Voyage Tampa: Inspiring Conversations with Audra Samnotra of Social Swan Decor
This post was originally published in VoyageTampa and highlights how Audra Samnotra’s journey from finance to design shaped the foundation of Social Swan Decor.
Heidi Kirn Photography
Today we’d like to introduce you to Audra Samnotra.
Hi Audra, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
When I called my former boss in NYC to say I’d finally left finance to start a business, she didn’t skip a beat. She just yelled, “It better be interior design!”
Spoiler: it was.
I think she knew before I did. It turns out, everyone kinda did. I would hear that same enthusiasm from everyone who knew me, best of all my friend since college who says design is “my calling”. For years, I’d toggle between alternative investments by day and obsess over beautiful fabrics, furniture, trim, textiles, and everything home by night. I even won a design award from Apartment Therapy for my personal East Village kitchen transformation.
But let’s rewind in the messy, magical way life actually unfolds.
After colIege, I decided to leave Florida with nothing more than two suitcases. I landed in New York that same night, desperate to enjoy the art, architecture, fashion, culture, all of it. I got everything I came for and more, including a career I didn’t expect to love: almost a decade at a hedge fund, eventually as a Vice President. It turns out, I liked high-stakes problem solving. I liked being trusted with complexity. I liked being really good at something.
I moved back to Tampa where my next roles were Chief of Staff and Strategic Initiatives Director. But then…..I got married and had a baby. That unlocked a new space for me. I realized I didn’t just want beauty. I wanted to live inside the values that mattered to me: family, warmth, adventure, tradition.
So, I built something that could hold all of that.
Social Swan Decor is a residential interior design studio in Tampa, FL, and it’s the most fun I’ve ever had. I work with powerhouse women who lead all day and want to come home to spaces that nurture them. I understand them because I was them. And now I help them create personal retreats that enhance and enrich the way they live. Design gives you a beautiful home to live in, but the transformation is so much deeper.
That’s what makes this work so meaningful to me. It’s not a departure from my past. It’s the full expression of it.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Owning a business immediately gives you freedom, but the balance you are after doesn’t show up in the early years. At all. You’re wearing every hat whether it fits or not: accountant, marketer, admin, therapist, IT support, sales rep, procurement officer, magician. Some days it’s thrilling. Other days it feels like a full-blown identity crisis unfolding inside an excel sheet.
I’m slowly carving out a version of balance that actually means something to me. Not the Instagram version. I want my day to reflect my values. Design is absolutely the thing I’m meant to do…and so is being a wife, mother, daughter, aspiring yoga doer, and joy pursuer.
I am writing this from New Delhi halfway across the world with my family while the business is still running. I understand the desire to hold a full, ambitious life. I want to design for women who do too.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Social Swan Decor is a boutique interior design firm specializing in creating deeply personal, refined retreats for C-suite professionals. We eliminate the overwhelm by managing every detail from concept to final reveal. Our process is thoughtful, collaborative, and centered entirely around the people we design for. I’m most proud that our clients don’t just feel at home – they feel more like themselves.
What does success mean to you?
I love this question. I think about it a lot. I want to be a boutique studio working on a handful of creative projects with great people. I don’t want to run an empire. Thankfully, no one’s currently trying to hand me one.
I am deeply into the client experience of design. I want to uncover people’s truest picture of living well and then deliver something special that invites them to inhabit that aspirational version of themselves. I like to ask the right questions, listen carefully, and curate something that’s born from their point of view but beyond what they could have pictured.
The moment I live for is at the end of a project during the reveal. It’s when the client tears up. It’s not just because it’s pretty. It’s because it feels like them. The new them. That’s absolutely my THING!
My personal story of success is complete when I get to travel far and wide in the summers, go on weekday lunch dates with my husband, have long school day afternoons with my daughter, host friends for dinner, and try to pick up gardening.
Image Credits
Heidi Kirn Photography – https://www.instagram.com/heidikirn/
Tony Sica Photography – https://www.instagram.com/tonysicaphotography/
