4 Interior Design Blogs We Couldn’t Live Without
By Jay Johnson
It’s easy to smell a phony when reading a blog; the words don’t ring true, they sound contrived, and the advice isn’t from the heart. But a great interior designer’s blog can be inspirational and helpful – and even funny. As bloggers, Irwin and I appreciate the extra work it takes to step outside of your everyday design projects and communicate to people you might never meet about what you love, what you hate, what resources you’ve just used on a job, and what elements of taste and style make you see the world in your own unique way. Here are some of our favorite interior designer blogs.
- Patricia Gray This cleanly designed and beautifully photographed blog is the creation of a generous designer. Vancouver based Patricia Gray shares her keen eye for style, takes us on trips around the world (and points out her “favourites”), and points out the resources and materials that she enjoys using on a job. The latter is particularly useful for interior designers. It’s great to see a master designer work, look at resources as they appear in finished spaces, and get an analysis of why and how they function beautifully. You also get the bonus of a well-trained feng shui student, layered on top of the interior designer, and you can better understand why Patricia’s interiors exude calm, serenity, and strong flow.
- Cococozy Take one LA television executive who chooses to remain anonymous – “for now, I’ll go by Coco” – who admits that she’s not a designer, and you’d think you’re in for a bumpy ride. Not so. Coco’s posts are thrilling, seeing the world of interior design, flea markets, and exotic venues (like a reception for Michele Obama at designer Michael S. Smith’s estate) through the eyes of “just someone who likes anything to do with house and home.” Linda Grasso (a friend of ours who has her own fantastic California Living & Style blog called She Sez at www.shesez.com) knows Coco and says she’s the real deal. We love reading Cococozy to get a look at the world of professional interior design from the eyes of a stylish non-professional.
- Decorating With Sheets Get past the sheets title, and you’ll discover the amazing blog world of iconic American interior designer Leta Austin Foster. This blog radiates charm, good humor, and a surprising roll-up-your-sleeves-and-decorate-darn-it spunk that infuses her popular boutique stores. The Palm Beach and New York designer makes sure that in over thirty years of business, not one of her projects looks like any other. Whoa! She’s got us hooked, she’s reeling us in, and we’re helpless under the spell of this creative, inspiring woman.
- Colour Me Happy What is it about Vancouver, Canada that grows amazing interior design blogs? First Patricia Gray winds up on our list of blog faves, and now designer Maria Killam who specializes in helping readers see color in bold and beautiful ways. A member of the Colour Marketing Group, Maria’s take on contemporary design is definitely through rose-colored glasses, and you’ll like her opinions and style edicts on everything from headboards to clever ways to paint the exteriors of tract houses.
---
In November 2006, Manhattan-based blogger Jay Johnson and his partner Irwin Weiner ASID applied the popularity of watching videos on the Internet to the house-and-garden arena. The idea for Design2Share was born. On D2S, they share their insight, tips, and strong opinions about how people design and decorate their homes, entertaining over 300,000 visitors a year; their syndicated original videos had over 22 million video views in 2010.
