Elevating Style and Taste
The duo behind Maison Smith, Healdsburg’s newest home store that offers interior design, knows a lot about designing beautiful homes.
Janen Smith, whose surname is part of the brand, has spent decades sharpening her eye for interior design, and has a knack for sourcing unique pieces from all over the world. Her partner, Buzz Korth, has worked in real estate development since the 1980s.
Together the couple has built their studio at 459 Healdsburg Avenue near Sake-O restaurant into a space of convergence, a treasure-trove of bespoke pieces, Cisco and Lee upholstery lines, antique furnishings that go back to the Spanish colonial era, Belgium and Portuguese linens and bedding, signature scents, local pottery, hand-thrown table top, objets-d’art, and much more.
“We want to be a spot that inspires creativity,” Janen Smith said of the shop, which opened in November.
It also is a spot for cult-status creature comforts: Maison Smith is the only shop in Sonoma County where you can find Libeco linens, which are imported from Belgium.
The studio also carries alpaca textiles sourced and imported from Peru by Healdsburg resident Sandra Jordan, as well as pillows and throw blankets from Treko, a company that imports handmade products from Chile and is run by Healdsburg resident Catalina Marin Vial.
Smith and Korth themselves are imports to Healdsburg—they bought a home on Center Street during the Covid-19 pandemic after moving to the Bay Area to be closer to grandchildren who live in San Francisco. The couple moved from Santa Fe, where Smith is from and where they have owned a primary residence since 1989.
The duo also run a flagship Maison Smith store in Santa Fe. Smith’s sister Megan runs the New Mexico store, and Smith and Korth go back and forth regularly to keep inventories consistent. (There’s also a design studio at the Santa Fe store.)
From a design perspective, while the modern aesthetic of Mill District may seem contradictory to the worn textures at Maison Smith, Smith said the two vibes complement each other nicely when presented together. “We see the contemporary design of Mill District as an opportunity to bring in warmth and textures with older pieces, yet still stay within the vernacular of modern,” she said. “Mixing antiques with modern décor makes a place human. We love mixing people’s treasures with something new in an eclectic mix of two worlds.”
Be sure and follow them on Instagram.
Janen and Buzz in their Healdsburg shop below.
