After designing and staging sets for television productions, Karen Mills turned her designer’s eye to private homes in the Kansas City area. She brings a unique combination of talents into her client’s interiors, seamlessly integrating classic looks with modern concepts while helping her clients avoid thousands of dollars in costly mistakes.
When the Midwestern native made up her mind to bring the drama of an on-camera television set into America’s living rooms, she rapidly carved out a niche redesigning hundreds of Kansas City home interiors including home staging.
Mills’ creative approach to design has been widely covered in the media, which led to a co-production deal with Entercom Broadcasting for her own design show on News Radio 980 KMBZ Sundays at 10am and Classical 1660 KXTR Saturdays at 10:30am called Living Large plus more recently a TV show called “Living Green with Karen Mills” on World Goin Green, a new video internet work news channel. Recent media coverage includes the Kansas City Star, Indulge magazine, NBC 41, Fox 4 TV, Symphony Designers’ Showhouse, KCH&G magazine, Time Warner Cable, Olathe Daily News, Olathe Sun, The X magazine, Shawnee/Lenexa Sun, Flourish magazine and the Kansan among others.
Karen Mills’ design firm was nominated in 2008 for Small Business of the Year by the Greater K.C. Chamber of Commerce and in 2007 by Small Business Monthly magazine. Mills was also the first designer in Kansas City to be invited to the exclusive “Kohler Experience” at the Kohler Design Center and when Karen isn’t designing interiors or on air, she spends her spare time speaking at home shows, writing for a national magazine, designing home décor products or making charity appearances.
Her commitment to the communities where she designs is clear. She’s served as marketing director for Team Impact, an international anti-drug and alcohol youth program officially recognized by the State of Kansas (after Karen secured the endorsement from the Governor and the Mayor), she’s on her city’s Sustainability Task Force, and on the liaison committee for the local chamber of commerce, plus she regularly emcees charity events throughout the year.
Karen graduated from the University of Kansas where she studied Interior Design and Radio/Television/Film.
Interior Designer - Interior Decorator - Kansas City - Interiors By Design, Inc.