Designs for Living Well.  Meet some of the D.C.’s leading interior design professionals.

Ernesto Santalla, (Photo by Joseph Allen).

Cuban-born architect, interior designer, photographer, and man-about-town Ernesto Santalla is the owner of Studio Santalla in Georgetown. He is known for his clean, modern, and ec0-conscious designs as well as his keen ability to bring the personality of his clients into his work. Recently, he put his stamp on this year’s CharityWorks GreenHouse when he designed its spa retreat using all sustainable resources. LEED accredited, Santalla designs with the intent of minimizing use of virgin resources while still building beautiful spaces. His recent projects are in and around Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and Southern France.

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Interior Designer, Michael Smith, gives DC an inside look at the work of one of the nation’s top designers and in the process shows us all why the Obamas chose him to bring change to the White House.

By Chris Boutlier

Michael Smith

While much of America monitored White House press releases for signs of either our official conversion to socialism or the resolution of all our social and economic ills, D.C.’s coterie of interior designers watched, waited, gossiped, and boasted of insider knowledge about whom among us might be invited to re-design the first family’s private living quarters. Like the potential nominees to any high office in Washington, there was at least an unofficial short list: Darryl Carter, Thomas Pheasant, Nate Berkus, Alexa Hampton, and probably a wildcard or two.  And yet the Obamas surprised us all by announcing that California Designer Michael Smith had claimed D.C.’s ultimate design prize.  There was, of course, skepticism, confusion, probably just a smidge of jealousy, and then the inevitable movement to embrace and claim as our own D.C.’s newest design celebrity.

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