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Ballard Designs' New President Eyes Next Big Interior Design Trends

Karen Mooney, named new Ballard Designs president in 2021, talks about her vision for the company and its next big interior design trends.

7/1/2021
Portrait of executive in dining room
Karen Mooney says Ballard Designs will deepen its Light and Livable design aesthetic through 2021.

ATLANTA -- Atlanta-based omnichannel décor and furniture seller Ballard Designs welcomes a new company president with open arms and, well, open rooms. As leader, Karen Mooney brings her fresh take on interior decoration and design to the brand's iconic European, Scandinavian, & Global furnishings style.

Mooney says her energy and vision for the brand's strategic objectives is geared to continued success and expansion, and a customer-accessible direction:

"We want to make good interior design easy and accessible for every customer," Mooney explains. "Unique, irresistible, and fulfilling – it's that mix of the right furniture and the right décor that makes every home unique. And it's our job to make sure the designs and trends we bring you are the perfect ingredients to create your own unique home."

Under Mooney, 2021 is focusing on a "Light and Livable" design approach. Ballard has been introducing new products in this vein since March, with plans to deepen that aesthetic for the rest of the year.

"I have always loved watching the trends in the market and embraced those changes," Mooney relates. "We'll see cycles in some things, like wallpaper or intense color palettes, and then see one-time surges in others, like oversized TV cabinets. Design evolves with everyday needs. It all gets back to creating gorgeous designs for the things we want around us."

Formerly Ballard's senior VP of brand, Mooney has had 20 years of experience in-house on the company's Creative, Marketing, and Merchandising teams. During her tenure she's been credited with foundationally evolving and expanding the Ballard brand from a home catalog business to an omnichannel retailer.

Since 2016, fans of interior decorating trends have happily enjoyed the stylish Mooney's witty and savvy take on all things "design" in Ballard's popular How To Decorate podcast. She and fellow podcasters Caroline McDonald and Taryn Schwartz built the channel which now boasts over 870,000 downloads annually.

Now withdrawing from the active podcast team to focus on her new duties, Mooney will maintain an interested role in the show's interior designer relationships and home design trends.

Says Mooney, "It's always been freeing to look at things in new creative ways, getting fresh-eye input from all the different designers on the podcast. We've done over 200 episodes so far and I've learned something new from every one of them!"

As Ballard's new president, Mooney takes over the position vacated recently by former president Ryan McKelvey. McKelvey was tapped by Ballard's corporate ownership team at Cornerstone Brands for a wider leadership role in 2020.
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