Life By Design

The Designer Society of America has launched a new digital series called Life by Design, which will feature in-depth conversations with interior designers and industry professionals, highlighting the unique missions and stories that make up the fabric of our DSA community.

Putting Belief in Action for Your Interior Design Business 03/18/2026

Putting Belief in Action for Your Interior Design Business “Creative people have to believe in the value of their work. If you don’t have any belief, then you can’t give anything. Designing is an act of giving, and a belief in the value of the work fuels the desire to express something.” – Peter Saville, Renowned British Art Decorator and Graphic Designer Being an interior designer and running your own business can be difficult. There are a multitude of responsibilities within the business that can overwhelm you at any given time. But throw in your personal responsibilities, too, and it can simply wear you out. You may find yourself trying to prioritize from a place of chaos, rather than a place of calm and purpose. This is where someone like Andrea Liebross can come in to help guide you through the processes and strategies to literally coach you back out of the chaos and back into believing in not only yourself, but your business. “I’m really big about helping people see that belief is just as important as budget, marketing and metrics,” says Liebross, a business coach, keynote speaker, author and founder of She Thinks Big. “And they have to believe that things are going to work and going to happen.” Liebross, who started her business coaching firm in 2018 works with a number of professionals, including interior designers. “I help them shift from being reactive to being strategic, or from being exhausted to being energized, or from being more of an owner/operator to being a leader,” she shares. “And when they make those shifts, their margins improve, their timelines kind of calm down, their teams function, and then that designer feels more herself in her business than ever, and I think that sort of belief in action.” We had the pleasure of hearing Liebross speak during the 2025 Fall High Point Market event, so we invited her to share some insight into how she founded her business, her background that led to starting the business and advice she may have for you—our members who have a passion for interior design. Scroll down to learn more. /episode/index/show/9a9174df-d952-4f37-a80d-17cbf625f773/id/40531895

Holistic Design Is Here to Stay! 01/12/2026

Benjamin Johnston Excited About Release of His First Book 12/12/2025

Only the Best Moving Services for Interior Designers 11/13/2025

Rebuilding After the L.A. Fires 10/02/2025

Carl Dellatore’s Newest Design Book Is Out! 09/15/2025

Carl Dellatore’s Newest Design Book Is Out! By Lindsay Field Penticuff ’s fifth book for Rizzoli New York, “” was released earlier this month. “I wanted to make a book about practical application,” Dellatore says. “You have a subject, but within that subject, I’m giving you some suggestions, advice and information that will concretely inform me and the readers.” Dellatore, who is originally from Pennsylvania but moved to New York City in the 1980s to pursue a career in the arts, has a background in printmaking and textiles. He released his first book, “,” in 2016, and is also a content consultant for the interior and garden design communities. In his new book, Dellatore features 100 individual designers’ remarkable spaces that are broken down by type of room, including Gathering (media and family rooms), Transitional (porches and entryways), Respite (bedrooms and sitting rooms), Entertaining (dining rooms and bars) and Utility (kitchens, baths and mudrooms). The writing process began nearly two years ago and with between 1,200 and 1,500 rooms that Dellatore hand-selected to consider featuring in the book. “I wanted to represent as many aesthetic visions as possible—minimalist, maximalist, traditionalist, contemporary—because that’s the landscape of design,” he says. “But thinking in terms of how do I get to 100 rooms from 1,200 to 1,500, the process at Rizzoli is a bit intense. “I have an editor, there’s a book designer, then there’s a marketing team. I bring all the rooms to the table first, then we have preliminary photo editing, so I may in any given meeting bring 250 rooms, and what we’re actually looking to get from that is 25. “The rooms are all different; there’s a laundry room, a lacquered bedroom, there are three to four different kinds of kitchens, and each designer has one very specific subject to write about.” Criteria to decide which rooms were included in the book then came down to having a good balance of legendary designers, those who are really well-established in their careers, and then people who are mid-career, and then finally five spots were open to designers Dellatore had maybe never heard of before. “What I’m looking to do is capture a snapshot in decorative arts history in America at this moment—here we are, a quarter-century in—so, having looked at all these rooms, seeing the prevalent voices and what their aesthetic is I asked, ‘How can I come up with 100 rooms that sort of represent where we are right now?’ That’s what I was looking for! Those decisions are all subjective on some level, but being so entrenched in the community, I sort of have some sense of that.” But Dellatore reminds us that the book isn’t just for design professionals. "One of the things we ask is, ‘Is the person in Illinois going to read this and be empowered to make decisions about what they are doing in their own home?’” he adds. “And that brings us back to editing. I wanted [the featured designers] to be expressive, and I wanted people to really say what they meant so they have an organic voice, but I needed to direct that in a way such that someone in Illinois, who doesn’t have a design professional in their life, feels empowered by the book. I think that’s what makes these kinds of books successful, when there’s a takeaway from the audience.” Earlier this month, Dellatore also began working on his sixth book, which he plans to release in spring 2027. “I’ve noticed how the modernist designers from the last century continue to influence contemporary design, which inspired my new book ‘Contemporary Modernism,’” he shares. “The book explores my observation that many designers today have adopted the idea of creating pared-down spaces—perhaps not strictly minimalist but serving as respites from our frenetic world. “I’ve identified about 40 firms so far, but I’m always open to discovering more. If anyone has suggestions for designers or firms I should examine, I’d welcome the recommendations.” After that? Well, Dellatore is already planning to start another garden book, which he hopes to release in spring of 2028. “When I set out in this career as an author, I said I wanted to produce 10 books,” he concludes. To learn more about Dellatore, you’re also invited to follow him on Instagram @carldellatore or visit his website, carldellatore.com. Also, be sure to dive back into his series with DSA, Some Thoughts On… /episode/index/show/9a9174df-d952-4f37-a80d-17cbf625f773/id/38227870

Following Her Passion: Melissa Fields’ Journey From the U.S. Air Force to Interior Designer 08/12/2025

Strategy Was Key When Cheryl Luckett Launched Her Design Business 07/15/2025

Strategy Was Key When Cheryl Luckett Launched Her Design Business Most people don’t typically fly by the seat of their pants when starting a business, whether it’s launching a new app, opening a bakery or starting a design firm. But many people probably aren’t as organized as Cheryl Luckett was when she developed a plan to shift her profession to interior design. Luckett, the principle designer who owns Charlotte, North Carolina-headquartered Dwell by Cheryl, studied family and consumer science, with a concentration in nutrition, at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee. She says it was a dream job, but it just never felt right for her. “After being at a company for 15 years, I just started to feel like I couldn’t keep up the charade any longer,” Luckett shares. “I was being tapped for opportunities and to climb the corporate ladder, and I just didn’t feel right about it.” She took a career pivot, of sorts, taking a job that gave her a little more free time to do what she truly loves—interior design—and she ended up taking design classes at a junior college. Luckett knew she wanted to jump into interior design full time, but she also knew she personally would need a successful plan to make that happen. “I wanted to make sure I was well-prepared and positioned for success,” she says. “I had a 36-month exit strategy called Project 36. It gave me 36 months to get ready to make that leap, and I think that is what helped me make the leap with complete peace and to feel good about it and to not have that anxiety and nervousness about transitioning from my security’ to this wild world of entrepreneurship.” Since then, has grown by leaps and bounds, and she’s even been successful at collaborating with top-name brands. We had the pleasure of interviewing Luckett recently, learning about what makes her tick, her advice for transitioning careers and what’s it’s been like for her to collaborate with major brands in our industry. /episode/index/show/9a9174df-d952-4f37-a80d-17cbf625f773/id/37420445