DESIGNING WOMEN
They have the resources
and
creativity
to
turn
simple
sketches into a dream home
By BONNY OSTERHAGE
Photography ROBERT FRENCH
Your home is a reflection of who you are. It is the place where you live, love and laugh. It is the epicenter
of your family; the place where secrets are shared, problems solved and memories made. It is the haven to
which you retreat at the end of the day to escape from the hustle and bustle of the outside world.
Creating such an intimate and personal environment requires commitment, dedication and lots of
patience. Often homeowners lack the time to devote to such a large project or the skills to transform ideas into realities.
Interior designers have the time, the resources and the creativity to take a project from inception to completion and
turn a few simple sketches into a dream home.
The business of interior design encompasses much more than just the decorating aspects of selecting window treatments
or choosing paint colors. A designer actually works on a project from the ground up.When a homeowner decides
to custom-build or remodel a home, the interior designer works in collaboration with the contractors, builders, architects,
electricians and other industry professionals to design a space that best accommodates the homeowner’s wants
and needs.
Additionally, an interior designer must be licensed in order to work professionally and must stay abreast of all
the latest codes and regulations applicable to the profession through continuing education courses.
The following women are the interior designers and creative forces behind some of the most beautiful homes in
San Antonio. Let their creativity help you find your own inspiration.
 KATHY SCHOLL
Owner, Kathy Scholl Designs
Growing up with a father who was
the contractor behind the Houston
Galleria, designer Kathy Scholl has the
business in her blood. As a precocious
fourth-grader, she designed built-ins for
the room she shared with her sister,
using her father’s laptop drafting board.
“I love the construction process,” she
says with a smile. It comes as no surprise
then that Scholl married high-end custom
home builder Mike Scholl, received
a degree in interior design from UT
Austin, and has been designing some of
the city’s most prominent addresses for
more than 30 years.
Her work has been featured in such
prestigious publications as Country
Living Magazine, Luxe Magazine and
Southern Living, to name a few, and her
reputation has provided her with the
opportunity to work on projects in
Australia, France, Belgium and Mexico.
Even with a housing market that is
said to be declining, Scholl shows no
signs of slowing down. She currently has
27 projects in various stages, five of
which are multimillion-dollar new construction
residences. In addition, she has
been tapped to design the Returning
Heroes Project at Fort Sam Houston, a
more than 12,000-square-foot gathering
area for soldiers and their families.
With so many different projects under
way and so many years in the business,
you might think that Scholl would grow
weary of her profession. On the contrary,
this designing woman has so much energy
and enthusiasm for her career that it
seems to bubble out of her. Inspired by
beautiful architecture, Scholl enjoys the
variety of working with different architects
to create something unique.
Her favorite architectural feature? “For
our climate it is lots of porches,” she says. “It should be a necessity for every home
built because it provides outdoor living
space and protects the windows and
doors from the rain and heat.” As for the
interior of a home, Scholl is open to almost
anything except wall-to-wall carpet. “There is absolutely nothing good about it
except acoustically,” she laughs.
Although she is hired for her years of
expertise, Scholl doesn’t push her own
agendas. Instead, she listens to what her
clients want and then encourages them
to go a step further. “My goal is to push
the clients beyond what they could have
done by themselves,” she explains. “They are not hiring me to do something
they could do on their own.”
Scholl operates under her philosophy
that your home is where you refuel, and
it is an investment that requires you to
strike a balance between your head and
your heart. Furthermore, she firmly
believes that unless you attend to your
master bedroom first, you are doing
yourself a mental disservice.
“Your master bedroom should be a
high priority on your list,” she says seriously,
adding that it should be outfitted with
the best bed linens and pillows and should
feature only soothing colors. “The colors
should be the ones that you look most
beautiful in without makeup,” she says.
Her attention to what soothes the
soul and lifts the spirit is part of Scholl’s
charm. A mother of two and grandmother
of four, Scholl realizes that fami-ly is what makes the house a home, and
she designs with that in mind. She takes
into account the purpose and function of
the rooms and the lifestyle of the family.
She was once hired solely on the way
she interacted with a 3-year-old child. “The client wanted the kids and pets to
be a priority in the design,” she grins.
With her casual and relaxed style, when
Scholl takes on a new client, she makes a
new friend, often working with the client
for many years and on many projects. She
recalls one project that took two years to
design and another three to build. She
equates the entire process to a pregnancy in
that when the baby arrives, you quickly forget
whether the nine months leading up to
the birth were tough or easy.
And as much as Scholl enjoys the construction,
architecture, space planning and
other aspects of her job, for her the “birth”
is her favorite element. “The best part for
me is moving in the client,” she says with
her trademark enthusiasm. “When everything
is delivered and installed, it is like a
big, giant Christmas present.”
 JULIE BRADSHAW
Owner, Bradshaw Designs
To look at designer Julie Bradshaw
you would never dream that this impeccably
dressed and stylish woman enjoys
spending her time tromping around construction
sites and granite yards, but she
confesses that these are two of her
favorite parts of her job.
“The best part of the day is when I
get to go to a construction site,” she
laughs. “The construction phase is when
you get to watch the design in your head
come to life.”
One of Bradshaw’s designs come-to-life
is the beautiful custom-built Terrell Hills
home she shares with her husband and
two sons. The home reflects Bradshaw’s
innate sense of style with unexpected
accents and modern accessories playing
off the otherwise traditional décor.
It also reflects the inspirations she has
found through her extensive travels,
including a balcony that Bradshaw had
made from a stair railing she discovered
in a Paris flea market. “The railing was
from a cabaret on the Champs Élysées,”
she says with delight.
Bradshaw, who describes the process of
building her home as a “learning experience,”
prefers the drafting and space-planning
aspects of her field. “It’s like a jigsaw
puzzle,” she explains of space design. “You
have to work with it until the pieces fall into
place. Sometimes the problem becomes a
creative solution, and that’s fun for me.”
So much fun that Bradshaw began creating
ink and watercolor renderings for
clients of different variations on rooms in
order to help them visualize the completed
puzzle. It is a personal touch that is
unique to Bradshaw, and it is just one of
the many ways that she nurtures the
important client/designer relationship.
“One of the things I love most about
my job is the people,” she says happily. “The relationship is very personal, and
good friendships often result.”
Bradshaw prides herself on listening
to her clients and hearing the things
they don’t say as clearly as the things
they verbalize. From that, she is able to
accurately discern what it is that the
client actually wants. “I love it when
people say,‘I love this, and I didn’t even
know I needed it,’” she says.
Bradshaw encourages her clients to
bring in magazines, books and photos of
rooms they like in order to get a feel for the styles that appeal to them. She talks
with them about things such as traffic
flow, conversation areas, lighting and windows.
She hunts down tile and granite
samples. She discusses the client’s goals
and needs and determines the scope of
the project. And, of course, she talks with
the client about the budget and shows
them where they should spend and where
they can save. “Everything costs more
than you think,” she explains.
But perhaps the most important service
Bradshaw offers her clients is her support. “People can get overwhelmed by all the
decisions,” she says with a smile. “A lot of
my job is just hand-holding.”
 DEBBIE BAXTER
President, Baxter Design
In her youth Debbie Baxter was “scarily
obsessed” with fashion, often spending
hours poring over Vogue magazine.
As she got older, Baxter began to realize
that a career in fashion would be too limiting
for her, and she took her love of
color and style and applied it to the
world of interior design — although not
without some trial and error.
“I once got in trouble for painting my
television pink,” she recalls with a laugh.
Today, pink televisions are a thing of the
past, and in their place are elegantly
beautiful residential dwellings both in
San Antonio and New York City.
After obtaining a degree in interior
design from the University of Miami, Baxter
and her husband, an international businessman,
spent time living abroad, in Venezuela
and Spain. It was there that Baxter found
her greatest design influences and fell in
love with the look of ethnic combinations. “I really love ethnic mixtures, and I am
fascinated by the clean and elegant lines
of Asian design,” she declares. “I don’t
like to use anything in its purest form. I
always mix up the materials.”
Through her travels, Baxter has
amassed her own impressive collection of
unique items that she incorporates into
her projects, as well as an impressive comprehension
of architecture. “I am very confident
in being a historically accurate
designer in classical design,” she says. “I
am a student of architecture at all times,”
she adds. “I read anything and everything
that will improve my abilities and allow me
to back up my advice.”
Baxter, who prefers to work as part of
a collaborative effort, has spent the past
25 years growing her business, which
today consists of a team of 20 employees,
including both designers and support
staff. Five years ago she took her talents
to New York and opened a design
studio that is going strong.
“I am so inspired by New York and
the Old World as well as the trendy
design that is going on there,” she says.
Baxter operates from both a creative
and a philosophical level when it comes
to her craft. She often delves into her
client’s emotions, and she is continually
amazed by value perception when it
comes to homes. “People don’t think
through how important their homes
are,” she explains. “They will spend
$100,000 on a Mercedes that decreases
in value the moment they drive it off the
lot, but they won’t spend $25,000 on
dining room furniture that will become
a treasured family heirloom.”
She cites fear as one of the biggest
inhibitors for people when it comes to
designing a home as well as a lack of trust
in their own instincts. Baxter’s goal is to establish a trust and a personal relationship
with her clients that allows them to
overcome both, but it’s not always easy.
“I was working in this market for 15
years before a client ever invited me to
their home for a drink and to visit about
their project,” she recalls. “It made a
huge impression on me, and they
became lifelong clients.”
Up until that point, all of Baxter’s clients
retained her services in a more formal and
business-like manner — something that
always baffled this talented designer.
“Working with a designer is such a personal
process,” she marvels. “One project
can last four or five years. You have to get
a little personal in the interview process,”
she says, adding that a personality connection
and free-flowing conversation are
important to the success of the project.
Baxter knows a thing or two about a
successful formula. In addition to designing
breathtaking homes in some of the
most upscale neighborhoods, she is also
involved in design for the hospitality industry,
and Baxter Designs is the team behind
the new luxury high-rise project The
Broadway, which recently broke ground.
“I have a tremendous amount of gratitude
for those who have let me practice my
craft,” she says modestly. “My goal every
day is to be grateful for what we can do.”
 CHARISSA SEIPP
Charissa Seipp Interiors
Charissa Seipp is no stranger to
overcoming obstacles. After graduating
from Mt. St. Mary’s with a degree in
psychology, Seipp decided (much to her
physician father’s chagrin) to pursue a
career in interior design. Her father was
so upset that he refused to pay for his
daughter’s education.
“He wanted me to follow in his footsteps
and become a doctor,” Seipp
recalls. Undaunted, she enrolled herself
in the graduate program at Maryland
Institute of Art, and in her first semester
she received an award for a project her
father dubbed “The Tacky Violin.”
“My dad paid after that,” she laughs.
He also became one of her biggest supporters,
even helping her with her second
obstacle, her senior thesis project.
Seipp’s project was a gazebo built out
of PVC pipe and based on Wright’s theory
of no right angles. Her model was
destroyed twice in freak accidents (including
a windstorm) before it was actually
completed, with help from dear old dad.
Seipp tells the stories of her past with
great affection, but recently, when her
Artisan’s Alley showroom was destroyed
in a fire, it became harder to laugh. But
in true Seipp style, she picked herself up,
dusted off the ashes and continues to
work her design magic in both San
Antonio and Houston, where she is currently
building her own dream home.
“I love what I do,” she says about why
she perseveres. Based on the number of
high-end residences she has designed over
the years, her clients seem to love it too.
“My clients are my inspiration,” she
explains. “My job is to take their direction
and make it better. I am always thinking of
how I can push the envelope.”
Seipp specializes in mixing the old
and the new, and she describes her style
as “eclectic.” She continues, “People
travel so much and collect different
things that they love. Bringing all of
those things together is what I do best.”
Creating a home that is comforting and welcoming rather than simply a
showplace is a skill that Seipp has honed
to perfection, and she prides herself on
making a small budget look like a million
bucks. It is her philosophy that designers
must tap into the auditory, visual and
kinesthetic needs of the client in order to
create a pleasing environment. “A room
can look right but feel off,” she explains.
Seipp describes her professional self
as an “interior architect,” and adds
that she is often hired along with the
architects in order for the exterior and
interior to flow smoothly. When the
architects present their drawings, Seipp
is consulted and is often found redlining
different aspects of the plans to
accommodate the interior design elements.
That is why she, like the other
women featured here, puts a high priority
on the client relationship.
“The client must trust you,” she says. “You must have a good rapport and
work well together.”
Seipp works hard to build her clients’
trust by engaging them throughout the
entire process. “My clients know they have
all my attention when I am with them and
even when I am not,” she says.
She presents clients with drawings and sketches of different perspectives
that enable them to visualize the space
and the furnishings, and she provides a
complete scope of services so that the
client knows the estimate of the time
and the cost. “There are no surprises at
the end,” she assures.
What she does provide at the end is
the creation and fulfillment of her
clients’ dreams, and that for Seipp is
what makes it all worthwhile.
“I love my clients,” she exclaims. “I
love seeing their happy faces.”
 KELLY SCULLY
Finishing Touches
When designer Kelly Scully sits
down to discuss her career, her enthusiasm
is contagious.
“If I’m going to work this hard, I’m
going to have fun doing it,” she says
with spunk. “My clients tell me that they
can tell that I enjoy what I do.”
For Scully it isn’t really a choice — she
can’t help herself. As a child she was
continually rearranging her furniture,
and today you might find her on the
floor of a restaurant inspecting some
tiles she finds fascinating.
As a fashion merchandising major at
Southwest Texas, Scully roomed with an
interior design major and ended up completing
all of her friend’s projects. “She got
really good grades,” laughs Scully.
With a motto of “I don’t do ugly,” Scully
encourages her clients to use their own
ideas and their own furniture and accessories
when they are designing their space.
Otherwise, she says, the home becomes a
reflection of her taste, not theirs.
So why do clients need her services?
Because Scully offers awealth of experience
and guidance when it comes to bringing
those ideas to life and placing furniture and
accessories in the room to create a living
space that is conducive to the client’s
lifestyle. She takes into account who lives in
the home, the functions of each room and
the overall feeling of the residence in order
to determine the best possible space plan.
No job is too large or too small.
“I don’t turn down one mini-blind job
because it can lead to more,” she says.
Scully says she has noticed that as a
result of the current housing market, more
people are updating their existing residences
as opposed to moving to a new
home. These projects allow Scully to enjoy
the decorating aspect of her job, and she
will often go into a home and rearrange a
few existing items or incorporate something
from her own showroom to create a
completely different feeling.
She and her team of professionals
will install everything from the window
treatments to the artwork and have a
room completed (along with an itemized
list of furnishings and accessories
for insurance purposes) by the time a
client gets home from work. They
recently completed the installation
process in two model homes in only
two days. “My team has an amazing
work ethic,” she says with pride.
Scully enjoys working with all different
styles and eras, and her only rule of
thumb is that “too much of anything is
bad.” She believes in mixing it up with
unexpected touches, such as a splash of
animal print in a traditional room.
“A room needs to look like you put
some thought into it,” she explains. “Every room should have a little zip.”
A mother of four, Scully puts her family
first, but she applies her nurturing
instincts to her client relationships too,
treating everyone with loyalty and respect.
That, combined with her easy-going and
fun personality, has resulted in a wealth of
repeat business for this talented designer. “I love my clients, and I get involved
in their lives,” she says with a smile. “Making them happy is so rewarding.”
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