Katie grew up playing competitive sports and had little time to discover her true passions in life because of a busy sports and school schedule. In high school, her dream of playing college softball came to an end after several injuries and a hip surgery. Katie spent her time healing from surgery by painting and learning new skills and quickly realized how passionate she is about creating beautiful things.
Katie attended Linn-Benton Community college but became uninspired by the career path she was on and found herself longing for something more creative and hands-on. She had the opportunity to travel to Switzerland and Italy and her love for the arts and beautiful spaces propelled her into creating a life full of inspiration and creativity. After returning home, she began working at a financial service company which gave her some freedom and a sense of entrepreneurship that she was craving from a career, but still lacked the creativity she wanted.
After hearing about Heritage School of Interior Design from Heritage graduate, Amy VanDitti, Katie was immediately interested in the program and met with Stephanie to discuss her options. It was everything that Katie was looking for and more and she made the decision to start saving up to pay for her tuition. Although Katie was one of the youngest students in the history of Heritage at age 20, she excelled and was able to enhance her natural creative abilities with an education, which gave her the confidence she needed to start her career as an interior designer. She woke up every day excited to learn about something she loved and graduated from Heritage with the biggest sense of pride and fulfillment.
Throughout the program, Katie developed a love for tiny house design and the tiny house movement. The day after graduation, she found an ad for a design intern position with one of her favorite HGTV shows based in Portland, OR called Tiny Luxury.
Katie explained to us, “I had a total freak-out moment as the timing was absolutely perfect and it was exactly what I was looking for. I sent them my resume, a paragraph about how I graduated from Heritage the day before, and how much I admired their work and tiny house design. I pressed send and crossed my fingers.”
The owner at Tiny Heirloom (their official company name) called Katie an hour later and wanted her to come in for an interview the same day. She interviewed with them and received an email later that night offering her the position as their design intern! She accepted and has been in love with her new job at Tiny Heirloom and their amazing crew. She assists the lead designer with choosing interior finishes and communicating with clients throughout the design process.
“It’s everything I’ve dreamed of and more and to have accomplished this amazing milestone at age 20 with the help of Heritage and their amazing staff has been so overwhelming in the best way possible.”
