Business of Home Podcast

On this week’s episode of the show, host Dennis Scully speaks to Joe Lucas, interior designer and founder of the beloved showroom Harbinger. Lucas began his career working for Michael S. Smith, but quickly built his own business, which has evolved to include multi line showrooms in New York and Los Angeles. On either coast, Joe has his finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the design world. He chats about the tension between street level shops and the design center in LA, the prevalence of lookalikes and knockoffs in the industry today, and why he believes that multiline showrooms will always have a role to play. This episode is sponsored by The Shade Store and Universal Furniture.  

In the early 2000s, Ryan Turf started on the sales floor of the company’s first store. Now he’s president, and has been leading an effort to carve out a unique voice for the brand that stands alongside—but distinct from—parent company Crate & Barrel. Under Turf’s leadership, the CB2 continues to make more and more adventurous design choices—including a range of capsule collections with unexpected partners like Lenny Kravitz, Goop, Fred Segal and most recently, Kara Mann. In this episode, he chats with host Dennis Scully about why CB2 is hoping to do more business with interior designers, what lessons he takes from Ralph Lauren, and why, pandemic or no, brick and mortar retail will always be part of the equation. This episode is sponsored by The Shade Store and Universal Furniture.

Forty years ago, Moore & Giles was supplying the material to make shoes. But after the footwear industry disappeared abroad, the company reinvited itself and pivoted to the furniture business. Now, it’s a major force in the design industry, supplying leather to everyone from Universal to Steelcase to RH. On this episode of the Business of Home podcast, president Sackett Wood tells host Dennis Scully why he’s reconsidering the impact of trade shows, what the next big market for his product is, and how he’s choosing to focus on leather as a sustainability product. This episode is sponsored by The Shade Store and Universal Furniture.   

You may not be familiar with the name CW Stockwell, but you know its most iconic pattern: Martinique, the banana leaf print that graces the walls of the Beverly Hills Hotel.  Martinique was first released in 1942 - over the next eighty years it has become one of the world’s most recognizable wallpapers, but the company itself fell into neglect. Last year entrepreneur Katy Polsby relaunched the brand, and is in the process of bringing Martinique, alongside a fresh collection of patterns, to a new generation. In this episode of the Business of Home podcast, Polsby speaks with host Dennis Scully about how a career at West Elm, Serena & Lily and Warby Parker prepared her to be an entrepreneur, the legal challenges that come with owning a frequently copied pattern, and why she’s prioritizing a great website over showroom representation.  This episode is sponsored by High Point Market and Paintzen. 

There are dream clients, and then there’s the young family that interior designer Michael S. Smith helped settle in at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue back in 2008. As the official decorator of the Obama White House, he not only had a front row seat to history, but became a part of it—an experience Smith recounts in a new book coming out this Fall. In this episode of The Business of Home podcast, he chats with host Dennis Scully about how he landed the president as a client, the secret code he used to refer to the Obamas, and the unique challenges that come with designing America’s most famous house. This episode is sponsored by High Point Market and Paintzen. 

If you’ve fallen in love with an interior design book over the past twenty years, chances are Jill Cohen had something to do with it. A veteran publishing executive who started Conde Nast’s book program, she’s now an independent advisor who helps designers package their work—and themselves—for publication. Cohen’s client list reads like a hall of fame induction roster: she’s shepherded everyone from Bunny Williams, Ellie Cullman and Stephen Sills to Bobby McAlpine, Gil Schafer and Aerin Lauder through the process of creating a compelling book. On this episode of the Business of Home podcast, Cohen tells host Dennis Scully about the surprising economics behind design book publishing, how the rise of celebrity culture changed the industry, and all the ways that Instagram can be a trap for designers. This episode is sponsored by High Point Market and Paintzen. 

In the late 90s, Ann Sutherland went from long-time interior designer to first-time entrepreneur. Alongside her husband, outdoor furniture magnate David Sutherland, she developed a line of solution-dyed acrylics that combined the resilience of outdoor fabrics with the high style of to-the-trade design. Her company, Perennials, grew in leaps and bounds, and the success of the company helped usher in a new era, in which performance fabrics are used both outdoors and in. In this episode of the Business of Home podcast, Sutherland speaks with host Dennis Scully about the rocky early days, Perennials’ relationship with Restoration Hardware, and what new product represents the future of her company. This episode is sponsored by High Point Market and Paintzen.

The world of high-end design can feel very far apart from the big-tent appeal of home makeover shows, but interior designer Mikel Welch has managed to break through in both. His work has been featured in premier showhouses around the country, and he’s a regular on TV, with appearances on everything from TLC’s Trading Spaces to Good Morning America to a new show for Quibi with a premise that has to be seen to be believed. On this episode of the podcast, he chats with host Dennis Scully about his circuitous career path, the surprising economics of design on TV, and the industry’s long-overdue reckoning with race. This episode is sponsored by The Urban Electric Company.

Michele Varian and Jay Norris are the founders of Guesst, a tech platform that allows brands, retailers and landlords to connect in new ways. In addition to being an entrepreneur, Michele is also the owner of a beloved New York design shop that she recently relocated from SoHo to Brooklyn to escape skyrocketing rents. As a broker in the commercial real estate world, Jay saw the rent crises unfold from the other side of the table. Together with host Dennis Scully, they discuss what effect out-of-control rents have had on the design world, why the internet broke the wholesale model, and how COVID-19 will reset the retail equation. This episode is sponsored by The Urban Electric Company.

Stephane Silverman literally grew up in the fabric business—his parents brought the French textile company Boussac to America, and as a child, he would do his homework in their D&D Building showroom. A restless intellect and a critical thinker, Silverman has been experimenting with ways to modernize a distinctly old-school industry ever since he started Castel in 1999. In this episode of the Business of Home podcast, he gives host Dennis Scully a whirlwind tour through the past, present and future of fabric, explaining why the Amazon version of e-commerce doesn’t work for interior design, the future of showrooms, and the surprising reason why a yard of fabric costs what it does.  This episode is sponsored by Henrybuilt and Industry West.