Photograph by Brie Williams
On Jones Street in Savannah’s Historic District, the 1853 Margaret Dibble House stands as a testament to how interiors can honor the past while embracing the present. Designer Linn Gresham of Leah Bailey Interiors has orchestrated multiple transformations over the years for the homeowners. The residence is a clever combination of renovation, historic preservation, and new construction. “It’s a work in progress,” she says.
For the latest iteration, which took three years to complete, the directive was to renovate upstairs bedrooms and baths in the original structure, refresh the period rooms below, and add a new wing with a kitchen, a primary suite, and an elevator. Completed in 2023, the project required navigating Savannah’s strict preservation guidelines while delivering a modern sophistication to the clients.
Photograph by Brie Williams
Photograph by Brie Williams
“The house has a very high profile address, which meant that we had to do things like run the color palette through the Savannah Historic District Board of Review and work carefully with the architecture firms to make sure we were honoring the historic parts of the home,” Linn explains. That restraint, when paired with the designer’s ingenuity, led to thoughtful interiors, especially downstairs. The owners, who are frequent entertainers, rarely used their formal dining room as intended, so Linn converted the space into a double parlor that now serves several functions depending on who is in the room.
Photograph by Brie Williams
Photograph by Brie Williams
“We put a dining table in the front parlor, but it doubles as a desk,” she says. Now the room can move from workspace to client meeting space to event space, with office paraphernalia discreetly tucked under skirted tables. Linn even photographed each configuration so that caterers can seamlessly set up for events.
The home has an easy elegance, but not necessarily the kind associated with traditional Southern design. For color palette and texture cues, Gresham pulled from the homeowner’s fashion style. For example, the black taffeta window treatments in the double parlor are a nod to a favorite ball gown. “She’s artistic [in her fashion] and likes really clean lines, things that are nicely crafted. There’s an ease, and she doesn’t try hard,” Linn says of her client. When the house appears on Savannah’s annual Christmas Tour of Homes later this year, that inspiration gown will be on display in the room.
The same philosophy extends to the art collection, curated with Savannah’s Laney Contemporary gallery. Works by Betsy Cain, Mary Hartman, Ansley West Rivers, Katherine Sandoz, Peter Schulte, and Pamela Wiley bring modern energy to the home’s historic bones.
Photograph by Brie Williams
Photograph by Brie Williams
The new kitchen acts as the home’s connective tissue, linking the historic rooms to the primary suite and courtyard beyond. “Circulation was a huge concern, so we tried to leave as much walk space as possible,” Linn says. The client provided inspiration images featuring white oak and dark matte black granite; the designer refined the vision with waterfall countertops flanking the range and island and a custom zinc and brass hood by local artisan Forsyth Metal Works.
That same reliance on organic materials is seen in the primary bath, where wood paneling wraps the walls. It’s an unexpected choice in an era of ubiquitous white marble. “It was a sort of color drench, but with wood,” Linn says. That organic warmth is repeated in the primary bedroom, where a unique wood ceiling is paired with soft, glamorous furnishings.
Photograph by Brie Williams
Photograph by Brie Williams
For the designer, who has known her clients for 15 years, it’s a dream pairing, as the homeowner loves to refresh constantly and finds inspiration everywhere. “There’s always a new idea in her brain,” Linn says.
