Yancey Seibert Shearouse owns a lot of mechanical pencils—at last estimate, more than 1,900 of them—along with an impressive inventory of hardcover notebooks that her staff must regularly replenish. And then there’s the tracing paper that travels with her to every project she undertakes for her 28-year-old, Augusta-based eponymous company, Yancey Seibert Shearouse Interior Design.
While these may seem like old school tools, they are mainstays for this principal designer to turn her visions into something tangible anytime and anywhere. “I’ve always been able to draw,” says Yancey, who founded her business in 1997 in her parents’ living room in Natchez, Mississippi, as a recent graduate of the renowned interior design program at the University of Mississippi. “I can’t draw a person, and I don’t paint. But I can visualize and think in 3D.”
It all goes back to her years at college, where drawing was a significant part of the curriculum. “We had to draw axonometrics and sections and perspective, and I got it,” she says. “Everything had to be proportionally scaled. You can sit in front of a computer and do it, but I can do it [by hand] quickly. I can see a space before it’s done.”
Initially, Yancey thought she would apply that talent to a career as an architect. However, she soon realized that interior design made more sense to her. Growing up in Natchez, a historic town known for its antebellum homes and antiques, she found herself enamored by interiors. Beginning at the tender age of eight, she volunteered to show tourists inside those homes during the city’s annual Spring Pilgrimage.
She leaned into that experience at Ole Miss, where she not only studied the technical elements of interior design, but also learned how to operate a business, thanks to her mentor and professor Jack Hull, who had been a practicing interior designer for years. By the time she was a junior, she used her aptitude for space planning to take on renovation projects for historic properties in her hometown, including an 1870 Greek Revival and a 1910 Colonial Revival.
After graduation, she was offered a job in Maryland with excited, she knew it would be a financial challenge to move for the opportunity. Her father encouraged her to stay at home and continue the work she had been doing. “I did stay in Natchez, and I learned so much,” she says. “I’m glad that [clients] were willing to take me on so I could gain some really great experience.”
Over the next couple of decades, Yancey restarted her company twice: once when she moved to Savannah in 2000, and again after relocating to Augusta in 2005. During those years, she expanded her offerings to include full-service design for residential and commercial clients. She says that her background, which includes an understanding of construction and expertise in art history, has helped with everything from space planning to decorating.
Because she never worked for anyone else, Yancey developed her own process. Today, that includes her “Signature 5 Points of Decorating”—guidelines that help her create personalized spaces for her clients and ensure that their time and money are well spent. For every project, she draws her plans on-site so that her clients can immediately see her vision of the finished product. “It’s kind of a trick, but it’s also just part of my process,” she says.
For Yancey, whose accolades include being selected by the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center (ADAC) as “One to Watch” and nominated for ADAC’s Rising Stars award, every project should be completely different. “A project should never look like me. Your house needs to be a reflection of you, and a good space planner and designer can do that,” she says. “The biggest compliments I receive are when clients tell me that their homes look just like them. I love providing that service.”
