09/30/2026
My relationship with design began long before it became my profession.
My parents purchased and restored historic homes in Americus, Georgia. Restoration of my childhood home began when I was in the first grade. For a time, I reached my upstairs bedroom by climbing scaffolding, coming home each day eager to see what had changed and taken shape.
That house, with its classical proportions and high ceilings, became my earliest education in structure, material and craftsmanship. I existed within its emergence from exposed studs and raw interiors into appointed rooms layered with wall coverings, rugs, drapery panels, mirrors, antiques and art.
Years later, my undergraduate work in history led me to Oxford, England, where my studies focused on ecclesiastical architecture and the history of the Church within the Western architectural tradition. That path continued through Parsons in New York and work for a New York architectural firm specializing in skyscraper design, giving me a contrasting understanding of structure, scale and contemporary construction.
England has remained a constant thread in my life. I traveled the English and French countryside in search of antiques and treasures to import, eventually opening Hawthorne House and Scope Lighting Group, an antiques, furniture, lighting and restoration showroom in Athens. Relationships with English generational craftsmen deepened my understanding of their inherited craft and traditions, from joinery and cabinetmaking to hand-cooked waxes and French polish. Those traditions continue in the finest bench-made and bespoke furniture companies we represent.
All these years later, I remain drawn to how something is made, how light moves through rooms, the integrity of materials, the hand of a craftsman, the history carried by an object and the way a home becomes inseparable from the lives lived within it.
At Lisa Ellis Design, architecture, interiors, furnishings and lighting are considered as a complete composition. We look to what is lasting rather than current, favoring authenticity, material integrity and craftsmanship over trends.
We translate dreams and intentions into physical reality, shaping memories to come.
