When Thomas Pheasant was 22, he found himself admiring the same Madison Avenue window display as celebrated designer Angelo Donghia, who happened to be standing next to him. “What I loved about him was that he had a very strong voice, and he had a very strong connection to this whole idea of taking the past and classical forms, but creating these new shapes that were very fresh, clean and sometimes overscaled,” he tells host Dennis Scully on the latest episode of The Business of Home Podcast. “Here was this New York creator that I admired very much, who was doing it on a big scale. The idea that he had his furniture collections, and he was doing interiors—he was representing this ideal that I would have loved to have had for myself.”

Pheasant didn’t know then that his career was headed down the same path. Over the last three decades, the Washington, D.C.–based designer has taken on projects across the globe and designed a series of successful licensed furniture collections with Baker-McGuire.

While Pheasant has had his share of media fanfare—and attributes much of his early success to his close bond with former Architectural Digest editor Paige Rense—he urges young designers to not rush to get their work published. When an early renovation (what he calls a “skin of my teeth” personal project) got him a spread in the home section of The Washington Star, he was surprised that no leads resulted from it. “I came to realize that here I am, publishing something that really wasn’t what I wanted to do; it was what I could afford to do,” he says. “When you’re ready to publish something, please make sure that it represents the designer inside you that you want to be.”

Elsewhere in the episode, Pheasant discusses how his D.C. upbringing shaped his style; what it’s like renovating national historic buildings like Blair House; and his upcoming collections with Baker-McGuire and Ben Soleimani.

Crucial insight: After more than 30 years in the business, Pheasant has learned the importance of stepping away to refuel his creative side. “If you’re just stuck in the business, you will get burned out. But if you have a creative soul, you’ve got to nurture that, because you’re the only one who will. A client is not going to tell you, ‘Tom, you should go away for a couple of weeks.’ That’s not what they’re interested in,” he says. “You have to find a way of making time for your creative self and explore new things and push yourself. If you can do that, then you’re creating this incredible path. All of the business and dealing with the realities of getting your design out there, that’s just part of it. But you’re floating on this excitement—creative excitement—and you have to find it.”

Key quote: “[Inspiration] is a very misused word. I say to people: ‘If you go to an antique store and you copy a chair, you’re not being inspired—you’re making a copy, and that’s fine. But if you see an antique chair and you walk away, and there’s something about that chair that really strikes a chord, and you sit down and, through your own digestion of that chair experience, you create a new form, that’s inspiration. That’s being inspired.’ Replication is replication. There’s nothing wrong with it, but inspiration is a heavenly thing that, if you can tap into it, it’s really a brilliant resource.”

This episode is sponsored by Loloi and John Rosselli & Associates. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The Thursday Show

Host Dennis Scully and BOH executive editor Fred Nicolaus discuss the biggest news in the design world, including Stark’s latest acquisition, why Williams-Sonoma is suing Quince and whether tariffs will have an impact on style.

This episode is sponsored by Renewal by Andersen and Eichholtz. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.