Stephanie Sarro started art classes at age 8, learning watercolor, sketching and perspective drawing from a neighbor. Trained as an architect, she offers architecture, interior design and rendering services through her Liberty Lake firm, Sarro Design. An aspiring author, she's hoping to release her first book, Color Your Home Beautiful, in 2025.
She stopped by Inlander HQ in Kendall Yards to talk about the challenge of facing a big empty wall in your home and how she helps her clients turn those walls into something special.
INLANDER HEALTH & HOME: Most any home has a significant amount of vertical real estate — that's especially true for homes with high ceilings. It's hard to figure out what to do with all that space! Can you share some of your thoughts about how you approach that dilemma in your work?
STEPHANIE SARRO: There are a number of things involved. First off is the client. Whatever you design in the home, it needs to coincide with the person, or couple and family, and who they are, what their desires are, what's important to them, and then what's really going to resonate with their lifestyle. So all of that needs to be taken into consideration.
What are some questions you ask?
I usually ask things like what are their hobbies, where are they from, what kind of work do they do? I always try to find out what color palette they like. I help them get likeminded on what they agree on.
After you learn about the clients, what are things that come to mind as you strategize about how to fill the space?
The thing I try never to do is lots of small art. Art is very beautiful, but it can be very flat. A lot of times I like to get texture involved. There's art now that has lots of different textures within it. Or objects that you can hang on the wall. I helped a couple once that were big boaters. We had some oars from the canoe that we did a little bit of painting on and hung them in different directions along with some art. You can also suspend things from the ceiling like kites or canoes — something that seems like it would fit with the couple.
So you think in three dimensions! How do you settle on the right proportions?
It's a visual thing. I take measurements and draw it out and determine what a good size is and do a good layout on paper. I also do my hand renderings, which helps the client to envision how it will look. But it also helps me to determine what's really going to balance this room. I think it's all about finding balance of size, objects and color.
In addition to adding art and other elements to the wall, what about the wall itself?
If the walls are all white, then it's super white in the room. But if you just put a little color on one wall, it'll change the whole feel of that room... The walls will reflect off each other. The other thing I really like to do is ceilings. Putting some color on the ceiling or wood on the ceiling really warms things up, so if you have a large wall, that helps with the wall too.
Wallpaper is becoming popular again — it never went out. I recently went to the Seattle Design Center, and some of the wallpapers and grasscloths there are just stunning. Lots of interesting styles and textures, even a cork wall. I've done a cork wall.
I've seen people add strips of wood to the wall in various configurations to add interest. Do you have any tips for that?
Yes, I'd call that reverse paneling, and I find that looks best if it's all just painted the same as the wall color. It just gives a little bit of texture. Slatted wood has become very popular as well because it adds that dimension to the room.
What about other things?
Mirrors are another really good option. There are some great mirrors being made lately that are really large, and have grids in them, or kind of an antiqued shading on the glass. But I think a mirror is kind of like a framed piece of art. I wouldn't ever put a mirror and a piece of art on one wall. I think that's just a little too much. If you're going to do a mirror, then I would do something like sconces on either side.
That brings us to lighting.
Yes. Picture lights have become popular again, and you can actually get battery-operated ones that you can hang directly over the picture. Those are really pretty. They're kind of a downlighting that doesn't light up the whole room but it lights up the picture.
I've seen floating shelves used in really creative ways to fill a blank area. Let's talk about those. How do you decide where they should go?
Floating shelves can be really helpful. You can do anywhere between 4 inches deep and 8 or 9 inches deep. Usually there's a mounting system with a heavy metal post so you can just slide the shelf onto the post. I've done those for a musician's home, and we kind of staggered them and then hung guitars on pegs. Album covers went on the shelves, along with other objects like handmade wood objects and pottery that were really unique. And so that was a really neat display and really sang to that career of the musician.
So these big walls are a challenge, but they could also turn out to be really meaningful.
Oh yes. I always try to bring that into a home — something a little more personal.
Any other ideas you'd like to share?
I've done plant walls. If it's in the right area, like if it's in a well-lit bathroom, you can do real succulents. Otherwise, you can get the faux ones. I've done whole walls of those, and that adds a little green and life.
There are some really neat, large — like overly large — macrame hangings that are becoming popular that you can find on Etsy. They usually come from Asia, and they are just amazing. I'm starting to see them more in West Elm and vendors like that. They're just works of art.
This interview was lightly edited and condensed.
