley, Donna Karan, Holly Golightly [Audrey Hepburn's character from the film Breakfast at Tiffany's], a gal from Charleston who rented my guest house for a few years, she had the most incredible personal style, so it has absolutely nothing to do with fame or wealth, though they are often connected.
What is your favorite part of the design process?
The daydreaming and gathering of inspiration.
What are your top 5 items that you cannot live without?
down pillows, ted.com, an ipad, 1stdibs, and Argentinian riding boots
For girls on a budget, what are the best design resources available right now?
Design blogs, Benjamin Moore paint, The Stark outlet, 1stdibs Saturday Sale, One Kings Lane, Overstock.com
What advice to you have for women who are just starting out in the interior design business?
Get experience in an active design firm and volunteer to help with every aspect of the business. Look for upcoming trends in the marketplace and create a niche market for yourself. Talented designers have failed because they don’t embrace the business side of things. Always deliver excellence, on time and on budget. Take every opportunity to fill your creative well of inspiration. Read, travel, research, play whenever possible. Don't forgo time with your family. Be proactive about working with people you admire. Approach them until you get the job.
What has been your favorite moment in your career thus far?
Launching my furniture line, Windsor Smith Home Collection, and also launching WSROOMINABOX.COM. They were all very hard work and labors of love. There is something about building upwards from an idea written on a napkin that I find exhilerating!
Does fashion ever influence your interior design choices?
Always! The girls in my office have noticed that when I am introducing a color story for a client I subconsciously dress in those colors. When I am in the design process, I am fully in rapture. I like many styles in fashion as I do interiors. I like the simple unstructured flow of Donna Karan, the tailoring of Carolina Herarra, the glamour of Gucci, the intricacy of Badgley Mischka and the comfort of Marni.
"I like the simple unstructured flow of Donna Karan, the tailoring of Carolina Herarra, the glamour of Gucci, the intricacy of Badgley Mischka and the comfort of Marni." - Windsor Smith
How did you come up with the Room In A Box concept?
I have had a desire for some time to connect beautiful design and resources to a wider audience. I truly believe that everyone should have beautiful, well thought through rooms. They can truly be life transforming. Better rooms equal a better world.
1. You can receive a unique and well conceived room design by a top shelf designer and then run with it for your own value engineering.
{read Windsor's step 1, step 2 and step 3 instruction pages here}
2. You can receive a unique and well conceived room design from same top shelf designer and click through to carefully culled resources for purchasing with exact specifications in hand.
3. You receive "finished" publication worthy rooms from your desktop.
4. You have significant savings from the conventional client/designer relationship by foregoing costly commissions over each purchase, no hourlies and no pressure to buy on a timeline. You buy as you can afford putting you in control of the finances of the design and the timeline.
WS Room In A Box is about offering the very best for less, not offering less for less. It would be criminal to dumb down or cheapen our design aesthetic and resources from what has elevated us in the design world. We are reaching a broader market of those seeking the best...
"For those looking for the real deal, [Room In A Box] is the new luxury interior design model." - Windsor Smith
Are you still working with clients outside of Room In A Box?
Absolutely. I will never stop designing for my private clients. I am currently building and decorating 4 houses, an equestrian estate, renovating film studio offices, curating a Lloyd Wright remodel, restoring a yacht and designing a private dressage riding ring and vinyard simultaneously reaching out to a new demographic of super chic and sophisticated DIWAE-ers (that's short for "Do It With An Expert-ers").
Where do you see your company in five years?
We will be a Global enterprise; wsroominabox.com is being viewed by 59 countries today with only a month under its belt. We are a contemporary idea and seemingly expensive at first glance but in the world of design with all of the mistaken purchases and the time drain of the process in our increasingly busy lives, it will prove to be the best deal in design. It's getting top shelf aesthetic in an interactive experience, with links to all that you see, all, without ever leaving your desk. That’s the new design paradigm. My advice, commit and embrace it and don’t sell yourself short. 90% of our client conversations for Room In A Box start with, "I tried a cheaper online design service and got bamboozled." This is real design with real value add, marrying top level product with focused buyers, all the while avoiding the ongoing commission structure. For those looking for the real deal, it’s the new luxury interior design model.
What has been your favorite room that you have designed thus far?
That's hard… They are like my children, I cant name just one…..A ball room with pale pink Terrazzo floors. A silver garden room that shimmers copper when the sun [shines]… My midnight blue kitchen with tall bookcases and walls of white honed marble…. and a certain mega agent's St. Andrews clubhouse meets Warhol, lounge and screening room, but then there's my powder room clad in trelliage, that slays me every time I walk in there!
What do you think: would you try Windsor Smith Room In A Box?
