Get the free guide

About Kathleen

Designer. Founder.
System Builder.

Interior Designer. MBA. Expat. Dog Walker. Spontaneous Traveler. Textile Huntress.

15+ years of high-end residential design, three continents, and a lot of hard-won lessons about running a business that actually works.

The story

Kathleen DiPaolo has a system for everything.

For decades she has run her own design business, producing projects in the US while living in India, Hungary, and England. Managing complex, high-end residential projects across three continents meant building systems that could actually hold up under pressure.

Not theory. Real projects, real clients, real stakes. That discipline — combined with an MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business and a California Real Estate Broker's license — gave her an unusually complete picture of what it takes to run a profitable design studio.

That's how Return on Interiors was born. And it's the same system she uses to run her own business today.

By the numbers

What Kathleen brings to the table

15+

Years of design experience

High-end residential design across the US, India, Hungary, and England.

3

Continents

Managing complex projects across three continents builds systems that actually hold up.

MBA

USC Marshall School of Business

Business thinking combined with creative expertise. A rare combination in the design world.

The work

Systems that help designers run better businesses.

Kathleen developed her courses and tools to keep her own design work on track, and began offering them to the design community to help other designers transform the way they work.

For 15 years, those systems have helped hundreds of designers get more time back for themselves while running businesses that are more productive and profitable.

  • Quick Reference Guides — 49 visual guides for every selection conversation
  • Design Project Blueprint — the complete Asana-powered project management system
  • Return on Interiors System — the complete business system with personal onboarding

Start here

Ready to run your business like Kathleen does?

Start with the free guide and build from there.

Get the Free Guide

The tools

Choose where to start

Quick Reference Guides

Starting point

Quick Reference Guides

49 visual guides for every selection conversation. Stop re-explaining and start presenting.

Learn More
Return on Interiors System

Complete system

Return on Interiors System

Everything you need to run your business with confidence. Personal onboarding with Kathleen included.

Learn More