Grace & Detail in Perfect Proportion
She’s that person – unforgettable, iconic, gorgeous. Turning heads for so many years for her eye-catching style and beauty, whether designing homes on Sea Island, St. Simons, Palm Beach, Charleston, Dallas, Houston, Aspen, Vail (and the list goes on), or simply walking into a room.
Interior Designer Elizabeth Smith Pipe is that person – everywhere she goes.
Gavin Sellers Creative
Elizabeth with her mother, Peggy Duke Smith
Inspired by idols Jackie Kennedy, and her mother and mentor, interior designer Peggy Duke Smith, Elizabeth felt the design pull at a young age. “I was probably five or six years old and went with my mother to Sea Island. This house – it had nine bedrooms and seven bathrooms – I thought it was a hotel! That’s the first time I remember being overwhelmed with, and drawn to, interior design.”
Elizabeth spent her childhood moving around bedroom furniture “every which way possible” and watching her mother pair fabrics. Her affinity for style kicked into high gear when she attended the Atlanta Institute of Interior Design (now SCAD). Despite “clashing heads” with her teacher, the very flamboyant designer Stan Topel (later of Elton John fame), Mr. Topel saw something dazzling in his student from Brunswick.
In the height of the glamorous Halston Era of the ’70s, Elizabeth travelled with Topel and fellow classmates to New York, where she met the legendary “Billy B.” Billy Baldwin, the famed interior decorator and international style icon to the stars who had a client list that included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Cole Porter, Barbara Hutton, Babe and Bill Paley, and Diana Vreeland, was immediately taken with the young designer.
“Baldwin’s assistant was Arthur Smith, from my father’s hometown, and Billy just really liked me and Arthur. He took us to the “Apartment in the Sky,” the Lawrence Harding residence at 515 Park Avenue, for cocktails and then off we went to Studio 54.” (Where they met and had drinks with Bianca and Mick Jagger, and Calvin Klein!)
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Park Avenue, NY - Billy Baldwin with students (Elizabeth on right)
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Billy Baldwin
After school, she wanted to prove herself and not simply return home. “One of my roommates needed a roommate so I moved to Montgomery, Alabama with her. Did not know a soul – had never been there in my life – but it was the right place at the right time. And I started my own business there.”
Elizabeth with her husband, Dick Pipe
Fast forward ten years later, with a successful business in Montgomery focused on interiors for corporate clients, Elizabeth came back home for Thanksgiving. On Black Friday, over dinner with friends at Emmeline & Hessie, she caught the eye of one of the restaurant’s owners and developers, Dick Pipe. Dick and Elizabeth dated long distance for a couple of years, then married in 1984. She opened Elizabeth M. Smith Interiors that same year.
Known for mixing strong antiques with sleek custom furniture and a flair for colors, patterns, and architectural elements, she opened Elizabeth M. Smith Interiors, her eponymous interior design studio and boutique, on St. Simons Island in 1984.
“It was harder getting started here – everyone always knew me as Peggy’s daughter – and they would call up and say, ‘I know you can do all that modern stuff, but is Peggy there?’” she laughs. “I used to say, my phone would ring three times: it was my mother, Edward, and Dick.”
Gavin Sellers Creative
Elizabeth in her shop on St. Simons Island
Elizabeth received her first big design break from Carly Zell, her godfather. He hired her for his magnificent residence on Sea Island, complete with extensive plastered ceilings created by artisans flown in from Portugal. That project established her career on-island and beyond.
Her favorite projects range from exquisite homes on Sea Island and Palm Beach, to residences in Aspen and Vail, and even a hacienda in the Texas Hill Country. “I loved doing the true hacienda – it was so different than anything I’d ever done! I love being able to do different things.”
“I do have a God’s gift on color – putting colors together. Detail and proportion are the keys to decorating. Many decorators today decorate out of a box. Everything looks the same. I don’t always do what the rules say.”
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Gavin Sellers Creative
Elizabeth's sofa from her great-grandmother
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Gavin Sellers Creative
Elizabeth Smith design style
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Gavin Sellers Creative
Black wicker chair in Elizabeth's home
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Gavin Sellers Creative
Cozy at home
On the signature Elizabeth M. Smith look, she adds, “I’m inspired by beautiful homes, especially in Palm Beach, where I visited many times with mother as a child, and Charleston. I find inspiration everywhere. I might look at something and find a detail that catches my eye. Again, everything leads back to detail, detail, detail, and proportion.”
