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Suzanne Humphries of Suzanne Humphries Design on how the coworking environment at Forge revitalized her business

Another feature from Bham Now focuses on Forge member Suzanne Humphries of Suzanne Humphries Design. Read more about how Forge has revitalized her business!

Suzanne Humphries recently made the move back to Birmingham after a few design stints in Atlanta and New York, just to name a few. She and her husband, a successful chef, both grew up in North Alabama and heeded the call of Magic City, where they are now pursuing personal projects.

Humphries used this move to set out on her own and create her own Interior Design company, Suzanne Humphries Design. Only a year and a half in, the company has had large success in the Birmingham area and beyond, but Humphries was feeling like she needed a change of pace. She had worked from home (and coffee shops) since setting out on her own, but was feeling like she wanted a place to go where she could get work done.

Forge to the Rescue

Humphries actually credits the team here at Bham Now for introducing her to Forge (#humblebrag). When I asked her how she found out about the chic coworking space in the Pizitz building, she said she was scrolling through Instagram one night and one of our posts about Forge caught her eye. She called in for a tour and was a Forge member the next day.

Perhaps you remember Humphries from a previous Forge article for which she gave the following testimony:

“Working at Forge has reinvigorated my business. I am more motivated, productive, and fulfilled now that I have the balance of self-employment and workplace culture. The best professional decision I have made was to move to Birmingham and start my own company…the second was to develop this company while working at Forge.”

Let’s Back Up

What Is Suzanne Humphries Design?

Humphries has worked for several different design firms since her graduation from grad school with a Master’s in Interior Design. These jobs took her from Washington D.C. to New York to Atlanta, and she finally branched out on her own in Birmingham. These opportunities gave her experience in an array of different design styles. In New York, she worked with Ralph Lauren in commercial design. In Atlanta, she gained experience in residential design through her work with Suzanne Kasler and in hospitality design with Smith Hanes. As you can tell, her portfolio is quite varied and broad. With her experience in the different design styles, Humphries has been able to move confidently throughout them, and has empowered her in her current project: opening a restaurant with her husband, Chef Adam Evans.

A New Birmingham Restaurant

There is no doubt that the space will be beautiful. Evans, who formerly worked at The Optimist in Atlanta, has plans for the space to serve gulf-caught fresh seafood and other local ingredients. The restaurant, whose name has yet to be revealed, will be in the Lakeview district. Humphries and Evans are hard at work designing and preparing the restaurant space, which is expected to seat 160 people, for an opening.

Stay tuned for more information on the restaurant!

Humphries’ Focus

While her focus is currently on hospitality, Humphries enjoys each different style of design and is open to projects of all kinds.

“I want to build my business to be open and accepting and excited about any type of project that comes my way. I want to be able to pull from my past experiences from the different places that I’ve been and use that skill set to work with whatever client is a good fit.

Interior Designer vs. Interior Decorator

With her degree in Interior Design, Humphries went through a curriculum in which she learned about construction and building, enabling her to understand the architecture component of the spaces she is working with. I had no idea that interior designers had to know all of the structural ins and outs of the building. When I thought of an Interior Designer, I was under the impression that she was choosing paint colors and focusing on the surface level of the home. However, it’s much more than that. Humphries explained to me that there are three main titles: Architect, Interior Designer, and Interior Decorator; and that each one is different.

Because Humphries’ title is Interior Designer, she has a broad list of responsibilities to the space in which she is working:

“The true Interior Design process includes everything and anything that goes on inside the walls of a home, a restaurant, a hotel — any sort of structure, permanent or temporary. I enjoy doing the full process, but I am also happy doing parts of the process.”

Spaces Shape Experiences

Have you ever walked into a restaurant, a hotel, or a store and it feels impeccably designed, yet effortless? That is the work of an Interior Designer. The layout, the colors, and so much more impacts the way we move through a space. Almost even more so, design impacts the way you live in your home. Of course, we never think about this, but the design of our homes impacts our everyday experiences. This is one of Humphries’ favorite things about what she does.

“It’s almost like you are creating this space that shapes the family, person, or couple’s day-to-day life. I think that’s a way in which design is so much more than picking paint colors and fabrics. And that’s why I like it. That is my favorite part.”

Humphries’ work experience is vast and varied. Check out her website and her Instagram.

Member Spotlight: Joy O’Neal

Member Spotlight | 1 comment

Joy O’Neal is a valuable Forge member and the executive director of The Red Barn in Leeds. If you haven’t heard about The Red Barn, children and adults with disabilities can come to their facility to relax and learn with horses! The Red Barn strives to be a place where anyone can be loved and accepted. Joy’s story and life experience is inspiring, and we wanted to share more about her and this organization that has affected so many.

They serve over 100 individuals each week!

Who are your biggest influences? Who inspired you to do what you’re doing now?

I’ve been incredibly lucky to have so many amazing people to influence my life. I have a huge, close-knit family that have always set a great example of working hard, helping others, and sticking together. We’re far from a picture-perfect family, but I never doubted that I was loved.

In college, I met Julianne and Billy Phillips, known to everyone as “The P’s.” They opened their den to young people every night and loved us all unconditionally. Time in their den changed my life as I struggled through many difficult times as a young adult. Through the P’s, I met Fr. Frank Wade, a Catholic priest who strengthened my faith and taught me how to incorporate it into every day life.

All five of our children rode horses when they were growing up, so I’ve seen first hand how horses can help children. I was inspired by Anita Cowart to start a therapeutic riding agency that would help children with disabilities and special circumstances learn to work with horses since there are limited opportunities available to them.

“I see The Red Barn as the combination of the faith, hope and love that I learned from these influences in my life.”

What is your biggest challenge with continuing The Red Barn each day?

Raising the money to keep everything going. I’m sure this is the case for almost every nonprofit though. There’s such an incredible demand for our services with a long waiting list for children to participate. Before we can even think about serving more children, we have to raise the money to serve our existing students. Almost every day we get a request from a family or organization wanting to receive our services, but we have to just keep adding them to the waiting list because we can’t afford to expand. And, that makes me feel a lot of pressure because I know how much their lives would be changed if we could just get them in our programs.

What surprising lessons have you learned along the way?

Things that may seem bad or frustrating at the time often can turn out to be okay in the long run. For example, one year we were going to do a lot of work to our pastures, but the person doing it had to back out at the last minute due to his equipment breaking. I was so annoyed because I had really wanted to do this project. Since there was only a limited amount of time to get the work done, we had to postpone the project. A few weeks later there was a huge storm that would have destroyed the pasture work we had planned to do. So, in the end, the broken equipment kept us from doing work that would have been ruined by the storm. At the barn we refer to those types of annoyances as, “pasture rotation frustrations” to remind ourselves that sometimes a disappointment can be a blessing in disguise.

Where and how do you work best?

I can work pretty much anywhere, but I think the right environment helps facilitate the best work. Obviously, much of what I do needs to be done physically at the barn. But, sometimes I need a place like Forge where I can be focused because it’s easy for me to get distracted or interrupted at the barn. I also think a change of scenery helps re-charge my brain. Plus, it’s much easier to meet folks who work downtown at Forge rather than asking them to drive out to the barn.

Whats the best advice you ever received?

My grandmother had to drop out of school to help care for her family, but she always talked about how grateful she was that she learned to read because then she could teach herself anything she wanted to know. She died many years ago, but I can still hear her telling me to read and learn as much as I can.

Thanks to Joy for working so hard to establish this amazing organization and serving so many in need. We love having you as part of the Forge community!

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