With 2016 just around the corner, we thought we'd mix things up a bit with an interview with interior design writer and blogger, Kimberly Duran.
Having started her award winning blog around 5 years ago, Swoon Worthy, we were interested to ask her some questions about her home projects, what inspired her to start blogging and her love for vintage furniture.
Enjoy!
What inspired you to want to write about Interior Design?
I started Swoon Worthy in July 2010, a month after we had just into our home and I really wanted to catalogue all the changes we were making to the house – Wayne is a pretty dab hand at DIY and I’ve always loved interiors so we were eager to start putting our own stamp on the house.
I had been a fan of interior design blogs for a while so figured I’d give it a go myself. My blog became my very public education! As I learned more, tried new things and discovered my own style, more and more readers came along for the ride.
A few years later, I started to be approached to write about interiors – essentially all the things I’d learned along the way – for retail business blogs and along with blog consultancy, and my secular background in social media marketing and content marketing, my freelancing career was born.
What’s the most exciting project in your home you've worked on so far?
This is really tough because we’ve done so much work on the house since we moved in. I guess it’s probably a tossup between the bathroom remodel and my office remodel.
Both involved taking the rooms back to their bare bones and completely starting from scratch, from floors to ceilings to walls and everything in between.
When you create a space that’s completely unique and has your own real stamp on it, there’s something very satisfying about the whole process – from conception to completion and both of those spaces really feel very personal to me.
What are your favourite design trends for Winter 2015 / Spring 2016?
Well despite using gold and brass in my interiors for the last 4 years, it seems that I’m finally on trend! Ha!
How often do you use vintage furniture in your designs?
I have a real passion for eclectic design and so I always try to incorporate something vintage into every room of my home.
So our living room has a vintage cabinet as a TV stand and a couple of mid-century hoop chairs which provide a great contrast to the velvet chesterfield sofa and very contemporary marble and brass coffee table.
In my office, I used a gorgeous mid-century sideboard that I picked up for a steal on an auction site and an old relic of a 70’s desk that we totally refurbished into a beautiful art deco inspired piece.
In my dining room, my Chinese Chippendale chairs are my pride and joy as well as a very cool little vintage brass drinks trolley. So you can say I use vintage a lot!
What's your biggest achievement so far?
What projects are you working on at present?
The kitchen and dining room are going to be my priorities for next year.
I want to replace all the tiles in the kitchen and put in new worktops, a new sink and tap and we need to finish the flooring in the dining room plus I’m going to be completely changing the colour scheme.
It should be quite a fun project!
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