Ballard Designs Partners with Bunny Williams on New Home Garden Furniture

March 6, 2022  by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry   

The furniture and décor company recently co-sponsored Nashville's Antiques & Garden Show 2022 and Williams was a featured speaker there amidst a show filled with trade dealers and beautiful gardens.

Ballard president Karen Mooney caught up with the prestigious designer at the Nashville Show to discuss her new outdoor décor collection.  Williams spoke fondly of her home garden furniture designed exclusively for Ballard and discussed her favorite outdoor décor ideas for this season.

"Gardening is so much a part of the interior – the indoor-outdoor connection is so important," said Williams. "I wanted a garden, but I knew little about it so when I started, I followed a plan. So much is what goes along with the garden - the plants are one thing, but the containers are important too, and they can be hard to find. That's what inspires this collection.”  

Some of the designer's top tips for outdoor décor include:

• Provide an entryway into a garden with an arbor. According to Williams, "It's a piece of architecture and gives structure and height in a garden. It's a wonderful feeling to step through it and be led from one space to another."
• Use an outdoor planter box. They give added height while still being low enough for annuals in the summer and are versatile enough to use throughout the different seasons.
• Take the garden to the next level an outdoor plant stand to make an arrangement of plants more visually interesting with height variations. Williams says, "I find that when my plants in containers are all lined up on the ground, they are not as interesting as when I have them elevated at different heights… I've introduced some new plant stands."
• Protect plants and their space with garden hose guides. "I have the hose guards in the corners of each of my plant beds so that when I water, it keeps the hose out of the dirt in the garden and from harming the plants and knocking over the hydrangeas!" Williams shares. 
• For outdoor containers, Williams recommends sticking to a color palette. She relates that it's more soothing when the colors are consistent – so the plants are the star of the show!