hi, I'm Steph!
Apparently, I’ve always been a designer. As a kid, I was constantly rearranging my bedroom and could spend hours setting up the perfect house for Barbie—only to consider my work complete once it was time to actually play. The room was finished. My work here was done. My poor sister was left to handle the plot.
I’ve always loved puzzles, too. Once, I surprised my parents by completing a 100-piece puzzle upside down, using nothing but the shapes of the pieces to figure out where they belonged. Looking back, none of this is particularly surprising. I’ve always loved figuring out how things fit together—whether it’s puzzle pieces, furniture in a room or an entire floor plan.
Turns out, I never stopped doing puzzles. The pieces just got considerably more expensive.
That natural interest in spaces eventually led me to Texas State University, where I earned my bachelor’s degree with a major in Interior Design. There, the things I had always done instinctively became a discipline, and I learned how space planning, construction, materials and technical details work together to create successful interiors.
My career started with a project I probably had no business landing...yet. Fresh out of my internship with Panache Interiors and faced with a shortage of work, I went looking for some myself—and secured a multi-family project large enough that I brought it back to the firm so we could execute it together. That project helped earn me my first full-time design position and began several years working closely alongside Sharon Radovich, Panache’s founder and principal designer.
She became an important mentor early in my career, giving me the opportunity to learn not only the creative and technical sides of design, but the business behind it. As my role grew, so did my responsibilities, eventually taking on much of the firm's day-to-day operations while continuing to design projects across residential, multi-family and commercial interiors. That experience shaped both the designer and the business owner I would eventually become.
In 2017, I founded Selections By Steph, bringing that experience into a practice of my own. Along the way, I was named to the NKBA Thirty Under 30 Class of 2018 and later served as Chair of the ASID Austin Design Community. Those experiences have also helped me build relationships with talented professionals across nearly every corner of the design and construction industry. One of the greatest resources I can bring to a project isn’t knowing every answer myself—it’s knowing the right person to call when I don’t.
Today, that instinct is at the heart of how I approach interior design. I've spent more than a decade designing interiors, with a particular love for kitchens, bathrooms and whole-home renovations. My work combines the technical side of remodeling -- space planning, cabinetry, drawings, materials and specifications -- with the details that make a home feel personal, layered and lived in.
I believe good design is the sum of all the details. A floor plan can change how a home functions, but the smallest decisions matter too—from the way materials transition from one space to another down to the last piece of hardware. I love working through both: the big-picture decisions that shape a project and the carefully considered details that bring it to life.
My goal is always the same: to create a space that is beautiful and functional, brings you joy and feels like a genuine reflection of you and your family. The goal isn't to create a house that looks like I designed it. It's to create one that feels unmistakably like the people who live there.
I'm drawn to spaces that feel collected rather than overly coordinated—juxtaposing heirloom pieces with contemporary elements, layering natural materials and mixed metals, pairing soft neutrals with meaningful color and incorporating details that give a home personality without making it feel staged.
When I’m not rearranging other people’s houses...
I’m usually at home in Bastrop with my husband, our kids and the collection of animals that comes with our little piece of Texas. Selections By Steph might have my name on it, but it wouldn't exist in quite the same way without my husband, who encouraged me to take the leap and build a design business of my own. He’s been behind me ever since, supporting every new idea, big dream and occasionally questionable rabbit hole that has followed.
Outside of design, I’m happiest spending time with my family, taking my kids out on adventures, or getting out for a concert or race weekend at COTA. I’m also easily persuaded by good wine, champagne and fancy cheese. I’ve been listening to Taylor Swift since her first album and reserve a completely disproportionate amount of mental bandwidth for her lyrics, lore and Easter eggs—which, in retrospect, may just be another manifestation of the same puzzle-solving brain I've always had.