Tag: blogs

When this blog grows up, it wants to be like these blogs.

Now, on my Google reader, I follow a TON of blogs. What turns me off is when people only post about things you could buy if you wanted to. Do you know what I’m talking about? “Look, here are some lovely clothes and decorative objects grouped by color. They are all out of your price range.” While I’m impressed by the fact that the author found these cool design-y objects I could not come up with if I tried (where do you find this stuff??), that ain’t me. Among the blogs I follow, a few do have moments like that, but those posts do not stick with me. I glance at them, scroll past, and look for something more down-to-earth, chatty, and engaging. Like… the ones I’m going to point out today.

My blog heroes: I’m talking about heavyweights in the interior design blogging world. I know there are bigger ones, magazine-style blogs with various contributors and more content, and other blogs with a widespread reader base that I subscribe to, but none of those speak to and inspire me as consistently as these three do. These are the blogs that I cross my fingers and hope a new post is up when I check my Google reader every morning. The ones I can spend hours browsing in my pajamas on the couch instead of going to bed. Wow, I sound like I’m writing a love letter. And maybe I am.

Below, click on the picture of each site to be taken to it.

Enough blathering. Let’s get to ’em.

What I love about 7th House of the Left:

• What a great site design! They seem like a fun and interesting couple.
• This house is so classy and the writers seem so fun. You can tell a lot of the house is “in progress” and it makes me eager to see how things turn out. Each room’s color palette is top-notch and I can’t wait to see her incorporating more “pops” of color here and there (which she mentions frequently that they’re working on).  They are currently working on their kitchen (YHL is too–see below) and I find it very interesting what they are choosing that is similar and different from other kitchen rennos I’m seeing online.
• I really like their “his and hers” posts–glimpses into what other people are totally into at the moment is interesting to me.
• They post the least frequently out of the three blogs listed here, but that’s okay because of the posts’ quality.
• They have a top-notch house tour page and their “projects” page allows you to see their floor plan and click room by room to see related posts. LOVE!

 

What I love about Brooklyn Limestone:

• There are fewer home construction posts on this blog since the renovation she started 5 years ago is finished. She does talk about furniture and accessories, which are interesting to me, but also writes about a wide variety of topics like holidays, travel, and organization.
• The photography is excellent, from up-close shots–she does a ton of holiday-centric paper items, especially halloween, and takes detail shots of everything) to far away, and wide angle shots. (I have to assume she has a wide angle lens to get narrow rooms into one photo).
• She travels a lot… and shares photos with us, which as I said before, are often just breathtaking.
• Her free printables are so much fun! I used the tags she made this year at Christmas and I look to these to get some inspiration for my own paper documents (cards, fun things at work, etc).
• Collaboration with other bloggers–I found this blog around a year ago (I think) from her junk drawer overhaul series… YHL (below) were included and I followed their link on over and have been a fan ever since!
• Her worldly sofa table. I am pretty sure this is what sold me on the blog for good. It is just perfect.

What I love about Young House Love:

• John and Sherry’s writing style makes their personality very clear. Tons of commenters mention it every day–“I feel like I know you and we are friends!”
• Frequency of posts: they post twice each weekday (once on Friday) which keeps us all coming back for more on a regular basis.
• They do a ton of projects, large and small. For example, they are currently redoing their kitchen, but not all posts are kitchen-related, because they simply aren’t going fast enough to give us two updates a day on it (they are moving at light speed considering they are doing it themselves as well as being full-time bloggers). So, interspersed between the big projects are smaller things that anyone can do, whether a homeowner, renter, or other (dorm resident? I don’t know).
• Step by step details. Man. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen somebody explain, with words and picture (instead of video or in person) how to do something–and make it seem so doable and even easy. They have a knack for walking you through a process and making you (well, me) believe that I can do anything as long as I’m patient (paint: “thin and even”) and thorough.

 

Takeaways:

If this blog wants to grow up and be more like the others (maybe my blog is in middle school and the above are in college?), here are a few things I can learn from their successes and work toward in the future. While it’s not feasible for me to abandon my 40 hour a week job like YHL, I can continue focusing on doing quality projects, getting better at writing step-by-step how-to’s for them, and most importantly taking and using more photos. How pathetic is it that I don’t use a ton of extra photos because it’s such a pain moving them over to the computer from the camera? Lazybones alert. So, here are a few more bullet points just for fun:

• Take more photos and improve their quality
• Do more step by step “How to” posts
• Share budget breakdowns so readers know how cheap/easy something can me
• Continue to link back to old posts for reference
• Try to post frequently, make it a habit and gradually increase frequency

Any tips for my little blog as it grows up?
Or, I know, please leave YOUR favorite blog in the comment section! Pretty please!