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Beth Diana Smith<\/p>\nBeth Diana Smith<\/p>\n
Beth Diana Smith has designed award-winning spaces across New Jersey and beyond, but her career in interior design wasn\u2019t the result of a long-nurtured dream \u2014 it was a detour.<\/p>\n
Featured in Elle, Harper\u2019s Bazaar and The Washington Post, and recognized by the New York School of Interior Design with its Rising Star Award, Smith now leads her own firm and has become a voice for diversity in the field. But the designer who reshaped a Montclair Victorian into an award-winning home says she stumbled into the work that changed her life.<\/p>\n
Designing Her Own Path<\/p>\n
As a kid in Montclair, while other children turned their rooms into chaos, Smith found comfort in organizing her toy box and rearranging her tidy room. That early love of order pointed her toward a career few elementary schoolers dream about: accounting.<\/p>\n
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Beth Diana Smith designed a Montclair Victorian home earlier this year, which won an American Society of Interior Design NJ Design Excellence Award for her kitchen design. (Beth Diana Smith Interior Design)<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly, yes,\u201d Smith said when questioned if that was true. \u201cI was drawn to an accounting career because I like processes\u00a0and\u00a0I grew up in\u00a0a very practical\u00a0household.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0not like someone was like a painter or an artist; I never saw anyone expressing any creativity. So it was nothing that I discovered or nurtured.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, how did an accountant for companies like Johnson & Johnson and Viacom become a full-time interior designer? It started with Smith renovating her home and conducting a deep dive into interior design research, which jump-started her career. Initially, Smith wanted interior design to be a \u201cfun side hustle,\u201d but fell so in love with it that she ended up taking weekend and night classes at the New York School of Interior Design and eventually received her degree from there.<\/p>\n
As she found herself immersed in the world of interior design, Smith knew she would eventually have to choose between leaving her full-time corporate career to become a business owner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re willing to put forth all that hard work for someone, why does that someone have to be someone else? Why isn\u2019t that someone else, you?\u201d Smith recalled asking herself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Creating The Perfect Space<\/p>\n
This question launched Smith into her world of design. She\u2019s a founding member of the Black Artists + Designers Guild, a member of the 2020 House Beautiful Advisory Council, and an Associate member of the American Society of Interior Designers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a founding member of the Black Artists + Designers Guild, Smith aims to champion diversity and representation as much as she can in her work. \u201cI had always felt like even in my corporate career, a lot of times I was the only Black person or person of color in the room,\u201d Smith said. \u201cSo it just felt natural with something I wanted to support, something I wanted to nurture,\u201d she continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When approaching a project, Smith tasks her clients with completing a questionnaire to determine what they want to see and feel. She then meets them in person to discuss their answers and assess their chemistry.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s so many personality-based things that we\u2019re trying to understand. By the time we get to the presentation, when we show the initial design, we have a good gauge on what they want to see, what they want to feel, and how they want to experience their home,\u201d Smith said of her process.<\/p>\n
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Another view of a Montclair Victorian that Smith designed. (Courtesy of: Beth Diana Smith Interior Design)<\/p>\n
As her interior design business continues to soar, Smith, who now lives in Bloomfield, is a success story of what it looks like to start over. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would say it\u2019s okay to change your mind, when we\u2019re graduating high school, getting ready to go to college, we are making such a big decision about what we want to do for the rest of our life before we\u2019ve even had a chance to really experience life,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s okay to try it out and realize, you know what? This is not what I want to spend my life doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
To view Smith\u2019s website and her past work, visit\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n