An Interview with Kimberly from Swoon Worthy
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m an American ex-pat, living in Manchester with my partner Wayne, our two cats Meisha and Pablo and our 7-month-old pup Quito. I work as a freelance writer and blog consultant – and I blog about interior design on Swoon Worthy too.
When did you start blogging and why?
I started back in July 2010. We had just moved into our home and I really wanted to catalogue all of the changes we were making to the house. Wayne is a pretty great at DIY and I’ve always loved interiors, so we were eager to start putting our own stamp on the house. I’d been a fan of interior design blogs for a while, so figured I’d give it a go myself.How did you decide to blog about interiors?
It’s just something I’ve always been passionate about and when I finally had the chance to really sink my teeth into a project, it seemed a natural topic for a blog. While I have other interests as well (cooking, beauty and travel) it made sense for me to concentrate on the one topic I love the most.
How do you manage your time to keep up with your blog?
Thankfully I am a freelancer now so I schedule my blog work alongside my client work. I worked full time for 4 years before going freelance, so there have been a lot of sacrifices in the past: I used to blog in the evenings and weekends, which didn’t leave a lot of free time for working on a house! I’m much happier now that I have more time to concentrate on the blog and I tend to work on posts during the week, when my other half is at work. I still work evenings and weekends on occasion, but when you’re doing something you really love, you just end up making time for it.What other interior designers and bloggers do you follow?
Loads of them!! I find other interior design bloggers really inspiring and the interior design blogger community is a really great supportive group. Some of my favourites include: The Hunted Interior, French for Pineapple, Emily Henderson, Bliss at Home, Christine Dovey, Burlap and Lace, Design Crisis, The Design Daredevil and Cuckoo 4 Design.
How would you describe your interior style?
I describe my style as “Eclectic Boho Glam”, which involves lots of gold luxe finishes, cheeky animal prints, touchable textural fabrics, bold pattern mixing, a touch of vintage and bohemian-style comfort.Where do you find inspiration?
Inspiration is everywhere really: it could be at a really cool pub or restaurant, a hotel while travelling, or even when I take some time out to reconnect to nature. I’m also wildly inspired by so much of what I see online in other blogs, digital magazines and, of course, Pinterest!
Can you describe the style of your current bedroom?
The walls are black, but I have a regency style headboard that I had custom-designed (in bright yellow velvet) and a really large abstract painting that I created myself. That kind of dictated the rest of the room and the colours we could use, so I have bright blue bedside tables – with gold hardware – and bold artwork in gold frames. Then, we have a vintage chest of drawers with a wall of art above it. It’s definitely an eclectic space, but I love it.What interior trends are you looking forward to in 2016?
Despite using gold and brass in my interiors for the last 4 years, it seems that I’m finally on trend, ha! So I guess I’m just happy that something I’ve always loved is in fashion and much easier to find on the High Street. I also love white marble – it’s just such a luxe material.