October 13, 2024As an interior designer who’s decorated multiple residences for demanding captains of industry, aesthetically minded Hollywood heavyweights and, perhaps most famously, former President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama, Michael S. Smith knows how to hit the mark on every single project. Now, in a new book — Smith’s seventh — titled Classic by Design, he showcases 13 homes that amply reveal his great aptitude for conjuring sophisticated, entirely bespoke environments for his clients.
“People may hire me for my taste, connoisseurship and experience, but ultimately, my job is to create an expression of my clients’ taste, lifestyle and passions,” Smith tells Introspective. “I do that in an immersive way that combines a sense of a place — history, architecture and culture — with my clients’ collections and the way they live. I like to layer in all those references in a way that’s deeply personal but not ponderous, so they reveal themselves over time.”
As I learned while helping him write the text for the new book, there’s no better way to study Smith’s skills than by looking at the remarkable living rooms he’s designed. Below are six from the new book — published by Rizzoli — that exemplify how deftly he crafts spaces that are essentially portraits of his client’s interests, tastes, enthusiasms and lifestyle. Each is polished but also inviting and comfortable, and above all else, fun to be in.
Modernist Pavilion, Los Angeles
Following the advice he frequently gives to clients, Smith moved into his L.A. home and lived in it for a while before starting to think about altering it. Originally built for prominent art collectors, the 1990s modernist house had a living room that was scaled for displaying large contemporary paintings. “It worked great for parties,” Smith recalls. “But walking through it to the kitchen on a Sunday morning could feel a little alienating.”
Without moving any walls, he used the placement of furniture and lighting to divide the room into smaller, cozier zones, a signature Smith feature. “If a space feels too open and grand, people won’t sit down and settle in,” he says. Inspired by the curving lines of Vladimir Kagan‘s designs, he conceived the two boomerang-shaped sofas “to create an intimate, embracing, almost inglenook-like space in front of the fireplace that would encourage conversation.”
Despite the cool neutral palette, the room exudes warmth, largely because of the handiwork of artisans and designers, from the John Dickinson plaster table and Mattia Bonetti bronze armchair to the custom Philippe Anthonioz lanterns.
Rocky Mountain Retreat, Montana
“Ski houses often go overboard in referencing their alpine environment, with birch bark and buffalo check, and that’s precisely what we didn’t want for these clients,” Smith says.
The living room of their mountain retreat reflects the family’s passion for art and travel as well as skiing. Smith sought to tame the stunning vistas so they wouldn’t be the only things people look at. “A view like this can overpower a room, so we framed and filtered it a bit with large-scale mullioned windows and patchwork curtains in shades of alabaster,” he says. “Generating a sense of warmth was paramount, because — as spectacular as the mountains are — they’re mostly icy white and gray when this room is occupied, and I wanted this space to immediately impart warmth even if the fire’s not lit.”
The cognac-colored walnut paneling and ceiling add another layer of cozy, as does the vintage George Nakashima sofa at right, whose textured upholstery reads almost like a cable-knit sweater. Smith is a fan of David Wiseman‘s stunning branch chandeliers and employs them frequently — customized for each home — to great effect. In this case, he installed one to introduce the promise of springtime into the wintry world seen through the window.
Park Avenue Duplex, New York
In this decidedly grand uptown duplex, designed for globetrotting repeat clients with wide-ranging collections, Smith allowed the homeowners’ classically regal tastes to hold sway. Against a backdrop of chalky white paneling by Féau Boiseries, he deployed a heady mix of ultrarefined furnishings and art, from a Chinese Tang Dynasty horse to gleaming Boulle cabinets and a Russian neoclassical table with gilt-winged griffins for legs. Of more recent vintage are the artworks by Alexander Calder, Franz Kline and Josef Albers. Anchoring it all is a rare 18th-century imperial-red Savonnerie carpet.
“The beauty of this room really comes from the mix, both the density and diversity of the objects,” Smith says. “Every individual piece is extraordinary, but nothing is given too much prominence — it’s an ensemble.”
Pied-à-Terre, Madrid
In the living room of his own Madrid apartment — a rental, whose layout he could not alter — Smith created two distinct areas. On one side of the room, he deployed his treasured 18th-century Coromandel screen, rumored to have once belonged to Coco Chanel, to create one of those cozy enclosures he loves. “Screens are wonderful elements for defining living and dining rooms,” he says. “They draw the eye but don’t command attention the way a painting might, so the conversation keeps flowing.”
He created a second seating area in front of the fireplace, echoing its white paneling and flanking bookcases with white linen slipcovers on the sofas, a white lacquer coffee table and two simply framed black-and-white Andy Warhol prints. Over the marble mantle he hung a Louis XV-style mirror. In the designer’s view, “the overall effect is easy, unfussy, and confident.”
East Hampton Beachfront, New York
The magic of this large, flexible living space stems from the fact that Smith seems to have created what is essentially a contemporary great room inside a centuries-old, Colonial American saltbox house. “It was built in 2011 but looks like an eighteenth-century Hamptons farmhouse that’s been hollowed out and stripped of all the tiny interior rooms for a new life as a modern beach house,” Smith says.
To enhance that balance between the 18th and 21st centuries, he kept the room intentionally under-decorated, a reference to Shaker simplicity, while subtly ratcheting up the luxury and comfort level with the overscale sofas, plush carpets and bronze mantel. “A set of English Windsor chairs, a square-topped highboy and a large iron compass are among the few items that are actually eighteenth-century,” the designer confides proudly. The chairs at the dining table, meanwhile, were custom made with Jamb.
Pacific Idyll, Hawaii
Smith’s clients purchased this breathtaking surf-side compound fully furnished. “Whether decorated or empty, the house defines paradise,” the designer says. “But in time, my clients wanted more visual interest and for their tastes to be reflected in a place where they spend as much time as possible.”
For the living room, the designer dug deep into Polynesian motifs and Hawaii’s history as a crossroad of cultures from all across the Pacific and beyond, layering in antique furnishings like a silver-leaf Japanese screen, textiles from Laos, inlaid marquetry chests from Syria and an early-20th-century Chinese carpet that echoes the shimmering blue ocean just steps from the house. He paired these with a Ralph Lauren sofa and Rose Tarlow coffee table, hanging a contemporary Jack Pierson photograph (courtesy Regen Projects) over the dining table.
“While a second home’s attraction might be the surrounding landscape, the interior should still feel like it’s your house,” Smith says. “This one has the complexity and richness of a primary residence.”
