Nara Smith certainly has a lot on her plate. Even beyond the demands of mothering four young children and feeding her 12.6 million TikTok followers videos of herself whipping up everything from scratch—including chicken, waffles, and bubblegum, all while draped in Chanel—the model and food influencer has maintained a whirlwind schedule. Spending her day at Condé Nast in New York City shooting back-to-back promotional content for her debut cookbook, Homemade, the 25-year-old creator has mastered the art of balancing high fashion with domestic arts.
As soon as she gets a brief reprieve from the cameras, Smith kicks off her heels and sits barefoot in her dressing room. Reflecting on a late night spent baking banana bread that ultimately had to be scrapped and restarted after a misstep, she maintains an unflappable composure. Looking at her, one would never suspect the late-night kitchen mishap. Complete with full hair and makeup, Smith is so naturally striking that even a fuzzy blanket draped over her black evening gown reads like an intentional, high-fashion accessory.
This promotional tour follows a notable summer appearance on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast, during which Smith purposefully distanced herself from the controversial "tradwife" label that had become synonymous with her self-made digital brand. That candid conversation sparked a renewed public interest in hearing her perspective beyond the curated aesthetic of her videos. In person, her speaking voice lacks the slow, breathy, and polished cadence she uses to narrate her viral clips—footage that typically features her cooking in couture from her Connecticut kitchen against a deliberately neutral backdrop designed to make her over-the-top outfits pop. Instead, she speaks with ease, rambling warmly about her fondness for old-fashioned fixtures like dinner bells and laundry chutes, her voice carrying a smooth, comforting cadence.
There was a time, Smith recalls, when she envisioned a home entirely devoid of color, drawing inspiration from Kim Kardashian’s immaculate, minimalist Calabasas compound. She wanted creams, whites, and sparse black accents, craving a minimal environment with the absolute minimum amount of furniture to combat sensory overstimulation. However, after she and her model husband, Lucky Blue Smith, purchased their current home two years ago and embarked on an extensive gut renovation, her design philosophy shifted dramatically. Surprisingly, as she evolved and gained the autonomy to design her own space, she found herself leaning in the exact opposite direction, embracing a rich palette of color—provided it remains cohesive within shades she genuinely enjoys. Nor is she afraid of a touch of whimsy, a sentiment echoed in her naming of her two-year-old daughter, Whimsy Lou.
Alongside eighty original recipes, fans flipping through the pages of Homemade will find scattered glimpses of this newly renovated home, prompting a deeper look into Smith’s current aesthetic sensibilities.
Defining a "Grandma-Chic" Design Evolution
When asked to describe her current interior design aesthetic, Smith embraces its fluid nature. "I like that you said in this current moment in time because it’s ever evolving," she notes, defining her style as "English-cottage-grandma-chic-lived-in." To Smith, this translates to an eclectic mix of wallpapers, textures, colors, varied shapes, dimensions, heights, and a blend of both old and new pieces. Her ultimate goal is to cultivate the feeling that her home has been lived in for years, rather than hastily assembled on a whim.
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Navigating the modern parenting debate surrounding children’s decor—a spectrum stretching from vibrant "kindercore" to the muted tones of "sad beige mom" culture—Smith prefers a balanced approach steeped in imagination. She aims to craft a home her children will fondly remember when they grow up, emphasizing the creation of everyday magic. Whether through playful patterns, imaginative nooks, memorable colors, or varied rug textures, she prioritizes elements that impart a lived-in warmth and moments of whimsy, meaningful both for her children and for preserving the memories of this chapter of family life.
These domestic ideals trace back to her childhood memories. When speaking of her grandmother with deep fondness, Smith recalls two vivid design elements: the wall-to-wall plush green velvet carpet that blanketed the home, and an oil painting of her grandmother hanging regally above the piano. Inspired by this memory, she plans to commission an oil painting of her own family to hang in her house, viewing the tradition as both special and fun.
The Trials and Triumphs of Home Renovation
The journey to completing her Connecticut home was far from straightforward. Purchased two years ago in November, the couple initially anticipated a minor, weeks-long refresh just in time for Christmas. Instead, uncovering one issue after another transformed the project into a comprehensive ten-month gut renovation. Though they successfully moved in by September, subsequent winter water damage forced them to completely gut and rebuild the kitchen.
Smith views the unexpected setback as a blessing in disguise. Describing herself as deeply indecisive, she admits she immediately despised the initial counter stone once it was installed. The subsequent water damage provided a welcome opportunity to select a replacement she genuinely loves, free from the pressure of interior designers who had previously pushed her toward choices that did not align with her vision.
The resulting kitchen strikes a balance between minimal serenity and homey warmth. Because the space serves as both her grounding sanctuary and her primary professional workspace, Smith deliberately kept it minimal to allow her high-fashion outfits to take center stage without competing against a visually cluttered background.
Functionality remains paramount in the design, featuring hidden practicalities such as a trash can integrated into the island alongside a double trash can near the sink. Additional upgrades include a secondary kitchen space equipped with a game-changing pebble ice machine, a boiling water spigot that eliminates the need to manually boil water, and a massive refrigerator tailored to her heavy cooking schedule.
Kitchen Philosophies, Essentials, and Deal-Breakers
While acknowledging that kitchen design is deeply individual, Smith has distinct opinions on what works and what does not. From a practical standpoint, she considers tiled counters a nightmare for tasks like kneading and baking bread due to the grout lines. Furthermore, living without a garbage disposal during her time in California rentals left her deeply appreciative of having one installed now.
When addressing broader internet design trends, Smith offers an amused validation of "fridgescaping," admitting she occasionally reorganizes her refrigerator on weekends to display fresh fruits and vegetables. However, she draws the line at placing framed photographs and flowers inside the refrigerator, suggesting there are better locations for such decor. Regarding refrigerator exteriors, she grew up with a magnet-covered fridge, but notes that her current paneled refrigerator non-magnetic—though she would utilize magnets if she could.
Her affinity for comforting aesthetics extends to color theory, declaring butter yellow—alongside eggshell blue—as the color of the next decade, with plans to paint her front door butter yellow to reflect her warm, comforting, and happy design disposition. She praises skirted sinks as charming and girly, expresses openness to dark wood cabinetry if executed with the correct stone and layout to avoid looking dated, and appreciates kitchen details like table lamps, rugs, and books that transform a workspace into a welcoming living area. As for her own cookbooks, she keeps them styled on her coffee table, leaning into the chic nature of cookbook reading and display stands.
When evaluating whether a kitchen was designed for aesthetics over functionality, Smith points to telltale signs: overly porous marble surfaces that suggest no one actually cooks, unnervingly pristine stoves lacking any signs of wear, and, most definitively, a bowl of fake plastic fruit.
Distilling her culinary and hosting philosophy into simple terms, Smith advises home cooks to give themselves grace, while offering a fundamental rule for hosts: meet people where they are at, and don’t stress the small stuff.