News

Local designer gets own radio show
By Kevin Selders, The Olathe News

Karen Mills is seeing the various paths of her life come together in the form of a new adventure.

The Olathe interior designer and owner of Interiors By Design, Inc. is using her experience in design, television, marketing, writing and teaching to share her interior design tips through the airwaves with a new radio show. "I have my hands in a lot of different areas," she said.

The radio show, "Living Large," airs at 10:30 a.m. Saturday on KXTR AM and 1 p.m. Sunday on News Radio 980 KMBZ AM.

The high-end design, lifestyle and home improvement radio newsmagazine launched in January. It features Mills discussing various design topics and interviews with popular designers, including HGTV stars Michael Payne of "Designing for the Sexes," Sarah Richardson of "Room Service," Jennifer Convy of "Awesome Interiors" and celebrity Chris Madden. Upcoming shows will feature celebrity designers such as Christopher Lowell on May 14 and on April 30, Constance Ramos, formerly of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
Mills admits there are challenges in having a design show on the radio, but they're easily overcome.

"Your imagination is so much better than what you can see on the television screen," she said. "It's all theater of the mind, plus it's a multimedia product now because we have the Web page. We can showcase some things on there." Three years into an interior design major at the University of Kansas, Mills switched her major to television. This led to her doing everything from arranging lighting for commercials and designing sets to getting her own on-air time. She later left TV for the corporate world, working for IBM. However, she was pulled back to the interior design world.

"I just decided I was tired of the corporate world, and I wanted to do what I love, and love what I do," she said.

During a Olathe Chamber of Commerce event, Mills met Andrew Ellenberg with Entercom, Inc., now the executive producer of her show.

Interiors By Design, Inc., started in 2002, specializes in custom design, redesign and staging for resale. Mills works with homes and small businesses and offices. She also speaks about staging homes for resale to real estate agents.

Mills said she spends 30 hours a week preparing for the show and taping interviews. The show's Web site features audio clips, videocasts, podcasts, design columns and live streaming of exclusive interviews with celebrities and other well-known designers.

When interviewing designers, Mills tends to ask about their design preferences and the trends they notice in design.

"They're all from different parts of the country," she said. "It gives the listeners a flavor of what's going on."

She added that the trend now is to make your home your own personal retreat. "Then you don't have to go on vacation your home is your own oasis," she said. Mills said her ultimate goal is to help people realize they can be designers, too. "What I'm trying to do with this show is make design accessible to the masses to let the listeners know they can create beautiful designs, too," she said. "It's not just something accessible to the wealthy. I'm trying to pass on some of my knowledge to my listeners. I don't care if I give away all my secrets — I want to share."

For more information, visit interiorsbydesigninc.com.