Trudie Cooper Krawcheck

In many ways, Trudie Cooper Krawcheck was born into the world of interior design. Born and raised around her family’s beautiful Charleston homes, Trudie learned to appreciate great design early on. For her, it’s not a job or a career but a way of life, and she brings that approach to every working relationship. When she works with clients, they get all of that passion and expertise, while bringing to life their style.

Representing the third generation of the Cooper family at Southeastern Galleries, Trudie puts her heart and soul into every design while striving to reflect her clients’ styles and tastes. She believes her job is to look and listen to clients in order to create a design that fully reflects their personalities and stories.

After graduating Ashley Hall, Agnes Scott College and the College of Charleston with a fine arts degree, Trudie fulfilled her destiny by joining the family business 35 years ago. In that time she has developed long-term relationships with many clients who have become her friends. One family in Kiawah has asked her to design six houses, all of which reflect the family’s living style and tastes, without any two of them alike.

Trudie’s clients say she is methodical, drawing architectural plans, doing background research, and viewing the family’s belongings before embarking on an actual home design. Trudie always incorporates pieces important to a family into the design, even if they have to be repurposed.

The style of Trudie’s grandparents and parents have become her own, leavened by modernity. Her own home includes spectacular family heirlooms with more contemporary upholstery. “I love pairing the old with the new, so my home is livable and comfortable and makes you feel welcomed,” she says. She did inherit her mother’s and grandmother’s desire to set a formal dinner table, complete with her grandmother’s china and mother’s silver goblet. She likes her family to sit down to dinner around a table that reflects the family’s heritage.

At Trudie’s dinner table, the conversation veers away from design towards sports – thanks to her active 17-year-old son, Jack. A single working mother, Trudie focuses her time and attention on her son’s activities and the work for which she has so much passion.

“There is such joy in doing what you love and working with clients that you love,” she says.