Women, In Their Own Words: Karin Bohn

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Welcome to another edition of our “Women, In Their Own Words” interview series! At DesignDash, we love celebrating the women shaping the design industry through creativity, leadership, and deeply personal points of view. This series gives designers an opportunity to reflect on the ideas, habits, and experiences that influence how they work and how they build their careers. Today, we’re thrilled to interview Karin Bohn.

Karin Bohn is the Founder and Creative Director of House of Bohn, which is an award-winning Vancouver-based interior design studio known for bold, expressive, and deeply individualized interiors. Since founding the firm in 2009, Karin has built a reputation for creating one-of-a-kind spaces that balance expressive design with true-to-life functionality. Through House of Bohn, she leads a female-forward team committed to creativity, collaboration, and high-quality work across residential, hospitality, multi-family, and commercial projects.

Her work has earned international acclaim, and many know Karin from Netflix’s Restaurants on the Edge, where she traveled with a team of experts to help transform struggling restaurants in striking locations around the world. At the center of Karin’s work is the belief that each project “has its own soul,” and that interior design should embody that personality.

In this interview, Karin reflects on creative ritual, business growth, leadership, and the evolving role of women in the design industry. We hope you enjoy reading her responses as much as we did.

Women, In Their Own Words: Karin Bohn

Design Dash: If you could listen to only one musical artist while working, who would it be and why?

Right now I’m really into ambient meditation music. It makes me feel really connected to myself and allows me to go inward, rather than being distracted by external things like my phone, emails, my environment, etc. I can get into a really focused and creative space while listening to meditation music, and rather than one artist, I’m going to mention a Spotify playlist that I could listen to on repeat, and that’s “Forest Bathing.”

DD: What’s the most unusual source of inspiration you’ve found for your work?

I’m not sure if this is “unusual,” but I love getting inspiration from film. When I watch a movie, I’m never listening to the dialogue and always miss the plot because I’m scrutinizing the interiors and architecture. I love seeing inside homes, palaces, and buildings from any period… I can’t help it, and when I watch a movie it always inspires new ideas.

DD: If you could collaborate with any historical figure (artist, designer, writer, etc.), who would it be and what would you create together?

Karin Bohn: Alexander McQueen; such a talented fashion designer with a distinct point of view.
Could we please create a line of furniture together?!

DD: Do you have a must-do creative ritual or superstition before starting a project? If yes, what is it?

Karin Bohn: Not necessarily for starting a project, but I definitely have a daily ritual, which is meditation. When I don’t do it, I feel off. Through meditation, I’m accessing my creative center, which is so key and paramount to my work. I come up with my best ideas and creative solutions during meditation.

DD: If your creative work were a color palette, which colors would be essential?

Karin Bohn: Brown. I’m obsessed with its versatility and inherent richness. I’m also drawn to deep forest greens and earthy tones, but they must be paired with a hint of metal, like bronze or antique brass.

DD: How do you manage the business side of being a creative; do you enjoy it or is it something you’ve had to grow into?

Karin Bohn: I love the business side of things! In fact, I think it’s actually one of my strengths. I really enjoy business development, hunting for new business, the sales process, and I love to negotiate.

I truly love running a company and a team. I’m very process-oriented, and I’m really good at creating protocols and improving efficiency. In this current chapter of my career (17 years into my business), I’m seeing how much my aptitude for operations has grown. It’s a bit of a surprising realization, as I would have never thought that operations would become a strength of mine, let alone something that I would enjoy doing.

DD: If you could only use three tools or materials for the rest of your career, what would they be?

Karin Bohn: I’d love to develop a really good project management software for designers. There are so many out there, but still to this day, I feel that none serve interior designers properly. It’s challenging to run a profitable business, so implementing a great, user-friendly software that could support measuring and running the business profitably would be a dream.

Aside from that, Canva and ChatGPT. I can’t work without either now.

DD: How has your creative process evolved over the years?

Karin Bohn: I’ve become very much a creative director, meaning I’m most comfortable leading a team in doing creative work rather than doing the work myself. I’m surrounded by a team who have such great technical skills, whether that’s sketching, sourcing, rendering, modeling, or drafting, and I love working with them collaboratively to create a beautiful project.

My creative process has evolved to be much more people-centric than task-centric.

DD: What’s one piece of advice you wish you’d known when you started your business or creative career?

Karin Bohn: I wish I had known how hard it is to step away from an interior design business. To be successful and maintain that level of success, it’s not a business you can start and then step away from. Unless you have partners, the demand for your time, oversight, and input is very high, and it remains that way. Seventeen years later, I’m still highly involved in my business and in each project today.

DD: Have you seen the landscape change for women in the creative industry over the years? What still needs to change?

Karin Bohn: I think women are more and more respected in the industry. When I was growing up, I didn’t know that an interior designer job existed. It was either that you were a male architect or a female decorator. In my early 20s, when I first learned that a friend of mine was going to design school, I asked her what the heck she was learning—wasn’t it just paint and fabric?!

The scope of an interior designer has evolved to encompass interior architecture, construction, and everything in between. I see women who are widely respected and trusted in this profession, and I couldn’t imagine it any other way.

DD: How do you think being a woman has shaped your creative vision or business approach?

Karin Bohn: Being a woman has shaped how I lead and create. I bring empathy and intuition to both—listening closely and designing for how spaces feel, not just how they look.

That carries into the business. I care deeply about my team and clients, but I lead with clarity and conviction.

As the studio has evolved, I’ve grounded everything in our values: creativity, quality, clarity, professionalism, growth, and commitment. They define how we design, communicate, and show up at House of Bohn.

DD: Have you recently wrapped any exciting projects, collaborations, collections, etc.? Are there any on the horizon you’d like to share?

Karin Bohn: Yes! We have many projects here at House of Bohn that we’re excited about. In particular, we’re designing the Alpen Club right now—a 6,500 sq. ft. modern German restaurant that will open in 2027.

We’re also working on a luxury residential tower project in Bellevue, Washington, with about 10,000 sq. ft. of amenity space, which is very exciting for us.

In addition to that, we’re collaborating with several local developers in Vancouver on exciting projects, including Townline, Aquilini Development, and Bosa Development.

Many Thanks to Karin Bohn for Participating in “Women, In Their Own Words”

We extend our sincere thanks to Karin Bohn for sharing her perspective, experiences, and creative philosophy with us. In her responses, Karin speaks about meditation, film, and intuition as part of her creative life, but she is just as engaged in the business side of design, from operations and negotiation to project management and profitability.

By pairing bold creative direction with a clear investment in process, collaboration, and the day-to-day realities of running a firm, Karin and her team have built a distinctive studio with influence in Vancouver and beyond. We wish them considerable continued success in the years to come. To explore more of Karin’s work, visit House of Bohn online and follow along on social media (embedded above) for updates on her latest projects.

Stay tuned for more inspiring voices in our “Women, In Their Own Words” series. If you’d like to be invited to participate, please email our EIC at editor@designdash.com with “WITOW” in the subject line and your responses included in the body of the email.