Oh Good Lord. I freaking love this lady. I met Melissa Smrekar for the first time in Intro Improv. We had to pair an adjective with our name, and I don’t remember mine, but hers was Bitchface Melissa. Hearts and stars, y’all. Kind of been obsessed ever since.
She’s one of the most elegant and tasteful people I’ve ever met. Her style is all her own and even though she has literally introduced me to some of the most incredible fashion brands out there, Show Pony is all about that house hustle and not a shocker, hers is impeccable.
She’s been featured in Southern Living, she’s created a collection of stitch-painted canvases for Lycette, she’s written and performed countless comedic essays and she’s the freaking epitome of class.
She is many, many things, but the way she describes herself is simple – “Creative Girl,” borrowed from the business card of author Kate Schelter. For her “9-5 job” she fundraises for the arts. Outside of that, she’s “a jack of all trades, master of none.” She’s also “an interior design enthusiast” and “loves championing her friends’ dreams and happily flexing her strong opinions whenever solicited.” It’s her way of dodging the dreaded “creative consultant.”
Now get ready for enough quotes to fill some moats because when you interview a writer, they tend to nail every freaking answer and sometimes you just can’t improve upon exceptional. Like hello, she described the color of her dining room “Calamine Pink” and again, not to harp on it, but totally to harp on it, she’s the best.
And away we go. All answers provided by Melissa. Thoughtful and probing questions provided by me.
I think you do such an incredible job of mixing styles in your home. New and vintage. How do you go about putting a room together? Do you start with a rug or a couch or do you pick up things you love and then pull it all together?
I’d be lying if I said I created moodboards or designed an entire room before purchasing a single thing. I don’t. I wing the entire thing based on my instincts. By “instincts,” I mean that I buy things that have an internal magnetic pull for me. I operate with the Dorothy Draper belief that “if it looks right, it is right.”
Decorating a room almost always starts with One Thing. In my living room, it was the Farrow & Ball paint color “Setting Plaster,” which reminded me of a crumbly Italian villa at dusk. In my kitchen, I started with two Scandinavian pendants bent like bows. For my bathroom, I bought a 1940s rattan heart chair from a vintage French patio set and designed the whole space around it. In my dining room, it was the wallpaper I refused to take down.
What’s one item every homeowner should splurge on?
My best piece of advice for a new homeowner is that you can do anything, but not everything. When your ideas are bigger than your budget, remind yourself that you can do anything, but you can’t do everything.
When custom drapes in a glorious Schumacher print exceeded my budget, I happily elected to add designer trim to personalize my existing window treatment so that I could order my bespoke sofa instead. Besides, if you get everything you want in your first home, what is there to look forward to?
Where are your favorite places to shop for home furnishings?
Lula B’s in the Design District for midcentury home decor accessories. Society Social for the most affordable and high-quality semi-custom furniture pieces made in North Carolina. Curiosities in Lakewood for quirky bits and bobs to layer in a room. But really, eBay is my favorite.
