LA isn’t just home to a community of bright entrepreneurs; it’s also home to a legion of great writers and bloggers. Throughout the year, Lalawag will be chatting with some of the city’s most prominent bloggers to find out a bit more about what makes them tick.
Stephanie Day (@daydesigndecor) knows all about interior design and colors from her college days as a fine arts major and from her many years working as a home and office interior designer for Design 4 Interiors. Her latest venture is an online consulting service called Day Design & Decor where she offers professional design consultations for making over rooms a la carte. More importantly, though, she writes an interior design blog for that service, offering tips and reviews for interior design.
Tell us a little about your blog. I notice that you have a design service site integrated with it as well.
Day Design & Decor is centered around the DIY individual looking to redecorate or remodel their home. Our blog helps you to discover your personal design style as well as decorating.
Interior design is something that can sound really intimidating for those of us who don’t know much about it. What sort of advice would you would give someone (like me) who wouldn’t mind making their home look nicer, but don’t want to break the bank or spend hours upon hours doing it?
Interior design doesn’t have to be intimidating or take up all of your time. I created Day Design & Decor to help anyone with busy lifestyles turn their house into a home on a budget. All you have to do is measure your space, photograph it, fill out a design questionnaire, and upload your info to our website. Then we select paint colors, home furnishing options, and create a furniture layout based on your preferences and lifestyle. Within a few weeks, you receive a design package with instructions on how to implement your design. All of the furniture we select are from online stores, saving you time running around to different showrooms. You can also save money on furnishing your place by updating what you already have. Adding a fresh coat of paint or new finish you can drastically transform an old piece of furniture into something that looks brand new.
How did you get started blogging?
I went to Vegas for the World Market Furniture convention and attended a blogging seminar with a panel comprised of four top notch design bloggers. All of their stories were very influential, but Tobi Fairely was the one who stood out the most. She used blogging to not only engage others in her design work but also for herself as a log of wonderful things that inspired her. The second I left this seminar, I couldn’t wait to start brainstorming ideas for my new blog.
What platform do you use for blog publishing? What made you decide to use it over the other choices out there?
When I first started designing my blog, I tried using Apple’s iWeb. Because this program was not made specifically for blogging, the look and feel of the site wasn’t quite like what I had envisioned. So, I turned to Blogger which was nice, but not as user-friendly as I had hoped. One of my friends recommended WordPress.org and it was just right! The platform is simple to use, can be easily customized, and has tons of plug ins to choose from. There’s even an iPhone app so I can edit blog posts on the go!
Other than your own, what are the first three content sites/blogs you check when you wake up in the morning? Why?
I am kind of obsessed with Google Analytics. I like to keep myself updated on my site’s traffic and see what articles are viewed the most, which helps me write better content. 1st Dibs is another great site I visit daily. It has interesting articles on design, art, and architecture along with a huge selection of antiques with new pieces added every day. I pick out the latest and greatest finds and put the best items in a file for future clients or for personal inspiration. COLOURlovers is my other most visited site because, well, I love color. There are hundreds of different blends that spark color scheme ideas for my designs. I can even create my own color combination, which can get pretty addicting.
Who are the five most important people you follow on Twitter and why?
@artinfodotcom – As an artist, I am a huge advocate for art and am always checking out the latest museum and gallery openings around the world.
@huffingtonpost – With my busy lifestyle, I rarely have time to watch the news so this is my source of keeping updated on current events.
@inhabitat- I am passionate about recycling and living green which is what inhabitat is all about. I like to be updated on new green home and building products.
@designsponge - They tweet about fun DIY projects and give mini tours of their favorite home designs.
@dailycandy - What can I say, I’m a girl who loves to shop! Daily Candy always has the latest tips on sales and fashion.
Do you have a smartphone? If so, what smartphone apps do you find indispensable on your home screen? Why did these apps make the cut?
I sure do! Here are a few staple apps that I use the most on my iPhone 4:
Dragon Dictation – I am constantly driving around town to furniture showrooms and client homes, so this app is ideal for sending emails and texts hands free. I just say a message into the voice recorder and it types it out for me – it’s genius!
iMovie – This is an awesome app for editing videos in a semi professional way. It amazes me that you can take a video, edit it, and upload it to youtube, right from your phone!
iHandy Level – I’m not one to carry around a level, so this app comes in handy when hanging pictures and y accurate.
Twitter and Facebook – These are the two social media apps I open on a daily basis.
(Editor’s note: all links in this answer take you to the iTunes store)
Where do you do your best writing? (at home, starbucks, the park, etc.)
I tend to do my best writing when I’m all alone at home, where there are no distractions.
You’ve mentioned that you’ve been working on a new video series for your site. Can you talk a little a bit about it and offer any tips for bloggers who may want to branch out into producing video content as well?
Sure! I recently started vlogging about unique DIY projects and furniture reviews. I travel to different furniture showrooms and give my expert opinion on their best products, saving customers a trip to the actual store.
Adding video content to your site allows readers to get a glimpse of your personality while gaining another perspective of your expertise. You don’t have to use the fanciest camera or hire a professional crew to get started. I started by using my iPhone video camera and editing them on iWeb. The microphone sound quality is not the greatest on the iphone, so I recently switched to using a wireless microphone. YouTube has made it pretty easy to add video to your blog. Simply upload your finished product and embed the code in your blog post and change the size of the video to fit your website. Note that longer (larger) videos translate into longer loading times for your website.
What’s your best source of inspiration? Do you have a particular muse?
My blogging group is my best source of inspiration. It is made up of nine talented women with unique blogging styles and content. We meet a few times a month and talk about how to build traffic, critique our blogs, and motivate each other to make sure our blogs are moving in the right direction. Check us out at www.blogbeauties.com.
What helps you the most in terms of expanding your readership?
1) Commenting on other relevant blog posts. However, spammy comments are not cool so make sure they are sincere and relevant to the topic.
2) I recently discovered Stumbleupon – it’s a great way to increase readership.
3) Posting my blog entries on Facebook has been my strategy in boosting traffic and followers.
Do you have any other tips for the budding bloggers out there?
If you blog about what you are passionate about, your enthusiasm will shine through in your posts. One of the most difficult part about blogging is actually sticking with it. Gathering a network of bloggers together can keep you encouraged to move forward in your journey. There are even online blogging forums you can join, which are great for learning new tricks.
You can follow Stephanie on Twitter here: @daydesigndecor.
