 Great spaces inspire great designs. A lifelong resident of South Dakota, Sarah DeWitt loves the expansiveness of the Southwest, its sunny palette, its openness. As a girl, she would spend vacations at Ghost Ranch, an area celebrated by Georgia O'Keeffe, just north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. When she wasn't there, she was learning retail in her father's furniture stores, which later inspired Sarah and her husband Jim, to open a high end furniture and design studio in Sioux Falls.
"I love the large-scale homes, the intense light, the mountains and desert - all wonderful inspiration for great designs!" says Sarah, an interior design veteran who opened a studio in the growing downtown arts district in Tucson. "We love the small town atmosphere here."
The 20,000 square foot facility is the resurrection of a 1929 Spanish Revival adobe brick building - a former Chevrolet dealership. Her Sioux Falls showroom is an even larger 1895 brick warehouse that was restored. Her combined staff of professionals has access to 4,000 square foot resource libraries in both locations, allowing them to provide the finest materials for residential and commercial clients. Each has complete showroom vignettes, which display imports, high-end home furnishings, original art, hand tied area rugs and other fine accessories.
Both areas, in fact, share tastes in design. South Dakotans feel particularly connected to the West, Sarah says. Moreover, both enjoy European styles with elegant layering, rich fabrics and architectural details. Tucsonans, in contrast to South Dakotans, incorporate a more intense color palette and larger-scale furnishings because of their environment. Contemporary is more prevalent, though with a softer edge and more texture.
"Details, details, details," she tells her staff. Finishes, trim, pillows, hardware, ceilings, walls, floors and furnishings: "All must be a part of a harmonious whole. All are synchronized to create a cohesiveness that layers story after story about the client."
She builds each home design on clients' styles and personal belongings. She looks at their pictures, their books - even goes through their closets - to find items and memorabilia that provide this authenticity and individuality. "In one closet, I found a collection of my client's mother's perfume bottles. I was able to incorporate these into their design. Utilizing treasured pieces makes the space really theirs."
While each room and every home tells a story about the clients, Sarah believes that they seek her to take them to another level. "You need to give them something back. They come to me for those standards." Leading these is the importance of achieving comfort, intimacy and livability. "You can have a picture-perfect room, but, if no one feels they want to sit down and have a cup of coffee and talk, it's not a successful design. In contrast, I design spaces people want to live in."
As one client told her, "This home is not only beautiful, but I want to actually live here!"
 Sarah has been featured in two design publications, Spectacular Homes of the Southwest and Designer Showcase. Her designs are featured on the cover of both books.
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