Watch HGTV tonight to see interior designer from Thibodaux help others live 'Luxe for Less'

Interior designer and Thibodaux native Michel Smith Boyd helps everyday people add a luxury feel to their homes without blowing their budgets in a series that premiers tonight on HGTV.

Boyd stars in "Luxe for Less," which will appear at 8 Thursday nights on the cable TV network.

"The idea of luxury being like an item or an object that's really expensive isn't always the case; it's really about how you define it," Boyd told The Courier and Daily Comet in a telephone interview Wednesday evening. "It doesn't have to be an object but more of how you live the experience at home."

In the show, Boyd will take couples to different luxury homes in the Atlanta area, where he now lives, to find out what fits, then work with them to create a similar feel in their own homes.

"This show explores luxury in a way that we are creating room for luxury in more modest budgets," Boyd said. "So we are introducing lots of hacks and so forth where you can save money in order to get some of those indulgences that you might not otherwise be able to afford."

In the third or fourth episode, Boyd said, he will bring his mother, Denise Smith Washington, on the show to share a piece of his own life and a little bit of Thibodaux to the wider world. His mother will cook gumbo for everyone, something that was of particular importance to him.

"I don't want people to feel left out because of this luxury concept; it really is for everyone," he said. "While they see me out here selling luxury and pushing out all these things, I come from one of those mamas that makes me gumbo when I'm hungry."

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Boyd owns and runs SMITHBOYD Interiors, which he started in 2006. The interior design firm has grown from a one-man operation to a company of eight, specializing in luxury residential and commercial projects across the U.S. Boyd and his firm's work have been featured in national publications such as Traditional Home, Elle Décor, Architectural Digest, House Beautiful and Vogue.

In 2017, Boyd was an ongoing contributor to HGTV’s "House Hunters" and in 2018 starred in the Bravo network design series "Buying It Blind."

Luxury is often thought of as material items, such as Cadillacs or gold watches, but there's more to it, it's an experience, he said. Every person has to decide what it means.

"We go out to houses that have already been designed and see some of these things in application and once they've had the experience with it, maybe they like it, maybe they don't, and they get a little bit closer to what they want for their home," he said.

Boyd said the show reflects the two worlds in his life: his modest roots in Thibodaux, where he lived until age 16, and the places he has lived and visited since, including New York and now Atlanta.

"In traveling, I really developed a strong point of view in what my version of luxury is," he said. "The idea of bringing that to my friends and family that I grew up with, they are people who have to be a little more conscious about their budget — it's important to me to merge those two worlds."

This article originally appeared on Daily Comet: Interior designer from Thibodaux stars in new HGTV show 'Luxe for Less'