When Casey and I first looked at our Savannah home we fell in love with everything except the main bedroom and bathroom layout. Specifically we were worried about the lack of closet space! Our realtor told us that closets were a rare commodity in older homes and even though we agreed with her we had to figure out a way to meet our modern day needs.

Luckily, Chad Goehring the Principal with the Harrison Design Architecture Firm and his team had a few ideas up their sleeves. I learned about Harrison Design while I lived in St. Simons Island since they have an office right down the street from our home. Chad specifically has done a lot of work for a few of my friends’ homes and came highly recommended. Even though Harrison Design is a national firm (and their recently published book sits on my coffee table) they’re heavily focused on relationships. Renovating a home, making decisions and then reversing those decisions (haha) can be a pretty stressful process. Sometimes after a large renovation, relationships can be strained. However Chad and his team were so awesome to work with that our relationship only grew stronger. They were incredibly helpful with finding a design that was functional yet beautiful.

The Before.

Below is a picture of the main bedroom before the renovation started. The room had way too many doors. Even more, the storage behind the doors was very minimal.

The Design.

What I love about working with Chad is that he took all of my Pinterest pins and napkin drawings (ha!) and came up with a beautiful and functional design specifically for our space. Once he provided me with the plans I just handed them to our contractor and moved forward with the design. It was a very easy process.

We did make a couple modifications to minimize cost. We ended up putting shelves inside of a few of the closets for additional shoe storage and folded clothes. I loved the initial idea of having built in drawers but in the end it was cost prohibitive.

The Solution.

The closet was just finalized a few weeks ago. I love how it turned out and I finally have a place for my dresses, handbags and shoes. I actually spend all day Sunday sewing fabric panels for a few of the doors to match the drapes and bedding. I incorporated fabric panels to help break up the wood and soften the space overall.

The best part, I think, is the beautiful lucite hardware c/o of LuxHoldups. They’re absolutely stunning in person and the 7″ size is the perfect scale for the doors. I could install this hardware in every room, which is why I also opted for LuxHoldups in my main bathroom — stay tuned!

Tamara Gibson Photography