NATCHEZ — Kate Foley’s Franklin Street office is worlds away from her recent project — decorating a house in Kazakhstan.

But after a week in the Asian country the interior designer quickly learned the most important language of all.

“Smiles truly are universal,” she said.

In February, a couple, formerly of Natchez, asked Foley to decorate their new 11,000 square foot house in Kazakhstan.

Foley met with the clients, who asked not to be named, in Natchez and reviewed floor plans, photos and a video walk-through of the house.

“My clients’ assistant in Kazakhstan had painstakingly measured, drawn and labeled —in English — every piece of furniture to be placd in the new home.”

Foley spend several weeks before the trip talking with the couple via e-mail.

“The prep time was quite important, knowing that I would have to maximize every last minute of my time spent once I arrived,” she said. “One week was all I had to get everything pulled together.”

Her trip in April was Foley’s first venture out of the country. She arrived to find a style and a world vastly different from that in the states.

“Kazakhstan couldn’t be any more different,” Foley said. “They border Russian and China, so they combine Asian and over-the-top gilded looks.

“The challenge was assimilating my existing design techniques and my client’s taste with the country’s sense of style.”

Although she had been provided floor plans for the house and a list of furniture with which she’d be working, Foley ran into unexpected challenges. Language barriers and metric measurements were just a few.

“Even something as simple as hanging a picture was more difficult because they had different nails and hooks,” Foley said.

She went to Kazakhstan with no knowledge of the country

“I was really taken aback by the extremes, by the extremely wealthy and extremely poor,” Foley said. “It’s very common to find a multi-million-dollar mansion and you look outside the window and see a lean-to.”

Even in just a week, she came to learn and appreciate the culture, she said.

“The people I came in contact with and worked with were so upbeat and friendly,” Foley said. “We didn’t speak the same language but we communicated and we had a blast.”

Seven days wasn’t enough to put the finishing touches on the project or to spend in the country, Foley said.

“I would go back in a heartbeat,” she said. “A week wasn’t long enough. There was still so much to do.”