Travels With Mom Made Daughter Feel at Home With Design

New York interior designer Celerie Kemble visited the Washington Design Center last week to promote her recent book, "To Your Taste: Creating Modern Rooms With a Traditional Twist" (Clarkson Potter, $45).

The 35-year-old mother of two is known for her practical, fashion-forward style, and her clients include those with a clean, modern sensibility as well as the tassel-and-trim type. Kemble has been in business for 12 years, but she's been interested in interior design since the age of 3, learning at the feet of her mother, interior designer Mimi McMakin of Kemble Interiors.

In addition to running Kemble Interiors' New York office, she is designing a furniture collection for Laneventure, a fabrics line for Schumacher and faux-skins fabrics for Valtekz. Still, Kemble found time to chat with us.

First we wanted to know about her name. The story goes something like this: Her mother, while pregnant in Upstate New York, was chatting with some older women about baby names, and they discouraged her from choosing anything offbeat. After spying them drinking bloody marys with celery stalks, Kemble's mother knew what she was going to name her baby.

You grew up in Palm Beach. How did you make the transition to New York and designing?

I was working in [film] production. But on nights and weekends, [I was] helping friends with their apartments because that was like playtime for me. When you're right out of school, you're not really in touch with what exactly you want to do. After about 2 1/2 years, I was like, "Wait, if I'm doing this for fun, it kind of informs what I should be doing for work." I think I just had great resistance. None of us start out thinking we want to do what our parents do.

Did your mom influence your decision?

I grew up so spoiled with design, and it was always a part of our lives. When we traveled, we'd go see other people's houses that were interesting for one reason or another. I was being indoctrinated without even realizing it, 'cause my mom worked 24-7 and we went with her.

What's the style in your home?