[2] In an interview with The Washington Post, he describes his style as "updated traditional"; in fact, his work blends vintage and contemporary looks with elements such as "Georgian antiques, Uzbek suzani textiles, 18th-century Chinese wallpaper, sun-bleached Moroccan carpets and a dash of Anthropologie and Pottery Barn".
[3] Architectural Digest included Smith among its "AD 100", its "selection of the top architects and interior designers" published in the magazine in recent years.
[6] Smith's clients reportedly include News Corporation president Peter Chernin, Oaktree Capital chairman Howard Marks, writer Gigi Levangie Grazer, model Cindy Crawford (for whom Smith has designed two California houses and two New York apartments),[7][8] film director Steven Spielberg, and actors Dustin Hoffman and Michelle Pfeiffer.
[9] During this project, Smith worked with Michelle Obama and White House curator William Allman to select art on-loan from museums to be displayed in private quarters and elsewhere.
[11] Dominated by shades of taupe and beige, the designer redecorated the bookcases with Native American baskets and ceramics from the National Museum of the American Indian[3] and installed "a rug woven with quotations from Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and others; two fawn-colored cotton-rayon sofas; two elegant midnight-blue lamps by Christopher Spitzmiller; and an extremely contemporary mica coffee table from Roman Thomas, a New York furnituremaker".