Today we’d like to introduce you to Katherine Maund.
Hi Katherine, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My career has taken a few different turns, but storytelling and creativity have always been the throughline. I started in advertising and brand strategy before eventually realizing I wanted to be closer to the creative work itself, which led me into interiors.
I’ve been in the design industry for more than a decade now, first building and running a home staging company and eventually shifting my focus fully to interior design. Today, through Copeland + Co. Interiors, I work primarily on residential renovations and restorations. I love getting to know how people actually live and translating that into spaces that feel like an extension of who they are.
Over the last few years, I’ve also become really interested in the people behind the creative work – how designers build businesses, trust their instincts, and find community in what can be a surprisingly isolating profession. That ultimately led me to create Design Commons PDX, and more recently to explore mentorship and Human Design as additional ways to support other creatives.
Looking back, I think all of those pieces are connected by the same thing: I love creating environments where people feel more like themselves – whether that’s a home, a business, or a community.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Definitely not – and honestly, I don’t think I’m wired for a particularly smooth road. I’ve been fired a few times, laid off from my advertising job, changed careers, and made plenty of mistakes along the way. I’m an experimenter by nature, and I tend to need to try things for myself rather than follow a prescribed path.
I didn’t go to school for interior design originally or come up working under another designer, so I really built my career from scratch. That meant a lot of trial and error – figuring out the creative side, the business side, and what kind of designer and business owner I actually wanted to be, often in real-time.
I don’t really believe in failure anymore. Some experiments work and some don’t, but almost all of them give me information about where to go next. My path has definitely been choppy because of that, but it’s also allowed me to keep evolving. I’m constantly asking how I want to show up in this industry next and what would make the work feel interesting and meaningful again. Design Commons is very much a product of that evolution.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Design Commons PDX is a coworking space and creative community built specifically for interior designers, architects, and other professionals working in the built environment. We have desks and offices, a conference room for client meetings, a shared materials library, and plenty of space to spread out and work – but the real value is the community that happens around all of that.
I created the Commons because so many of us are running small businesses and doing incredibly collaborative work, yet spending most of our days working alone. I wanted to create a place where designers could work alongside one another, share resources and knowledge, meet collaborators, and learn from people who understand the realities of running a creative business.
We also host workshops, educational programming, industry events, and conversations around everything from creative process and materials to finances, business development, and career growth. I’m really interested in expanding what “professional development” can look like for designers and making it feel useful, accessible, and actually fun.
What I’m most proud of is the culture we’re building. There’s a genuine spirit of generosity here. The goal has never been to get a bunch of designers in a room and have them compete with one another – it’s to recognize how much stronger and more interesting our industry becomes when we share what we know. More than anything, I want Design Commons to be a place where creatives can build better businesses, make meaningful connections, and feel less alone doing it.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I’m definitely a risk-taker, although I don’t always experience it that way. I’ve left careers, closed a business I spent nearly a decade building, started over more than once, and opened Design Commons without knowing exactly what it would become (and had no proof of concept). From the outside, some of those decisions probably looked pretty risky.
I think I’ve learned to see risk a little differently. There’s obviously risk in trying something new, but there’s also risk in staying somewhere because it’s comfortable or because you’ve already invested so much in it. I’m much more afraid of waking up years later and realizing I kept doing something that no longer felt right simply because it was working.
I tend to trust curiosity and momentum. I don’t need to know exactly where something is going before I begin – I need enough information to take the next step, and then I’m willing to adjust as I learn. That approach has definitely made my career less linear, but it’s also responsible for most of the things I’m proudest of.
Pricing:
- Day Pass $25
- Community Member $195/mo
- Resident Member $450/mo
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.designcommonspdx.com
- Instagram: @designcommonspdx
