FAIRFIELD — Charlotte Smith is known locally for work she does with home design and decoration. And this year she was part of the team that decorated the most famous home in the country.
Smith, a content creator who focuses on decoration, crafts and design, said she travelled down to Washingon D.C. in the late November to be a part of the team that got the White House ready for the holidays.
“I am a designer and creator. I make things for the home. I build things for the home,” she said. “Fundamentally, I try to share all that with my audience. I want to enable women to try new things and have the confidence to really settle into the process.”
Smith, whose social media profiles are named “atcharlotteshouse,” said she applied and was accepted by the White House, along with other people from across the United States.
“The White House publishes a link to the public every year,” she said. “Their goal, when they accept people, is to have someone from all 50 states. Then, they try to have a balance of people who are skilled designers, florists, decorators, crafters as well as teachers and veterans. It’s sort of this interesting mix of folks from around the country.”
Smith said she used to work as a school counselor in New York City before moving to Fairfield. She said they lived in an old house in Southport Village that needed a lot of love, and she ended up spending a lot of time on do-it-yourself blogs.
“I was just sharing everything,” she said, noting it was before social media such as Pinterest became popular. “It was back in the day when people would take their kids to the apple orchard and then write about it. Or they would paint a piece of furniture and write about it.”
But as those spaces on the internet grew, Smith said she did too. Now, she said, content creation is her full-time job.
“I can stay at home with the kids and not only make our house look fun and interesting, but also learn new skills,” she said. “I have a garage full of tools that I use when I need them. It’s really fun.”
The skills she has learned are not limited to using a paint brush or a hot glue gun, Smith said, but also include the photography, videography and website editing abilities that come with running a social media-based business.
Smith said she and the other volunteers travelled to Washington, where they broke into teams. Hers was called Team Faith and Light. All together, the volunteers decorated 77 Christmas trees with 12,000 ornaments and 84,000 holiday lights.
She said her team was in charge of the State Dining Room and the Red Room — tackling decoration “from nuts to bolts.”
“We were opening up boxes with scissors and Sharpies and hot glue guns and tape,” she said. “That (the room) was Dr. (Jill) Biden’s kind of brain child and it really celebrated teachers.”
Smith said getting ready to decorate that room took place at a second location and involved cutting out photocopies of self portraits by all the students in the classes of people who had been selected as teachers of the year, and put them on ornaments. When they got to the White House, she said, they went to their assigned rooms and got decorating.
“There were a number of times when I was alone in these incredible spaces, just looking up at unbelievable artwork or presidential portraits,” she said. “You have to sort of oscillate between your hot glue gun and getting these projects done and taking it all in. It’s lovely.”
Smith said watching the vision for the White House come together was a special experience.
“You see how it all fits together,” she said. “There was a kind of magic to it all.”
