By Donna Heiderstadt
A lively and informative session, called Designing for Legacy: Insights & Inspiration from the 2025 NKBA Design Council, brought together the council’s four well-known and respected interior designers and kicked off three days of programming at NKBA NEXTStage at KBIS 2025 in Las Vegas on February 25. The group—Caleb Anderson of New York–based Drake/Anderson (which is becoming /AND Design); Michel Smith Boyd of Atlanta–based Smith Boyd Interiors and MSB; Thom Filicia of New York–based Thom Filicia Inc.; and Celerie Kemble of Palm Beach, FL– and New York-based Kemble Interiors—was first introduced at KBIS 2024. This year’s session at NEXTStage, which is sponsored by Ferguson Home, was designed to highlight each member’s “origin story” and path to excelling in their chosen field.
Moderator William Hanley, Editor-in-Chief of Dwell magazine, got right to it, asking each member of the Design Council to talk about “how and why you do what you do.”
Mom Knows Best
Kemble said her origin story was predestined. “My mom is an interior designer and I was forced as a child to look at pretty houses in every town we visited,” she explained. Although Kemble decided to major in film production in college—and admits she got a C in drawing class—she later realized on the job that she was having the most fun decorating the office. “I’m a curator of the language of things,” she noted.
Lucky for her, Kemble’s mom had some projects for her daughter up her sleeve. “She unleashed me on all of the single guys I went to college with,” she recalls of her first clients who were then working at investment firms in New York and needed their apartments decorated.
Drawing Attention
Filicia recalled the moment in 5th grade when his class had a substitute teacher and he proceeded to draw an entire house on his classroom desk—on the actual desk. While his artwork landed him in the principal’s office and he had to hand write “I will not draw on my desk” over and over, his artistic crime was photographed and ended up getting him into an advanced art class in 6th grade.
Filicia admitted that he thought he wanted to be an architect, but by college he was also drawn to industrial and interior design. Ultimately, he discovered that he loved being in the interior design space, noting that the desire to be around beautiful things took root at an early age. “I would actually hide things in the house that I grew up in that I didn’t like,” he recalled. “You could say interior design found me.”
Artsy, Quirky Beginnings
Having grown up in a small town in Texas, Anderson described himself as “an artsy, quirky kid” who loved helping his mom design the family’s spaces at home. He also adored spending time at the home of an aunt who had a lot of beautiful things. By high school, he says he had all the magazines and books that celebrated design and he was helping his aunt redecorate the house that he had long been fascinated with.
He majored in design in college and after an internship with designer Jamie Drake in college, he launched his own firm before being asked in 2015 to join Drake as a partner in Drake/Anderson as part of a 10-year succession plan, which has now resulted in the company becoming /AND Design with Anderson as the sole principal. Anderson said that while early in his career his priority was getting press for his work, he is now “more interested in incorporating more purpose into my work.”
A Little of This and a Little of That
Smith Boyd recalled “coming alive in art class,” but also wanting to be an actor and then studying nursing in college and even working as a hair stylist for a while. “I needed every chapter along the way to be where I am now,” explained the multifaceted designer who helms his own design studio as well as having starred in several HGTV series, including “Luxe For Less.” His guiding principle, he said, has been “having a license to make something out of nothing.”
Smith Boyd said he was 28 years old when he went to design school—after hiring an interior designer when he moved to New York and questioning why the designer was charging him more for particular items. “I was the client and I didn’t understand mark-up,” he laughed.
Design Style & Breakthrough Projects
On the topic of their personal design style and the projects that put them on the map, Kemble recalled being asked by a man to design an entire house for his wife “who had great taste.” The wife turned out to be fashion designer Tory Burch, the house ended up being beautiful, and it was photographed for a top design magazine. “Being published changes your status in the design community and people will come to you wanting similar work,” she said.
“What is your style?” asked Hanley. “First of all, I do a lot of work that isn’t my style,” Kemble explained, “but when it is my style I favor an eclectic mix of fashionable and traditional,” noting her use of vintage and antique pieces as well as color and pattern. “I mix things.”
Filicia said that when he started in the business he worked for Parish-Hadley and grew to appreciate classic design with a clean modernist approach. His personal design sense, he said, “is rooted in things I am attracted to,” with a lifestyle element—a la Ralph Lauren who has been a major influence in that area—always a part of the mix. He said he views his job as helping clients connect the dots between different elements of design: architecture, location, and lifestyle. “It boils down to me telling their story,” he explained.
Anderson admitted that early in his career he was “a people pleaser,” but now he understands that his role is to “understand the essence of the client and express that through the space.” His process, he said, “is finding ways to create an environment that has those references, but in a nuanced way.”
Asked if he’s ever had to talk a client down from an idea, Smith Boyd said his solution is a subtle one. “I introduce my ideas as alternatives to their ideas,” he explained. Discussion ensues and “before long the client ends up seeing the alternative as being their idea.”
Advice for Emerging Designers
To conclude the session, Hanley asked each NKBA Design Council member what advice they would offer those just starting their design careers.
“We all imagine design is about artistry,” replied Kemble, “but it’s more about communication.” She also recommended that designers be proactive in the industry and know their sourcing.
Filicia pointed to the different approaches of younger designers, who are more apt to eagerly embrace new technologies, and established designers, who may be more set in their ways but who also have the benefit of actual practical experience. “Collaboration can create a lot of understanding,” he said. “Both sides need to respect the power of the thing they are overlooking.”
Anderson, who noted that he is hopeful about the design industry, said he would suggest that designers “infuse purpose into their work to create something that’s both purposeful and beautiful,” whether that’s using healthy materials, creating a collaboration model, or focusing on equity.
