Principled, Passionate, and Entrepreneurial
A Chat with Beth Diana Smith ’14 (AAS)
Photo: Fred Sly
“I was absolutely tired of working for someone else after so many hours in corporate, and so many weeks spent traveling and not being home. I decided to put all the energy and time I was putting toward someone else toward myself instead.”
When we caught up with Beth Diana Smith ’14 (AAS), she was managing her booming small business through the COVID-19 pandemic, and still finding time to volunteer on the New York School of Interior Design’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Commission.
Before she sought out her Associate of Applied Science degree at NYSID, Smith received her MBA from Seton Hall University and worked in corporate finance for more than a decade. She started attending NYSID on nights and weekends in 2011. She left corporate finance for good and enrolled full-time in 2014 for just one semester to finish her degree. She muses, “Design was a bug that bit me around the age of 30, and I couldn’t shoo it away!” Even before she graduated, she founded Beth Diana Smith Interior Design, and used her business acumen and particular brand of joyful maximalism to attract a wide array of clients. She’s a member of House Beautiful’s Advisory Board and of the Black Artists + Designers Guild (BADG). In 2017, she was named one of the Black Interior Designers Network’s Top 10 Emerging Designers. She’s been active in the NYSID community, advising the school’s leadership through the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Commission and mentoring students in last summer’s Nantucket by Design. In this interview, she shares her story and her convictions.
Why did you become an interior designer?
The reason I obsess over interiors and want them to be perfect is that when I was in college, my mom got very sick and had to go live with my brother. So, I bounced around from place to place while I was in college. Not having a home for those years made me realize how important home is to me. A home is supposed to be your refuge, your oasis—a place to laugh, be happy, and find peace—and I’m painfully aware too many people don’t have that.
Yet you still had the guts to quit your corporate job, and start your own firm before your graduation from NYSID. Why?
I was absolutely tired of working for someone else after so many hours in corporate, and so many weeks spent traveling and not being home. I decided to put all the energy and time I was putting toward someone else toward myself instead. I was empowered on the business side of design because I had a corporate background. Everything happens for a reason. I don’t regret my finance background because the knowledge has helped my business, and I’m pretty happy with how things turned out.
You mentioned you’re very busy, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. How are you conducting business in the “new normal”?
When the lockdown started, we went entirely virtual. Now we are back on installations and in-home consultations in the tri-state area. Everyone works with masks and gloves, at a distance, and there is never a reason to be inside the client’s house without a mask. I make sure the installers, electricians, and artisans are staggered even if it takes longer. It’s not debatable. I want to protect my subcontractors in the same way I protect my clients.
You were way ahead of the curve in e-design. Has that helped you during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Before this, only 5% of my business was e-design and not much has changed. E-design is about different deliverables at a lower price. With e-design, I don’t execute the design or meet in person, but I provide the plans, specs, and shopping list. It’s popular with young people, and I thought it was smart to do because today’s e-design client might be tomorrow’s million-dollar client. Yet even during COVID, most of the clients who hire me opt for full service.
Are you feeling the impact of activism within the design community by groups such as the Black Artists + Designers Guild (BADG)? Are doors that have been closed to Black designers beginning to open?
Now that we are going through this new civil rights movement, many companies feel like they have to address the lack of diversity because if they don’t they are going to lose business. Companies don’t want to get called out. The change is being driven by consumers who demand more diversity, and by Black designers. I only put my business into companies and organizations that have actively cared about diversity all along. I consider NYSID one of those organizations driven by morality, because I have been having conversations with Phyllis Greer, David Sprouls, Hannah Batren, and Ellen Fisher about addressing the lack of diversity in design since 2018 after the Black Interior Designers Network panel was held at NYSID.
What’s your best advice for emerging designers of color?
Do your best work. Don’t compete with anyone but yourself. Ignore the naysayers. Own who you are and the color of your skin. When you walk into a place and you are the only person who looks like you, your goal should not be to shrink, but to flourish and show everyone there should be a lot more people who look like you in the room. Surround yourself with a design tribe. Network and build relationships from a place of giving and not receiving. This has helped me along the way.