Sammy's love of design started at a young age, watching Extreme Home Makeover as a little girl. What captivated her wasn't the big reveal; it was the listening. She loved watching designers sit down with a child, ask about their favorite activities and hobbies and the things that made them light up, and seeing them transform a bedroom into a space that felt like it was made just for them. That idea - that a room could be a portrait of the person inside it - became the foundation of everything she does.

She went on to study interior design at Belmont University's O'More College of Architecture and Design. One project from her school years still stands out to her: a design built around the word silence. It pushed her to think about interiors in a completely different way; not as an exercise in placing furniture, but as a way to invoke emotion. She found herself drawn to nature and creation, imagining spaces where people could step away from the noise of the world and simply feel at peace: raw, real materials, water features, greenery, quiet. That instinct - designing for feeling first - still guides her today.