Latest / The Modern Hotelier / #335: How Custom Furniture Help Hotels Tell A Story | with Chandler Smith & Natali Jones
Transcript
- The Modern Hotelier #335: How Custom Furniture Help Hotels Tell A Story | with Chandler Smith & Natali Jones === David Millili: Welcome to a special Independent Hotel Show Miami episode of The Modern Hotelier, the most engaged podcast in hospitality. Make sure to follow, like, subscribe and let us know in the comments what you think about today's episode. Can you introduce yourself to the audience? Chandler Smith: Yeah. I'm Chandler Smith. I'm a senior principal of Smith & Jones. Natali Jones: And I'm Natali Jones, principal of Smith & Jones. David Millili: All right, so for our listeners discovering Smith & Jones for the first time, what do you do and how did the company come together? Chandler Smith: Yeah, so Smith & Jones is an atelier. We do fine custom furniture and décor for a various number of applications and styles. David Millili: What does that mean in practice? Chandler Smith: So an atelier is a design house, usually a collaborative space between architects, designers and artists, and that really fits the brand that we're developing with Smith & Jones, and really the collaborative nature that Natali and I work, and then also with the other designers and people in the industry that we work with. David Millili: How would you describe the Smith & Jones aesthetic, and where do you find inspiration? Natali Jones: So for Smith and Jones, our aesthetic, first and foremost, is just the quality of the product. Chandler Smith: And then for inspiration, we find ourselves usually getting brought into some pretty unique projects, whether that be destination-specific or usage space, and that usually helps really create the story that we're gonna pursue in our design elements. David Millili: Your work goes beyond sourcing into product development. How do you take a custom piece from its first inspiration, whether a space or a material, into the finished product? Chandler Smith: So in the development of the story, regardless of where we're coming into the scope of work or the project timeline, sometimes that story's really well-established between the design team that we're attaching to, or the client really wants help developing that concept and story for their space. And so that's usually gonna be driven by region, usage, things like that, and those are elements that we get to play with and work into our design. So whether that's a specific material that's really known for that space or something that would give the feel that people know where they are when they're in the space. And so we take that into our design phase and ultimately develop the product. And a lot of times, whether it's our case goods, our tables, larger pieces like sofas, sectionals, things like that, a lot of times that ability to customize even a fraction of an inch is a game changer of what we can do within the space and really tailor it to that job. David Millili: So why was working with American manufacturers and craftspeople an important part of building Smith and Jones? Chandler Smith: So that's a big thing that we're passionate about, just in being able to support and represent that community. When you really start to understand how many of these companies are not only making the effort to produce their product in the United States, but train up future generations to where we can always find that Made in America product and have it available, simply again, getting to be a mouthpiece for those people doing that great work is the passion side of what we get to do. Natali Jones: And for us, too, if there's a problem that arises with manufacturing, you know, if we need to go visit our manufacturers—yeah, it's easy for us to go there, problem solve, and then get the product out to our clients faster. David Millili: Can you share a project that illustrates the full scope of what Smith and Jones offers? Chandler Smith: Yeah, so we do a lot of high-end residential projects, as well as a lot of niche commercial stuff, so lobbies, tasting rooms, tap rooms, vineyards, things like that, where people want a curated look—right—but they're on a project deadline. And so the curation of the product takes a lot of time for the design team, and that's something that we can take on the scope of work for, to be able to not only custom design each piece, but establish a curated look that the feel is that it was curated—right—not purchased all at once, and that's something we find that our clients really like, is that we can maintain a level of quality but deliver a fully furnished space in a matter of time that looks like it was curated over years in a lot of examples. David Millili: What shifts are you seeing in hotel design, and how do you balance character with practical demands of hospitality? Natali Jones: So what we're seeing in the European markets, due to their culture history, they have traditionally more design-forward hospitality, and we're starting to see that shift a little bit in the US as well, where European markets have a little more unexpected design to their furniture. And granted, we still need to be practical with what we're doing in the hospitality area, but we're starting to see that shift a bit. Chandler Smith: And with material technology and everything of what they're able to do with upholsteries and leathers now, that's the really exciting thing that we get to play with. 5, 10 years ago, there was a huge separation between something that was like contract grade or quality in the upholstery side that now those technologies have become where we're always going to cater to the specific requirement usage of the space and code requirements, and we're able to now blend the aesthetic that we want to achieve with all those code requirements that no longer restrict us to a given look that in the past we think has held back the North American market with some of the requirements they have to abide by that maybe other places do not. David Millili: So tell us what you've brought here to the Independent Hotel Show Miami. Natali Jones: So we wanted to showcase kind of a wide variety of what Smith and Jones can do, so we've brought a few more traditional pieces and then some mid-century modern as well to give kind of a taste of what Smith and Jones can do. David Millili: At events like this, what type of partnerships and projects are you hoping to cultivate? Chandler Smith: So it's twofold. Smith Jones can work with clients directly depending on where they're at in their project. If they just want a refresh due to high traffic areas or a full aesthetic refresh, we can do that from everything from a chair all the way up to a multi-room installation. We also can directly attach to a design team as well and really take the scope of work of developing the custom furnishings that speak to that story that we spoke to earlier to achieve the concept that they want, where it's not a hurry up situation at the end of a project, which sometimes it often is. And again, just we want to capitalize on our ability to deliver everything from a single chair to a full room that can give a curated look and doesn't look like it was ordered all at once at the same time and can give a little bit of variation, so. Outside of furniture, what else does Smith and Jones do? Natali Jones: So we provide art curation with galleries, antique and current artists. Chandler Smith: As well as we do a lot of special project. It usually has to revolve around fabrication and unique design elements that come up that usually due to schedule maybe the design team or the client, it was an unforeseen condition that needs to be addressed, and we can take that scope of work and develop it on our end and come up with solutions that we ultimately hand off to the design and build team. David Millili: Well, that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier. This is where you let people know where they can find out more about Smith and Jones and how they can get in touch with each of you. Natali Jones: Our website is bysmithandjones.com, and you can contact us directly at atelierbysmithandjones.com, and follow us along on Instagram at bysmithandjones. David Millili: Well, that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier, the most engaged podcast in hospitality. Whether you're watching or listening, we appreciate you, and we'll be with you again soon. Thank you.