About Lion House Design
Kate Leuhusen in the owner and principal designer at Lion House Design. Kate is a formally trained landscape designer, interior plant stylist, sustainability expert, artist, devoted vintage hunter, travel enthusiast, and passionate environmentalist. Dedicated to connecting people with nature, Kate's design philosophy is "plant the future" with sustainable design solutions that are beautiful, functional, and pollinator-friendly/native/drought-tolerant. Her design style is influenced by nature, growing up in California, traveling the world, living abroad, and passion for the arts. Kate loves blending the boundaries between wild nature and the unique characteristics of a site. LHD's goal is to connect clients with the beauty of nature, with thoughtful design decisions, unique materials, and lush plants. Kate enjoys designing with nature to create relaxing spaces that spark joy, while providing habitats for wildlife.
Kate's career as a designer spans 15 years across the USA & abroad. She has a dual Masters in Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning from the University of Colorado, and a third Masters in Sustainable Urban Development from Oxford. Her career began in 2005 in Boulder, CO, designing and building gardens for elementary schools and developers. After college, Kate's work shifted into the government sector, where she worked in the Bay Area for the Orinda City Planning Department, followed by the United States Forest Service, as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialist and landscape architect. In 2015, Kate moved to England with her husband. During her time abroad, Kate worked in town planning and went back to school and completed a Masters of Science in Sustainable Urban Development at the University of Oxford. Kate was a student at Kellogg College, enjoyed rowing crew for Christchurch, and was a class representative. Throughout her studies at Oxford, Kate had the incredible opportunity to study English garden design in the nearby Cotswolds, an experience that has heavily influenced her design aesthetic and ethos. Kate's Oxford dissertation focused on sustainable tourism, and when she moved back to the USA, her time was split between residential garden design and sustainability consulting for Airbnb. After moving to Los Angeles, Kate grew her business quickly through word-of-mouth and client/contractor referrals, and has been creating beautiful interior and exterior spaces for clients across Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
Lion House Design steers Kate's passion for gardens and sustainability, by combining landscape architecture, environmental design, and art. A small, dedicated team collaborates with clients to help shape and transform design ideas into reality. Lion House Design loves creating outdoor environments that are lush, textured, and rich in color, while also being environmentally conscious, pollinator-friendly, and low maintenance/low water. Each project is different with site-specific challenges, since no garden is the same. LHD also enjoys bringing the outdoors in, working with clients to refresh their homes with beautiful & unique interior plant styling. No project is too small -- LHD loves designing patio gardens, rooftops, and refreshing container gardens/creating unique custom arrangements for clients. Lion House Design is a woman-owned business, that takes pride in communicating with clients — openly and quickly — understanding their needs and explaining the design process clearly. Lion House Design strives to design resilient landscapes for a sustainable future, that will fulfill and exceed client expectations.
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Plant the future with Lion House Design!