About – Kathryn J. LeMaster Art & Design

MEET KATHRYN J. LEMASTER

Hi there! I am an interior designer and entrepreneur, and among the many things I love (coffee, yoga, red wine, the great outdoors, reading, writing, watering my plant babies, playing with my actual baby (okay he’s nearly 4) listening to and playing music – to name a few) I most especially love helping people live happily in their homes! I believe for the happiest space, where we live and work should be extension of who we are, reflecting our personalities and telling our stories. So part of my job is helping people express themselves and tell their stories through their homes while we optimize the space to function at it’s full potential! If you can’t tell by now, I absolutely love my job. Getting to know my clients on such a personal level as to accomplish this level of authenticity in their spaces means I always end up making new friends – usually that is my clients, but it is often their dogs, too.

I studied interior design at UCA here in Central AR, followed by the privilege of working at a world-renown luxury residential design firm, Tobi Fairely Interior Design. After a couple of years at the firm it was time for a change. I struck out on my own. In the middle of nowhere. Not really. But I wasn’t sure I “had what it takes” to start my own business. I believed alot of what I now identify as small-minded thinking and limiting lies that often hold us back from what we were meant to do. Nay, I was a lady of little faith.

How I ended up here is a long story for another time, but by God’s grace, here I am. 10+ years later, celebrating my company’s 8+ year anniversary with faith grown and more joy from this journey than I ever could have dreamed! It turns out I was most definitely meant to start my own business. In doing so, I’ve gotten to live out part of my purpose by using my creative gifts and professional skills to serve countless families, individuals and businesses, helping solve their interior dilemmas to create personalized spaces that serve their intended purpose. It is seriously so rewarding and makes my heart so happy! I love what my Insta-friend artist Allison recently wrote, “Our Great Creator formed us all to be artists – each one of us being given unique gifts to encourage and touch others in this life.” Yes, this is something I was meant to do.

So there’s a bit about me. I’d love to learn more about you! Please don’t leave without saying hello whether through the Connect page or connecting via social media. Thanks for dropping in!

xo – kathryn j.

THINGS THAT MAKE ME SMILE

1 Hot coffee. All day every day.
2 A good pun. Puns are my 2nd strongest skill.
3 Critters of all kinds. Especially Rufus & Nellie.
4 Liam love. My most incredible smol human.
5 The sunshine. It reminds me of Jesus’ face.
6 Wind. I imagine angel wings beating is the cause of wind! (See Heb. 1:7 ;))

everyone needs partners in crime

MEETEMILY PARKS

Junior Designer Genius

Emily attended the University of Arkansas where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in Social Work. She and her husband Devon (a film and television director) met at high school in Van Buren, Arkansas, attended the same college, graduated in May of 2013, got married 2 weeks later became parents to the Greatest Dane around (Scout) and moved to Los Angeles within the year. (Whew!)

With a lot of life changes happening so quickly, one “hobby” remained humbly and subtly consistent – design. Over the last decade, she found herself designing events from weddings, parties, showers, a bat mitzvah here and there, her too-small apartments, her friends’ too-small apartments, a regional Emmy Award-winning short film, short films that didn’t win anything at all – and several nationally-aired commercials. Despite numerous opportunities in the creative industry, Emily remained in her actual degree field for 5 years; working as a Behavior Interventionist for children of all abilities in a variety of settings. Yet when a friend enthusiastically said to her one day, “You should consider a career in design!”, she remembers looking at them as if they had just told a hilarious joke. Design full-time, what?! How? Where? With who?

Since finally committing to full-time design in 2017, Emily has completed 2 feature films and a 10-part television series for a major network. The answers to the whats, hows, and wheres are all stories for another time, but as for “with who?”- enter, with the sunniest soundtrack your brain can muster, Kathryn LeMaster. Emily and Kathryn met on set through a production design client, where their worlds of interior and production design met and melded in perfect design harmony. She continued to hone her creative gifts in production design and styling while expanding her design skills in to the interior design realm by training with Kathryn for a year. She recently became the company’s first Junior Designer and is continually saving the day by providing much needed design assistance in all capacities from design concepts, project development, presentation creation – essentially supporting Kathryn as her left-hand-woman (because Kathryn’s left handed) on all design fronts while also taking excellent care of our ever-growing family of clients and vendors. Emily says of her future in design, “The rest is a history still being written, but I am so blessed and excited to be a part of this special company lead by the best!”

MEETFORREST ADDISON

Project Manager + Resident Techspert

Hi there! Forrest here.

I am your Onboarding Specialist, Project Manager, and friendly resident Techspert for Kathryn J. LeMaster Art & Design. What had originally started out as helping her troubleshoot website issues, quickly became a smol bit more. A sort of hybrid role of sorts. Anywhere from some administrative assistance, any and all tech woes, to deliveries + installation coordination, to mock-up renderings. You could say I’m a bit of a jack-of-all-trades.

Beyond my worksphere at KJL, here’s a bit more about me! I am 33 years young, and have a full-time career in IT with 14+ years experience. I’m also a nature, landscape, food, and portrait photographer. I love to paint with watercolor and wine. Some of my other favorite funtivities include cooking, product/food styling, hiking, camping, waterfall chasing, star gazing, movies, health/fitness, Christmas – pretty much just about anything else that spells FUN. Skydiving is on my bucket list of things I want to accomplish in my life this year. I’m also a CrossFit L1 Certified Trainer aaaannnddd a proud pawrent of the wild and spunky Goldendoodle dog, Maui.

I am super happy and grateful to be here working with Kathryn and Emily, and I look forward to working with YOU! 🙂 Have such a wonderful year!

MEETRUFUS & NELLIE

Super Receiving Supervisor and Dynamic Daily Operations Manager

Nine years ago, they were just a couple a pups in a pen. Like a pair of mismatched book ends, Rufus was the biggest of the litter while Nellie was the runt. Despite their distance in stature and difference in personality – these two couldn’t be closer.
Rufus is the life of the party around the house and office, living by the philosophy that strangers are just friends he hasn’t met yet. Meanwhile Nellie prefers to take her time getting to know you, but once you’re “in” – you’re in for life. At work, you can usually find Rufus posted up at the window watching for the FedEx and UPS trucks to drop of incoming packages, mailman Kevin to drop off the mail, and keep an eye on his porch bird frienemies, ready to sound the alarm (Ruf! His name really is so fitting) should a bird-fight break out or a package arrive.
Nellie is always the first to arrive at the office (such a long commute down 18 stairs from her bed at the end of Kathryn’s bed to her desk under Kathryn’s desk) where she stares questioningly across the room at Kathryn (usually still stirring her coffee in the Kitchen) as though to inquire, “are we going to work today?” until Kathryn finally takes her seat at the desk after sloshing Nellie’s share of coffee across the floor on her way there. Once everyone is in their place, she likes observing from Kathryn’s feet to ensure daily tasks are performed up to her high standard of excellence and the office playlist is sufficiently jammy.