When Day Kornbluth stepped into the position of president at West Elm in 2023, two challenges were at the top of her mind: product and creative. Both would take some time. “You come in and the first time you can have real impact on something is 12 months later—and then 18 months later, you really start to see it,” Kornbluth tells Dennis Scully on the latest episode of The Business of Home Podcast. “Two years later, you feel like you’ve gotten to impact the product, with a little bit of a learning curve too. You take some bets in the first season, and you watch and you learn.”

Next came the creative—encompassing everything from revamping photography to reimagining store presentation. In short: “How does the product show up?” says Kornbluth, who held leadership positions at Ralph Lauren Home, RH and One Kings Lane before joining the Williams-Sonoma-owned, Brooklyn-based retailer.

Now two years in, Kornbluth is seeing her work come to fruition in a big way with the launch of a sprawling new collaboration with the Los Angeles–based firm Pierce & Ward. “It is not safe. It has a point of view. It has joy,” she says. “It was the most synergistic, easy partnership. The product is really good, and the creative is really good, and it’s a real bet. We went after it.”

Along the way, she took a page out of Williams-Sonoma CEO Laura Alber’s playbook: Focus on the product, not the shifting winds of the macroeconomy. “I’m wired, and my boss is wired, to focus on what you control. … You focus on the macro such that you have an intelligent plan around it, but if you start giving it too much brain space, then you’re going to be a follower,” says Kornbluth. “Laura is such a merchant. She’s actually the best merchant I’ve ever had the chance to watch up close. She was like, ‘Make the product better, make the images better, make the stores better. Go get in there and figure out what people are loving, and take some bets on some things that the data isn’t telling you yet that’s cool but you know is cool. Get in there. Make it beautiful.’”

Elsewhere in the episode, Kornbluth discusses why AI may become a surprisingly useful tool for creatives, how she’s approaching tariffs, and how West Elm is looking to appeal to both consumers and the trade.

Crucial insight: Kornbluth explained how customers of the home industry make decisions when purchasing items that require careful consideration. “If you really think about how you’ve made a decision to buy a big piece of furniture, you probably did all sorts of funny things. You probably went to the store, you probably sent it to a few people, you probably saved it somewhere, you probably went back to that page many times, and you probably stood in your space and tried to imagine,” she says. “There are so many things that people do on their way to making a consequential home purchase.” Where she steps in is making sure that the stores, store associates and digital platforms all aid customers in the process. “We’re selling things that are hard to buy and highly customizable and ultimately have to fit in the space and look good. Even people who have no taste mostly know how to dress themselves, but even the most tasteful people have a really hard time imagining how to put a room together. It puts us in a position of having really enduring relationships with our customers.”

Key quote: “I really think brands are [about] what they make people feel about themselves. West Elm makes people feel like their home is a creative space—that it’s a place to have fun making a reflection of them. I think that’s why people light up when you say the brand.”

This episode is sponsored by Ernesta and Hartmann&Forbes. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The Thursday Show

Host Dennis Scully and BOH executive editor Fred Nicolaus discuss the biggest news in the design world, including the latest on tariffs, Kravet’s new showroom strategy, and a major update to ChatGPT. Later, designer James Huniford joins the show to talk about Design on a Dime’s 20th anniversary.

This episode is sponsored by Jaipur Living and Chelsea House. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.