Meet Bethany Adams of Bethany Adams Interiors

My name is Bethany Sundman Adams and I’m the principal of Bethany Adams Interiors, a luxury residential interior design and decorating firm in Louisville, Kentucky, founded in 2016. I’m a native of Northern New Hampshire, have lived in DC, Tokyo, Chicago, Paris, and finally settled in Louisville ten years ago when my English professor husband landed a job there. We love it, but I definitely feel like a Northern fish out of water sometimes! It does allow me to bring a unique perspective to the Louisville design scene, though, which I think is a large part of my success. I am also an NCIDQ and KY Board of Architecture-certified Interior Designer, which means I do the interior architecture as well as the interior decorating of my projects. Louisville has the most breathtaking historic homes, and I’ve been able to carve a niche for myself working primarily in historic restorations brought to live with modern decorating, as seen most notably in my Louisville Tudor project which was featured by Architectural Digest last October in a digital exclusive home tour.

https://www.bethanyadamsinteriors.com/

Why did you join TSC Membership?

I attended TSC summit two years ago when I was just dipping my toe into publicity and expanding my business into a “real” business and found it a bit overwhelming. I didn’t yet have the experience or projects to feel confident that I belonged in the company of all of these accomplished women. In the last few months though, several members convinced me to give it another try, and I’m glad I did. I’m now at the point in my own business where I have enough work that I’m proud of, and enough experience to share and relate to that I have something to give back to the other members.

What is a favorite small business you like to shop or support?

Fellow TSC member and Louisvillian Mazie Clark makes the loveliest home goods like tea towels and coasters that are perfect for gifting. I also love TSC member brand All in the Detail‘s pretty dresses for easy summer dressing when I’m in New Hampshire to escape the Louisville heat!

Where do you go to get your inspiration now?

I don’t travel as much as I’d like to anymore, so literally anywhere I go, I keep my eyes open. I was part of a program in middle school called “Odyssey of the Mind” which was a competitive after school program intended to nurture intellectual and artistic creativity. One of the competitions involved showing kids an object—a thimble, a soap dish, who knows what? it was always something random—and asking “what could this be?” The more creative the answers, the more points you got. I think as a result of this training, I often see objects or details and my brain doesn’t immediately register the fact of what it IS. More often than not, my idea of what the object could be is quite a bit more exciting than the reality, and that’s where most of my best ideas come from.

What is the best business advice you have ever given or received?

A dear friend of mine, who is a brilliant designer, once said to me, in a moment of self-doubt many years ago: “If you like it, they’ll like it too.” It’s simple, but the point was, stop trying to please people. Clients come to me because they want to know what I like. That really changed things for me and gave me a lot of confidence in my aesthetic choices.