Desire To Inspire

After moving into a new apartment last year, I got an urge to look up designs for my bedroom. Of course HGTV topped the list, but then Flash held me back. Determined not to give up, I went digging, elsewhere. Believe it or not, there is an elsewhere - it's called Desire To Inspire. And so came my introduction to the blogosphere.

Desire To Inspire digs up amazing pictures and design ideas from portfolios of your favourite, stylish and even lesser known designers. I think I can safely say that they compile the best design ideas all in one place. They say they are aiming to inspire readers one room at at time but in reality their two daily servings are more than enough to make you plump with inspiration and arouse just all your creative urges. The occasional reports (and pics) makeovers by the blog operators keep things real and equally inspiring, and show that the ideas that fuel dreams can come into your own home. Chances are, all you have to do is run to a hardware, get some paint, supplies and a handy boyfriend (the latter is not found in all hardwares). Run by Kim in Canada and Jo in Australia, Desire To Inspire is inspiring both to a blogger and a design fanatic. And so, I just had to reach out and ask these few questions. Here are the unedited responses. Enjoy! And take a trip over to Desire To Inspire.

S.S.: Kim, you live in Canada, Jo lives in Australia - two hotspots that have been abuzz with creativity and are getting increased artistic attention in recent times. Would you call your Canada-Australia liaison a coincidence or sheer genius? (why?)

DTI: Our Canada-Australia liaison was a coincidence at first and proved to be a stroke of genius not long after we began the blog. We met on Flickr, a photo-sharing site, and became fast friends with interior design as a mutual passion. We got the idea for the blog and ran with it and it became successful almost instantly. And we've never looked back. I think it's awesome that we come from similar countries, where both are very well known for their super-friendly inhabitants!

S.S.: Monday - Friday, fans have come to expect your treat of 2 posts (at least and except for those very exciting days). Without divulging too much of your blogging techniques, how do you keep yourselves inspired to inspire us each day?

DTI: To keep all our readers constantly inspired, we spend ALOT of time gathering names of stylists, photographers and interior designers to feature. Google has become our best friend. We both spend much of our free time researching for new blog content.

S.S: Jo's in the morning then Kim's in the afternoon, do you have a get-ready-to-blog routine?

DTI: Our routine is fairly straightforward. We both do most of our reseach on the weekends, and then Jo gets her posts ready in the mornings before she heads off to work (and schedules them in Blogger to publish first thing that day). I get my posts ready in the evenings when I get home from work and then the next morning I schedule them to publish that afternoon.

S.S.: You both present so many novel and inspiring finds on the daily and at times I feel like I would give anything to have them all. Honestly, how would you describe your signature style and how do you preserve it?

DTI: Jo and I have no signature style, both in our homes or on the blog. We post just about any style (except I draw the line at country), just like our homes are a miss-mash of all sorts of styles. I'd like to call us eclectic. You can interpret that any way you like. But we both have a serious addiction to thrift stores and flea markets. I love bringing items into my home that are fun and original and have a history. I rarely buy new. If I do it's because the good vintage furniture is really hard to come by in Ottawa.

S.S.: Any goals,anything big on the horizon for Kim, Jo and Desire to Inspire?

DTI: Hmmmm. I have a couple bathrooms in my home that desperately need complete redos. I need to pay off my kitchen first though. And tons of little projects to go tide me over until then. Jo is on the hunt for a house to purchase as she currently rents, but real estate in Australia is SO PRICEY so she's had to be patient in the hopes of finding the perfect fixer-upper. As for the blog, we are moving off Blogger within the next few weeks and are also planning a redesign of the blog so lots of work in the respect ahead of us.

Thanks so much Kim, Jo and Desire To Inspire.