*Barbara “B. Smith,” a.k.a. “the black Martha Stewart,” has expanded her lifestyle empire to include

the release of her own furniture line – a 40-piece home collection with manufacturer Clayton Marcus titled, “At Home With B. Smith.”

      The line, unveiled at the recent spring furniture market in High Point, N.C. and expected in stores this fall, is the first collection created by an African American woman for national distribution, notes the Boston Globe. 

      “At Home With B. Smith” is divided into three furniture groupings inspired by her penthouse apartment overlooking Central Park, her Sag Harbor beach house in New York, and her global travels, as well as her previous life as a model, reports the Globe. The three collections – Central Park South (modern), Sag Harbor (seaside cottage), and Mosaic Treasures (globally inspired) – aren’t “about my personality and my style so much as the way I put things together, as I have in my restaurants and my home,” Smith says.      

      During the spring furniture market unveiling, Smith noticed only a few blacks in the crowd of roughly 80,000 in attendance. The lack of color in the home-furnishings industry is not lost on the mogul, who views her entry into the game as groundbreaking.

      “This is a huge, huge turning point in my life. It’s a triumph,” she tells the Globe.