I am a hopeless home decorating junkie. This is not to say that I'm any good at it, but I love to read home design magazines, burning through around 20 of them every month. And even though I know that these magazines make you feel about your house the way fashion magazines make you feel about your body, I read them cover to cover, tear out and save pages I believe I will someday replicate, and dream about what it would be like to live in a magazine-worthy home.
(I also watch many more hours of HGTV than would be considered normal, but we'll work through that issue later.)
So I was grief-stricken when I recently learned that one of my very favorites, Domino, is ending its publication after just four short years.
I will really miss this fun and funky magazine, but I also feel the staff's pain: a few years ago I was the editor of a short-lived (we published a total of four issues) trade magazine for interior designers and architects. During the production of what would be our final issue, the magazine was sold to a new publisher. Shocked by the cost to produce it (it was expensive) and uncertain about its ability to make a profit, the new CEO quickly put it down. And although I am grateful to the company for my current position (maintaining the websites of eight regional home design magazines), I will forever mourn the sudden and brutal death of my magazine and my dream job.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I have been entrenched in the home design industry for almost 10 years and am sure I'll be sharing some stories about its excitement and glamour, as well as a lot of silliness that comes from a decade of interviewing interior designers who sometimes take themselves way too seriously.
Chris and I are also about to dive head-first into a quasi-major kitchen renovation, which is bound to bring up many of my profound and insightful thoughts about the Importance of Good Design. The whole extravaganza should be good for a few laughs as well. Buckle your seatbelt...it's gonna be a bumpy ride.
