Goodie Spotlight: Holly Becker of Decor8

Our fourth and final Goodie Spotlight dedicated to all things Children’s Room Design is Holly Becker, Founder and Editor of the distinguished decorating blog, Decor8! Holly has a great story to tell about making her way into the blogosphere, all while doing what she loves!

LPG: Please explain briefly when and why you started Decor8.

HOLLY: When I was working with clients in 2005 they kept telling me that they wish they had access to my ideas all day and night and that they loved my creative energy. My husband encouraged me to write as he knew how much I loved writing, so I thought to start a blog so that I could record all of my inspirations and ideas in one place that my clients would be able to access online and that it would be a nice space for me to build my writing portfolio as my goal back then was to also write for magazines about decorating and style to supplement my income in addition to my client work.

LPG: What makes your approach to decorating children’s rooms so unique?

HOLLY: I am not decorating as much as styling as I have no time for private clients right now so my styling work is mainly for books and commercial work. My approach to decorating a child’s space though, is that it really needs to reflect their taste and interests and there needs to be a place for everything – hair bands, dolls, cars, crayons – all need a bin or box or something to store it. Growing up, I had a place for everything so cleaning up my room was always fun for me since I liked arranging things as they were, stepping back to view it clean, then feeling a sense of accomplishment. I loved lining up my dolls perfectly on top of my toy box, for example or neatly folding all of my barbie clothes or putting them back in the Barbie closet on little pink hangers. I took care of everything that I owned.

Ideally, you teach your child to respect others and themselves but also material objects through setting an example as a parent so if you help them to organize their room and show them how to maintain it and explain and show why maintaining it benefits them, it won’t be so hard for your child to want to be organized, too.  My mother would often come into my bedroom and help me clean up and make it fun – she’d play a song and we’d have to clean it all up by the time the song was over in order to “win”. She didn’t always help me, but on days when she noticed I wasn’t motivated, she would come in with her usual high energy and enthusiasm and turn cleaning up into some kind of magical, fun game. After I was finished, I could then go outside to play or she’d take me to the beach or I could watch television or something. It made me happy as a child to have a neat bedroom too, I enjoyed that.

LPG: What is the number one thing you want people to know about children’s room design?
HOLLY:It should really be dictated by the child, not the parents.

LPG: What goals do you want to achieve in the next 5 years?

HOLLY: I want to finish my second decorating book, teach more online classes (decor8eclasses.com) and teach workshops in different parts of the world that will inspire people AND in conjunction with that — travel a bit more! I’m dying to go to Thailand, Bali, Scotland, Australia, Norway and Japan so we’ll see where I actually end up. I also want to visit my friend in Vancouver Island and go back to my home soon to see my mother and visit the States in general. I’m American but relocated to northern Germany in 2009 and though I love it here, returning to my homeland is always a special treat for me that I treasure immensely. I’ve been back 3 times in 2 years and will go again in March, so I definitely try to get back once or twice a year.

LPG: What else would you like everyone to know about your business?

HOLLY: Lots of people always ask me about blogging on decor8 and if I have advice for them.  I always tell students that I teach in my online class, Blogging Your Way (decor8eclasses.com),  that it is important to pinpoint exactly what you love or maybe 3 or 4 main topics that you are passionate about (art, cooking, decorating for instance) that are part of your lifestyle and consider writing about those things. If you love your topics you’ll always have plenty of things to say about them on your blog.

I also encourage people to use their blog as a catalyst to live their best life – in other words,  having  a blog makes you accountable to your readers,  they are looking to you to live up to your promises. If you say that you will attend an art opening and take photos to share with them, and you don’t, they will be disappointed. Allow your readers to motivate you based on that – perhaps you would normally cancel on the art show because you are feeling shy to attend alone but now that you have a verbal commitment to your readers that you’d share your experience with them, you are motivated to go! This is precisely what I mean by, “Use your blog as a catalyst to life your best life”; your blog can give you that push forward to do what you really need to be doing anyway – living your best life, seeking out inspiration, exploring the world around you, interacting with others and then sharing it with your online audience- but also all of this builds your own confidence and makes you enjoy life so much more. I find that having a sense of responsibility to my community is a huge bonus as a blogger.

Holly, thank you for answering all our questions and giving readers a look into the professional world of blogging! We hope you’ll stop in Toronto during your next visit!

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For more information on Decor8, visit:

www.decor8blog.com

@decor8

Stay tuned for February’s focus: Children’s Health & Nutrition! In the meantime, let us know what you think by tweeting us at @littlepartygoer & @LPG_Staff, or leaving us a message on our Facebook wall!