Kelly Mitchell

Background

About Kelly Mitchell

I’m Kelly Mitchell and I founded Leben Design in 2021 with a passion to provide minimalist, high quality design at a fraction of the typical architectural cost. Since graduating from Virginia Tech in 2008 with a Bachelor of Architecture, I’ve spent a large chunk of my career doing custom residential design. I am a licensed architect in Virginia and have worked closely with homeowners and builders from conceptual design through construction. My approach to design is rooted in pragmatism. My father was a custom home builder for over 40 years and I spent summers in college working on his jobsites. Since then, as an architect I have years of on-site experience fielding construction questions and working closely with contractors. My husband and I even renovated our Richmond, Virginia home built in 1836, completing most of the work ourselves. We quickly developed the saying, “the third time’s the charm”. I have a deep respect for what it takes to construct a house. That acquired knowledge is the grounding force to all of my design work. It’s one thing to create a pretty picture and quite another to build it.