Chattanooga Closet Company pantry
As Chattanooga Closet Company celebrates 25 years, founder and owner Kim Campbell has truly found her stride, and is focused on expansion.
Ms. Campbell opened Chattanooga Closet Company in 1998, when closet organization and design was not exactly on the public’s radar. As one of Chattanooga’s first such businesses, her new venture was no surprise to her family.
“You’re always doing something on your own,” Kim’s sister said, referring to Kim’s wallpaper hanging business and her photography business. When she and her husband moved to Chattanooga, they worked together in his staffing business, which gave her the training and confidence to springboard into her own business, which two and a half decades later, she clearly still loves.
"It was just one of those light bulb moments,” Kim said after seeing a family member’s new closet cabinet system in person. Closets are puzzles, and the solution relies on customer needs, inventory and execution, she said. “I listen, I observe, I process. I figure it out. That gives me so much satisfaction.”
“Repeat customers are the joy of my job,” Kim said. And that job has many facets. She may organize a family’s home, room by room, over many years, or she may follow the customer through a starter home, a larger home and back to a downsized home.
“My heart is in design, and space planning is my love,” Kim said, adding that she relies on her staff’s diverse talent to manage scheduling, materials and installation.
“The collaboration with the team is one of my favorite aspects of my work. I am most surprised that I have come to love managing people,” said Kim, adding that some members of her staff have been with her for 15 years.
Kim has not only found a niche, she excels at making what is traditionally “out of sight” a sight to behold. And she is ready to expand to another “out of sight” area: the garage.
Chattanooga Closet Company is expanding as a “one-stop shop” for garages, all the way down to coordinating the floor finishes. Besides the cabinets that Campbell has offered for 25 years, clients can choose a range of wall- and ceiling-mounted storage, hooks and racks for bikes and kayaks, and tool shop desks. Ms. Campbell’s experience and knowledge of the industry has led her to all-local material providers and manufacturers.
“It’s something people can afford, and it makes their lives so much easier,” Kim said of closet organization and design. Now you can add your garage to that statement.
Chattanooga Closet Company’s showroom is filled with 21 vignettes of different shelving finishes and layouts for main closet, kitchen pantry, laundry room, and garage, from classic styles to of-the-moment styles.
* * *
Ferris Robinson is the author of three children’s books, “The Queen Who Banished Bugs,” “The Queen Who Accidentally Banished Birds,” and “Call Me Arthropod” in her pollinator series “If Bugs Are Banished.” “Making Arrangements” is her first novel. “Dogs and Love - Stories of Fidelity” is a collection of true tales about man’s best friend. Her website is ferrisrobinson.com and you can download a free pollinator poster there. She is the editor of The Lookout Mountain Mirror and The Signal Mountain Mirror.