CHRISTA SORAUF
Christa started her design career at eight years old when her father had a beautiful dollhouse made for a Christmas present. While ELLE DÉCOR had yet to be published, she still managed to design a dream house fashioning furniture and textiles from her own imagination. Christa studied art and painting at The Milwaukee Art Museum and graduated Cum Laude from the Honors College at the University of South Carolina with a double major in design and business. Upon graduating, she was hired as an art director at Erwin-Penland Advertising and eventually became associate creative director. Christa started her own design firm in 1996 and launched a stationery and gift ware company in 2006. After three fun, fabulous and crazy years in the business, including an appearance on a NBC reality show, Christa sold her company and became a licensed artist and designer. She has designed exclusive product collections for Target, American Greetings, Hallmark, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Swoozies, DesignDesign, Inc. and received more than 100 awards for her design work. After years of designing interiors for friends, family and neighbors, she launched DUO DESIGN STUDIOS with one of her best friends, Gregorie Bylenga.
GREGORIE BYLENGA
Gregorie began her love affair with design from admiring her grandmother’s beautiful Tudor home in Florida, “She had the most amazing taste and it was from her that I learned how to mix old and new, as evidenced by her newly recovered leopard print chair that sat on her mother’s antique oriental rug. Every spring she would pull out white slipcovers and white rugs for the living room and the orientals would go into storage until fall.” Her family is blessed with historic homes in Charleston and Sullivan’s Island as well, and Gregorie learned a lot from the amazing women that oversaw these homes. Decorating became a true passion and she has a true desire to help others do the same. Not always being able to purchase original art for her interiors, she took art lessons and paints her own originals from abstracts to landscapes. Now, Gregorie carries on her family’s legacy and has a signature style that mixes traditional classics with fresh modern design.
SHELBY ASKINS
As senior designer at Duo Design Studio, Shelby’s primary focus is the client. She selects interior finishes, furniture, lighting, and accessories for our design clients, as well as creates CAD renderings. Shelby is a Greenville native and attended Liberty University, graduating Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Interior Design and Minor in Business. She has also studied and acquired her love of classical beauty from her travels to Italy and other European countries. Those inspirations still speak to her today. She believes that good living involves comfort, sophistication, and a touch of the unusual. Before becoming our Senior Designer, Shelby was a design intern at Duo Design Studio for three summers. Her skills include a depth of design, design technology knowledge, and an ability to pair that knowledge with each client’s personal style and taste.