I want to combine my life-long passion for interior design with 20 years of graphic arts and creative direction so I can offer people beautiful and unique home design that transforms how they think and feel about their space.

Hi, I’m Karen Manganillo. I’ve been studying beautiful homes and interiors since I was old enough to follow my dad to the High Point Furniture Market. Because of his job in the industry, the market was my playground. My sister and I would pretend to live in each of the showrooms like life size dollhouses, as we imagined life in each of their perfectly staged spaces.  

Though I loved furniture and interiors from a young age, I also had a real passion for color, design, and perhaps most importantly, New York City. I set my sights on being an art director in advertising and left my home of North Carolina to follow those dreams.

New York was very good to me, and my advertising career gave me all the excitement and skills that I could cram into my 400 square foot apartment. But after almost a decade, I wanted to be close to my family, and I returned to North Carolina to bring my two worlds together and create an upstart furniture brand with my dad. 

Once he retired and closed up shop, I started a long-term freelance career using my advertising skills working with entrepreneurs and companies across the country to build and grow their brands.

But even as I worked through this career path (in all that square footage!), interiors kept calling for me, and for the past 10 years I have been designing every room I could get my hands on—from every inch of my own home to living spaces for friends and neighbors—using all my design knowledge about color palettes, design harmony, textures and composition in room scenes versus television commercials.

And while I hadn’t been able to walk away from advertising completely because I love the clients I work with, about a year ago it became clear that this side gig was no longer something to keep on the side—I took the plunge and created Little Friday Design. 

Now, I feel as though I am the luckiest woman on earth to have found a way to marry twenty years of design and creative direction with the passion I’ve been carrying around since I was a girl. My worlds have collided in the best way possible (and my clients say their worlds are so much better now, which gives me the most joy).

If you have a room you want to change up, I begin with new clients on a video consultation. Let’s schedule a time to talk about what you are dreaming it might be.