Hendersonville / Flat Rock — (828) 595-2226
Dawn Driskill — Interior Designer, Owner & Founder of The Design Gallery
Dawn brings more than thirty years’ experience in award-winning custom interior design and color consulting to the homes and vacation cottages of Western North Carolina. She adds a California touch of lush color combinations and clean lines to the comfortable styling characteristic of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her award-winning interior design work has been featured in both local and national magazines.
A consistent commitment to quality and personalized service is apparent in all of Dawn’s design work, as recognized by her clientele list of legal and health professionals, CEOs, and professional athletes and entertainers.
Dawn draws on a nationwide network of suppliers. In Western North Carolina, Dawn has built a network of reliable tradesmen and women who are plumbers, electricians, architects, and contractors who specialize in kitchen and bath installations, outdoor living spaces, room additions and complete remodeling.
Dawn is an experienced project manager who personally supervises all aspects of bringing a home from its traditional past into the stunning present. Current projects include: a design/build custom home in Brevard, NC; design and complete remodel of a mid-century mountain Deck home; full kitchen and bath remodels in Hendersonville, Asheville and Flat Rock; complete renovation of a warehouse to a modern office building.
Betsy Edwards — Interior Designer
Betsy’s love of creating living spaces has been apparent since youth. She takes an anthropological approach to her work; finding the best solutions of form and function makes all the difference in how people enjoy their daily lives, families, celebrations & work.
From Carolina Home + Garden: "I really try to find out about the client’s history... and what they’re drawn to. I also plan for the client’s future needs, whether aging, additional children in the future, or other considerations. Then I let the space speak to me. I can pretty much see a space fully designed when I’m walking through it.”
An award-winning interior architectural designer, Betsy's experience includes nearly two decades in the Atlanta design community working on national and international hospitality and residential projects, including Country Clubs and Disney Projects with Design Continuum, Inc., International Hyatt Hotels with Hirsch-Bedner and Associates, many of Atlanta’s finest restaurants with The Johnson Studio, and hospitality and residential projects with her own firm, BennettEdwards Interior Design. In Santa Barbara, CA, Betsy spent 7 years working on Country Club and residential projects of her own as well as for The Warner Group Architects.
Since returning to WNC, Betsy Edwards Design has focused on residential and Country Club renovations, as well as a surge of new construction home builds. Projects continue at The Ramble in Asheville, in Champion Hills and Kenmure in Hendersonville, and Lake Toxaway. New construction residences in Gulf Stream, FL provide much needed ocean ventures.
Missi Smith — Interior Designer
Missi has more than 20 years of experience in the design industry. She has worked as a new construction and remodel designer for residential properties and has acted as a general contractor on new home builds as well as several investment homes. Missi prides herself on digging to find the best deals for her clients to keep their design quality high and costs reasonable. The key to timeless design is staying on top of today’s design trends and materials while avoiding the latest fads, so Missi dedicates herself to staying in touch with the daily beats of the design industry for every project.
“Good design should provide comfort, contentment and your story when it is done correctly. I like to use clients favorite items along with new items to always make the home feel like it is unique to them.”
Missi is a Minnesota girl who has been living in the south for 25 years. She and her husband moved from Georgia to the mountains of North Carolina 3 years ago and they don’t think they will ever leave. Missi loves the laid-back attitude of the Hendersonville/Asheville area and enjoys having four seasons again.
Missi’s four children and three crazy dogs keep her well-loved and busy. When she is not working on a project, she likes reading true crime novels, all sports (especially MN sports), a good brunch, and visits from her family.
Heather Grant — Interior Designer & Project Manager
Prior to joining the Design Gallery team in 2021, Heather cut her design and management teeth in the digital realm. As Director of Digital Marketing for a web-based design company, Heather oversaw the planning and execution of high-level design and marketing tactics for companies all over the world. Methodical, communicative, and with a natural design eye, Heather was very successful in her role and felt great joy in aiding her clients in achieving their goals.
Now at the Design Gallery, Heather finds great success and joy in working with her interior design clients. Being both a designer and a project manager, she performs administrative and creative roles simultaneously. On the management side, she oversees timeline and budget planning, monitors progress, and communicates with vendors, clients, and the lead designer on the project. On the creative side, she brings together color, texture & all manners of materials to manifest each client’s vision and goals into functional, beautiful & purposefully-designed spaces.
Katie Kennett — Drafting
AT The Design Gallery in Flat Rock, NC, Katie provides custom design and drafting services to individuals and companies in Western North Carolina. Her services for residential and commercial drawings include custom home design, addition and/or remodeling design, modification of existing design documents, and conversion of physical drawings into computer-aided design documents. From conceptual drawings to working drawings to final construction documents - she's got you covered! Katie loves getting to know her clients and working alongside them to create floor plans and spaces that the client enjoys coming home to every day.
Growing up around design in the "furniture capital or the world" (High Point, NC), Katie knew she wanted to enter the Interior Design field from a young age. She started by shadowing her dad, an architect, and playing around on his computer in SketchUp programs.
Katie attended Western Carolina University where she completed a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design degree. There she expanded er knowledge in many different programs like AutoCAD, Revit, Photoshop and SketchUp.
Katie joined Design for Health and completed her internship as a student researcher through Western North Carolina and the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). Katie researched the Social Determinants of Health and their impact on older adults living in poverty leading to an assessment tool that helps non-profits and service providers curate their resources and best help the people they serve. Katie presented her research at the Coalition for Housing Repair's ReFrame Conference in 2023 and the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) Annual Conference in 2025.