Sally Steponkus

The December/January issue of House Beautiful naturally looks to the year ahead in design. One section in the issue is thus devoted to 20 up-and-coming young designers worthy of your attention in 2010 - the "Next Wave," says HB.

As I perused the list I was happy to see a couple of DC names in the bunch, and one that caught my eye was Sally Steponkus.

Designer Sally Steponkus
image via housebeautiful.com

Sally, owner of Sally Steponkus Interiors, was born and raised in Washington DC and a quick tour of her portfolio shows she's my kind of gal. Her portfolio features many a traditional interior (which is kind of a must in a town like DC), each with its own identity that keeps it from feeling stuffy or stale.

In her HB interview she cites her enthusiasm as her differentiator - thoughts of curtains, wallpaper and fabrics keep her up at night (me too, Sally!) She also names Kelly Wearstler as her favorite designer (agreed that KW is amazing...although her designs get a little kooky for me sometimes) and mentions that her latest inspiration has come from design blogs! She reads about 30 of them a day...dear Sally, have you heard of a little blog called Aesthetic Oiseau?

As you can see, I really enjoyed her interview and skipped right over to her portfolio and have found a new designer to follow and enjoy. And the fact that she is local is icing on the cake- I'm always up for some DC design love.

Enjoy these images from Sally's portfolio. All can be found on www.steponkus.com (please note the fab Greek key background on her web site - this is a story for another day, but I see many unattractive web sites for interior designers, which I don't understand. Sally's site is very nice...another reason to like her):

All images via steponkus.com, Photography by Angie Seckinger