Story

Over 10 years ago I walked away from a career in strategy consulting to answer a call that had been tugging at me for as long as I have memory.  I, like many others, knew there was something I was supposed to be doing, something that I needed to fulfill. Eventually and thankfully this tug got my attention.

I grew up in Southern California in a Los Angeles suburb. As a child, I loved the hidden world that science revealed to me.  I was fascinated by how our bodies worked in a precise kind of perfection.  I went on to study biology and life sciences at UCLA, certain I would make a career in healthcare.  Upon graduation I moved to New York City to further my studies and enrolled at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Public Health.  Graduate School is what brought me to New York, but it was New York that opened up my world to an entirely different possibility.

I was newly married and my husband and I loved exploring the city by way of restaurants, hotels, museums, friends’ apartments, etc.  I naturally found myself admiring, but also critiquing and often redesigning – at least in my mind – the spaces we encountered.  By being away from my home town, old routines and expectations, I began to get in touch with an intuition I had on space (one that I can now see goes back to childhood when I disliked my room).  I noticed with clarity how much the built environment impacted my mood, how a beautiful space could be ruined by lights turned on too brightly, how a matched room could feel flat in its perfection; and most excitingly, how a well designed space made me feel so alive and downright happy.  Being exposed to the dynamic spaces of New York City woke me from a dormant slumber, maybe even a purposeful hibernation.  It was as if my creative fire needed not to be kindled before I could sharpen my analytical left brain, which has informed much of how I design today. 

Though I had been asking the question of my purpose for years, the answer came in one short, dramatic, and life changing moment.  On the east side of New York, in the late evening, my question ebbed and flowed through my mind as I tried to sleep, but this time, something came to me - Interior Design - I said it to myself as if I was trying it on – Interior Design.  I got out of bed that night and somehow, almost magically, I knew exactly what I needed to do. I quit my job, cashed out my 401K and enrolled at design school.  Everyone around me seemed impressed at the risk I was taking, but I didn’t feel courageous, I knew there was no risk in pursuing one’s purpose.  

I quickly rose to the top of my class, worked with the noted Celerie Kemble, Richard Keith Langham and did freelance design for friends and family.  I began to present, just like New York had for me, a new point of view, one that explored what happens beyond the surface of a space.  Time passed, cross-country moves were made, children were had, a Masters in Interior Architecture was completed, and ultimately a unique design methodology was born and Katch Design Collective was created.