Stokes, Founder: Stephanie Stokes started her design company, Stephanie Stokes, Inc. in 1982. Prior to that she established her credentials as a designer at Mark Hampton, Inc., and as a partner of the late Harrison Cultra. Since she began her interior design center, Ms. Stokes has completed projects ranging from Manhattan apartments to country houses, ski houses in Aspen and homes in Bel Air, California. Ms Stokes has been published in numerous magazines, including Architectural Digest, Traditional Home, House & Garden and Interior Design. Stephanie Stokes is a vice-president of the Sir John Soane Museum in London. Biography It may very well be the “non-decorative years” of Stephanie Stokes’ career that have contributed the most to her unique sense of style and interior design today. A former photojournalist, world-traveled art historian, and Wall Street banker, Stephanie is now known for work which combines the disciplines of good architecture, proportion and order, with artful color in a look of easy, livable elegance. Before starting her own company in 1982, Stephanie established her credentials as a designer at Mark Hampton, Inc. and as a partner of the late Harrison Cultra. Her experience as an award-winning photojournalist, visiting over forty countries and their countless galleries and museums, has given her an unusual vocabulary of color, texture and pattern, as well as an extensive knowledge of fine and decorative arts, which her art collector clients find so valuable. Since she began her interior design career seventeen years ago, she has completed projects in Manhattan and throughout the Northeast, in Colorado, and Bel Air, California. Years of looking through the lens of a camera and years of studying Fine Arts taught Stephanie some very important design rules - an eye for balance and proportion, the role of light and color, and the necessity to edit in order to create a total look of harmony. A successful room starts with “good bones,” says Stephanie. “Good architectural design and a functional layout are essential. Rooms have to work for the lives of the people who live in them. The art of decoration comes next, but decoration should never be overdone as to be conspicuous or pretentious. I like to create rooms that are, quite simply, naturally elegant - and that work. A room should have cultural depth. It should look as if it evolved over time, rather than overnight.” Stephanie’s rooms are indeed livably elegant and comfortable, with tremendous attention to detail and practicality, “I think it’s the legacy of my days on Wall Street. I’m obsessed with organization.” So, a kitchen by Stephanie Stokes is not only wonderful to look at, it’s wonderful to live in and to cook in. A gentleman’s dressing room by Stephanie Stokes has specially designed drawers and hanging spaces for every conceivable item of clothing - even for the most sartorially extravagant! With an exacting precision, she plans every anticipated need and can turn even the tiniest spaces into a virtual cornucopia of storage. Stephanie’s feminine instincts lead to instinctive, stylish interiors. Stephanie comes from a family of renowned architects and builders. Her grandfather built the Ansonia Hotel and much of the Westside of Manhattan. Her uncle, I. N. P. Stokes, built St. Paul’s Chapel at Columbia University. She was born in Denver, Colorado, attended prep school in the East and college in Virginia. As a young woman, she left for Asia and Paris, returning to pursue her study of Asian Art at the Institute of Fine Arts, N.Y.U. An adventurous spirit and a love of travel have prompted her to climb Everest (base camp level only!), visit crocodiles in Papua, New Guinea, collect art in Bali, and study the Mayans in Mexico. Stephanie currently lives in New York City, where she indulges in her passion for contemporary American art by serving on the Contemporary Arts Council of MOMA, her love of architecture by serving on the Sir John Soane’s Museum board, and her worldly curiosity by reading several foreign language newspapers every Sunday. She is presently working on houses in McLean, Virginia, Manhattan and Connecticut, and has just finished a house on an Aspen mountain. Her work has been reviewed in numerous magazines, including ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST, BRITISH HOUSE AND GARDENS, TRADITIONAL HOME, and HOUSE AND GARDEN, as well as many books, including Kitchens and Bathrooms, by Chris Madden. She has also been featured on several television shows, including Elsa Klensch’s “Style”.