Based on our clients’ unanimous feedback, we’re letting everyone know that it’s a great idea to have SDS involved as soon as the architect starts drawing. They have the technical skill to see simple changes that can enhance human use of a space, save money or provide greater impact to the space. Small tweaks can have massive affect on the final installation.
Design
Services
Architectural Coordination
Space Planning
Interior & Exterior Finish Selections
Custom Cabinetry & Lighting
Furniture selection, customization & purchasing
Custom Window Coverings
Fine Art & Antique Acquisition & Integration
From the initial consultation forward we’re listening and designing a concept reflective of the client. If you’re not sure why that’s important to us, read more about our heart for this work.
Inside a systematic and organized process, Amy and team assist clients with everything from high-level concepts to the selection of colors, furniture, wall coverings, window treatments, textiles, shapes, layout, built-ins, millwork, materials etc. Simultaneously, we collaborate with their builders and architects and oversee implementation.
Integrating furnishings from the very start of the construction or remodel process ensures harmony with the architecture.
It’s our, "from dirt to drapes" approach, and leaves no detail unattended.
We whole-heartedly believe that everyone should take time to enjoy the process of design. This often results in timeless interiors built uncompromising quality that look incredible now, and also in twenty years. We know what your home looks like in your mind, but wouldn’t it be nice to see it come to life?
Meet the
Team
Everyone on the Slaughter Design Studio team is on the same wavelength. It’s not about us, we’re not here to polish up our ego or career accolades. We’re here because we love to listen, we love design and we love people.
Amy Slaughter
Amy’s the owner, and the company bears her name. SDS culminated in 2005 as the realization of a high school dream.
“I used to sit in open houses with my real estate agent mother. I would look around and think, ‘I’m pretty sure I might be able to make this better.’ I had never taken art or design because I was too busy studying language, science, math and history. But when I got to college, I started dabbling in art history, furniture history, interior design and soon I had a newfound love. Since then, this is all I’ve ever done!”
Her career kicked off in Park City, UT where she lived and work there for 15 yrs creating custom, one of a kind mountain homes while honing her project management skills. Extensive travel to project sites in several states, markets and Europe preceded her family move to the Texas Hill Country in 2005. It was here in Fredericksburg, Texas, that Slaughter Design Studio was formed. Her depth of construction knowledge, space planning and creativity pair excellently with her absolute love for building relationships.
Amy holds a BS in Interior Design from Utah State University and is a licensed and registered Interior Designer by the state of Texas. She has more than 25 years experience in Interior Design and holds a professional membership in ASID and NCIDQ. When she’s “off the clock”, you’ll likely see her with her children, husband, dogs or running solo on a quiet hill country back road.
Shari Rannells
Shari has become known for always being prepared, the problem solver and the task manager.If anything needs to be done, or figured out, she’s right in the middle of it.
She became a Texas native at the age of 12 living in various different parts of the state. In 1991 she decided to make Fredericksburg her home and raised her 2 children here.
Shari brings over 20 years of bookkeeping and management experience to SDS, Here she handles all of the behind the scene details, a/r, a/p, the general financial side of SDS and keeps the, seemingly, infinite number of transactions running smoothly. Her organizational precision has always been complimented by her cheerful personality. Shari adores her four granddaughters and twin grandsons. When not playing with her grand-kids or baking their birthday cakes, she enjoys going on road-trips with her husband of over 25 years or having friends and family over to BBQ!
Kaitlin Bright
Growing up in the Hill Country, alongside numerous family members in the construction industry, Kaitlin was influenced early on by excellent craftsmanship & quality custom home-sites. Looking for a way to utilize her creativity & construction knowledge, Kaitlin attended Texas State University where she developed a love for interiors. There, she earned a BS in Family & Consumer Sciences with a major in Interior Design. Leading up to her senior semester of college, Kaitlin worked as an intern for SDS and later joined the team full time in May 2018. Kaitlin's fresh perspective, attention to detail and organization skills make her a great collaborator and creator of unique and functional spaces. She is inspired by timeless, quality design, innovative aesthetics & unique interiors that will positively impact a person’s life. Outside of design, Kaitlin stays busy raising her young daughters, traveling with her husband & spoiling her three dogs.
Shawna Stockton
First things first, Shawna started “designing” from an early age. She says her early years were spent in a constant rearranging of furniture, and from her earliest memories she recalls being fascinated with interior spaces, furniture and architecture. Her dad was a civil engineer, her mom a floral designer, her grandfather owned a bridge-building company and her grandmother was an oil painter. “ Construction math and art, blended for me. We have a history of being art-inspired, but with math-numbers-logistics. It’s in my blood a little bit.” she said. After graduating from the UT Austin School of Architecture with a BS in Interior Design, she worked for Page Southerland Page designing healthcare spaces and making material selections. She’s inspired by the old german building heritage, and how so many of the basic survival principles of design have come back into vogue due to energy shortages. Today, we’ve begun rethinking creatively about solar orientation and material usage in a way that is common-sense, yet attractive, something Shawna loves. She’s currently putting her curiosity and skills to use in the remodel of her old family farmstead in Harper, Texas. Shawna is an avid student of holistic design and values the deep study and relational components that inform the way people use and interact with space. To her, that’s creating “Little pieces of magic”.
Patricia Tankey
Joining Slaughter Design Studio was a homecoming in more than one way for Patricia. After 7 years doing design work in Corpus Christi, the pull of the Hill Country brought her back to the area that speaks home to her. She brings a deep portfolio of skills from years of interior design work, furniture design, and management in Austin. It only took a few conversations with Amy and a visit to the studio to know that they spoke the same language.
For Patricia, design is all about home, the place we find refuge, the place where we find ourselves, where we raise our families, where we ourselves grow. She is drawn to design that is timeless and speaks of history, design that either evokes a memory or speaks of memories yet to be made.
Design that speaks like this still gives her butterflies of excitement. So, when she got her first glimpses of the projects in process at our studio on her first visit, it was butterflies around every corner. She knew right then that Amy and her team fit the bill exactly, she had found her design home.
