Wellington The Magazine – June 2016                                                         Ashland Farms’ Emily Smith Brings Her Eye For Design To The Wellington Community

By Emily Riden

Pick any weekend during the Winter Equestrian Festival season, and you are likely to find Emily Smith standing ringside, looking right at home helping coach a horse or rider to success in the show ring. But pick an afternoon in April, and you are just as likely to find Smith studying fixtures, poring over fabric samples or reviewing design plans.

The talented, Wellington-based riding instructor has adeptly transformed what started as a passion and love for interior design into a second career. Today, she seamlessly juggles life as a trainer — alongside her husband, Ken Smith, at their successful Ashland Farms — with life as the lead interior designer of her own Ashland Designs.

“I’m a horse person, but I’ve always helped friends decorate,” Emily said. “I officially started out with interior design about five years ago. I had a partner from Europe, and we bought a house in Wellington and totally gutted it and redid it. That was my first real project. That was the beginning of it all. That was just me doing it myself, and then somebody bought the house. She ended up calling me when she bought the house. She wanted to do some more things, so I’m always working on that house, still, five years later.”

From that initial project, Ashland Designs was officially born. And while the added job may make for an additional piece in the already busy equestrian lifestyle puzzle, Emily finds that the two are the perfect fit.

“I largely only decorate for horse people, because that’s who I know,” Emily explained. “I’m really grateful to the horse people because I’m a horse person. I know how busy they are and the time constraints. Because of their busy schedules, many people want to be able to come into the home and have everything done, right down to the plates and the silverware, and we’re able to do everything.”

Since launching Ashland Designs, Emily has focused her work throughout Wellington, with a few additional projects in Lexington, Ky. Ashland Designs also now operates a west coast branch based in California.

“It’s busy, but I have enough people who help me that we can get it done,” Emily said. “I run Ashland Designs eight months of the year, and then during [the WEF] circuit, I really concentrate on the horse shows. It works out well, because that’s usually how I meet people, or people end up needing me because at the end of circuit they’re buying a new house.”

One of Emily’s most recent projects included the complete design of the newly constructed Palm Beach Polo home of Mason Phelps Jr., president and founder of Phelps Media Group, and Ron Neal of Douglas Elliman Real Estate. Emily helped design the details of the home from the ground up.

“Ron and I would go shopping quite a lot,” Emily said. “We did everything — the flooring, the paint colors, the hardware, the kitchen design, the kitchen cabinets, all the landscape and pool design, exterior colors, trim — just everything. Then we also focused on taking their old pieces that they already had and making them compatible with the new space. And we had some fun lunches in there, too!”

Her clients speak highly of Emily.

“We’ve known Emily for a long time in the horse world, but we really enjoyed being able to now work with her in this capacity as well,” Phelps said. “We could not have asked for a better, detail-oriented designer, and we love what she has been able to do with our new home. We’ve had quite a number of dinner parties here already, and everyone has raved about her work and the look and feel of the house.”

While Emily caters everything specifically to clients’ wants and needs, her own personal style incorporates whites and clean lines with an open and airy feel, all while combining some old and some new. She hopes to continue to bring that personal style to homes throughout Wellington, which she has called home for the past 23 years.

“I love being able to live and work here,” Emily said. “I love the weather. I love the people and the community and the horse show — it’s just my favorite place to be.”

To learn more about Emily Smith and all that Ashland Designs has to offer, call (561) 371-1510 or visit www.ashlanddesignsfl.com. To find out more about Ken and Emily Smith’s Ashland Farms, visit www.ashlandfarmsfl.com.