Business of Home Podcast

After a chance meeting in Brooklyn brought them together, Todd Nickey and Amy Kehoe forged a partnership that has survived a cross country move and two decades in business. Today, both the firm and the retail operation are thriving, and Nickey Kehoe is one of LA’s most celebrated young design brands. On this episode of the podcast, the duo talk about the secrets of a long-term partnership, finding...

Irish furniture brand Orior has an improbable history: Started in the late 1970s by the husband-and-wife duo of Brian and Rosie McGuigan, the company began in a small town near Belfast in the midst of the Troubles. 40 years later, the furniture is still manufactured in the same town, but the McGuigan’s son Ciaran has brought the brand to New York and given it an edgy, cosmopolitan look. On this ep...

Once an aspiring actor, Martyn Lawrence Bullard left his native England for Hollywood in the 1990s and quickly switched professions. He’s since become one of the industry’s most renowned designers, earning a regular spot on best-of lists, and working with a roster of celebrity clients, from Cher and Elton John to Machine Gun Kelly and Kylie Jenner. On this episode of the podcast, Bullard speaks wi...

Once a buzzy DTC furniture brand, last year Interior Define hit hard times and stopped paying its vendors, leaving thousands of customers in limbo with unfulfilled orders. At the 11th hour, Interior Define was acquired by an unlikely buyer: e-design platform Havenly. This week, Havenly’s CEO Lee Mayer returns to the podcast to talk about the acquisition. Mayer speaks with host Dennis Scully about...

You may not be familiar with the name “Design Holding,” but you know the brands in its portfolio, including Flos, B&B Italia, Louis Poulsen, Maxalto and many more. Through strategic acquisitions, the company has quietly become one of the most significant players in European luxury design—CEO Daniel Lalonde’s goal is to make Design Holding the LVMH of the home world. On this episode of the podcast,...

When Jake Arnold and Leo Seigal launched The Expert in 2021, the online design platform quickly took the industry by storm, connecting clients with elite designers for video consultations booked at hundreds of dollars an hour. Now the two are launching an e-commerce component to The Expert, and they’ve lined up a roster of premier brands like Pierre Frey, Apparatus and Rose Tarlow to help them do...

Interior designer Mary McDonald rose to prominence in the early aughts, as her work began to show up on the cover of shelter magazines. She’s stayed at the top of the field ever since—McDonald is a regular fixture on industry best-of lists, and her licensed collections with Schumacher and Chaddock are perennial hits. On this episode of the podcast she speaks with host Dennis Scully about the chall...

Founded in 1935, Pierre Frey has become one of the most admired names in the world of high-end design, revered for its inventive, colorful creations. Patrick Frey, the son of the founder, has steered the company for decades as it has grown its presence all over the world.  The firm now offers wallcoverings, carpets and furniture, having acquired the storied French rug maker Braquenie, and the fabr...

Industrial designer Stephen Burks career started in the early 2000s, when he became one of the first Americans to design furniture for European powerhouses like Roche Bobois, Moroso and Cappellini. Over the past two decades, he’s become one of industrial design’s most notable figures, creating collections for top brands and working with artisans around the world. On this episode of the podcast, Bu...

In 2011, Roxy Owens left behind a marketing career to start a furniture and decor brand dedicated to playful traditionalism. Eight years later, the rise of “grandmillennial” style helped Society Social find its moment—Owens is coming off a year of record growth and an expansive new collaboration with The Colony hotel in Palm Beach. On this episode of the podcast, she speaks about the tension betwe...

A member of the UK’s rising generation, Interior designer Sophie Ashby has achieved widespread attention for her colorful and eclectic projects. During COVID, she got even busier, opening Sister, a retail brand, and United in Design, a nonprofit that seeks to address the lack of diversity in the British design industry. On this episode of the podcast, she speaks with host Dennis Scully about why s...

Alexa Hampton is, by any definition, a lifer in the trade. The daughter of celebrated designer Mark Hampton, she grew up in the business, and took over her father’s firm at the age of 27 after his untimely passing in 1998. Since then, Alexa has never slowed down, earning endless plaudits for her work, appearing regularly on industry best-of lists, authoring books and columns, and designing product...

This week on the podcast host Dennis Scully is joined by BOH’s editor in chief Kaitlin Petersen and executive editor Fred Nicolaus. Together they look back on an eventful year in the design industry and ahead at what’s to come in the new year. Topics include the two companies that will determine the future of the industry, which tech innovations actually matter, and why, despite economic stormclou...

Though American Leather may be an unfamiliar name  in the design trade, the company is a powerhouse of furniture manufacturing, with 800 employees in a Texas facility that’s capable of churning out 500 pieces of furniture a day. President Veronica Schnitzius has risen through the ranks over two decades— as a young woman she left behind cartel violence in Colombia to come to the US, and found a rol...

To the outside world, Amber Lewis is an interior designer. Behind the scenes, her business is a complex operation with more than 100 employees, tackling everything from retail shops, product design and e-commerce to books, licenses and residential projects. Lewis has grown it piece by piece over the past decade, bootstrapping the company, without outside funding. On this episode of the podcast, sh...

In 2011, Athena Calderone was a young mother in Brooklyn, looking to turn her considerable creative energy into a career. She started a blog, Eyeswoon, which has grown into a powerful platform for her various endeavors, including cooking, styling, and design. A decade in and fresh off a major collection for Crate and Barrel, Calderone is poised to kick off a new phase of growth: she’s in the midst...

A fixture in the top tier of the international design scene since the late nineties, Timothy Corrigan has been on every magazine’s honor roll, won numerous awards, and is the only American to be recognized by the French Heritage Society for his work. His clients have included everyone from Madonna and David Schwimmer to the Qatari royal family—every month Tim makes a loop around the world to atten...

It’s difficult to sum up Lori Weitzner ’s career quickly. From her partnership with fabric icon Jack Lenor Larsen to her longtime relationship with Samuel & Sons to her own wallcovering line to her jewelry to her book on color, she’s truly a multifaceted talent. On this episode of the podcast, she speaks with host Dennis Scully about learning to make the best of criticism and setbacks, her strong...

As the likes of 1stdibs and Chairish have embraced a transactional, click-to-buy model for buying and selling online, Carmine Bruno is going in the other direction. His site, The Bruno Effect, offers something of an old-school system—it simply connects dealers with shoppers, then gets out of the way. On this episode of the podcast, Bruno speaks with host Dennis Scully about the growing pains of en...

Twice a year, thousands of designers and retail buyers descend on a small town in North Carolina for High Point Market. A trade show, a conference, a networking event, and at night a party — High Point is the home industry’s South by Southwest. The fall edition just wrapped, and to recap the event, this week on the podcast Business of Home ’s editor-in-chief Kaitlin Petersen and retail columnist W...

After starting her career in the art world, a chance encounter at a dinner party got Beth Webb into design, and she hasn’t looked back. With projects in top magazines, a book through Rizzoli and a licensed collection with Arteriors, she’s one of the South’s most notable talents. On this episode of the podcast, she speaks with host Dennis Scully about how she’s navigating runaway costs and neverend...

With a 19th century inventor, a countess, and a tragic car crash, the story of Italian fabric brand Fortuny feels like an epic novel. Here, Mickey and Maury Riad—the brothers behind the company’s modern incarnation—share the tale of Fortuny’s first century, as well as their strategy for the next 100 years. They also tell host Dennis Scully what they learned from the shutdown of their startup Fuigo...

This week on the Business of Home Podcast, host Dennis Scully is joined by Julia Hunter , the CEO of the lifestyle brand Jenni Kayne. Founded in 2002 by Kayne herself, the company built its name in fashion, selling elevated basics in neutral tones. In 2017, Julia led the brand to explore textiles and eventually furniture—home is now a 20 million dollar business for Jenni Kayne.  On the show, Hunte...

Founded in 2012 as a lighting studio by then-partners Gabriel Hendifar and Jeremy Anderson, Apparatus has quickly become one the industry’s most talked-about brands. Dividing its collections into “acts” and staging elaborate events to celebrate their release, the company brings the spirit of immersive theater to the business of selling high-end lighting and furniture.   In this episode of the podc...

A midwestern native trained in commercial design, Suzanne Kasler made two big pivots in the mid-1990s: she moved to Atlanta, and began working exclusively on residential projects. Both changes turned out to be prescient: She quickly became one of the south’s biggest names, and is now a nationally recognized designer, regularly earning a spot on the AD100 and Elle Decor’s A-List—not to mention a ro...