Cityline Featured Blogger: Heather from Inspire Me Heather

This crafty blogger is always sharing the very best DIY projects she finds online.

There are so many fabulous bloggers out there, and we want to highlight them on Cityline.ca. We’ll be profiling different lifestyle bloggers from month to month — they might write about food, fashion, beauty, décor, parenting, entertaining, gardening, you get the idea! For August 2013, we’re putting the spotlight on the always creative home décor blog Inspire Me Heather. Run by Heather Richardson, this crafty blogger is always sharing the very best DIY projects she finds online, as well as her fab fix-ups to her own home. Here’s our Q&A with Heather:

walkwayWhen did you start Inspire Me Heather and what was your inspiration behind starting the blog? How did you come up with the blog’s name?

I started my DIY and home décor blog as a hobby back in October 2010, while my husband, son and I were (and still are) fixing up an old house in between working and family life.  We bought the “worst house on the best block” and I was inspired by what I saw other bloggers doing to their homes.  I was bookmarking and saving so many projects that I wanted to do – I really started my blog to organize all these ideas I had.

I started writing round-up posts and did for a couple of years. My roundup posts are a collection of articles (posts) written by other bloggers that I’ve grouped together in my post and all in the same “project” theme.  I link to these bloggers posts so that if you’re interested in what you see, you go visit that blog to read the tutorials at the original source. I wanted the blog to be a place of information in the DIY and home décor category back before all these online curated sites began. It was also a great way to get to know other bloggers and to learn about blogging.

On your blog, you write a range of different posts, from roundup posts of ideas from other bloggers, to general DIY tips and advice, to showcasing your own home DIYs. What do you like about writing a variety of types of posts, and what kind of posts do you prefer to write?

I like writing a variety of posts in the hopes of offering a little something for everyone.  I just started writing ‘how-to’ posts for general DIY and home décor advice and I’m writing about my house and what we’re doing to it so that maybe I could inspire you to do your own DIY.

What do you hope your readers get from visiting your blog?

I hope that you are inspired to be creative in your home décor. Maybe what I’m posting can trigger an idea of your own or you want to look up tips and advice from someone who’s done a similar project.

heathers-kitchen-6Tell us about a post (or two!) that you’re particularly proud of and want to share with Cityline.ca readers.

I’m very proud of how our DIY kitchen turned out: we turned ordinary kitchen cabinets into cottage classics and I still love how they look! One of my favourite projects has always been the coffee tables my husband and I made out of pallet wood; they were inspired by a photo I saw in a magazine.

What are some other blogs you love reading?

These are just some of the talented Canadian DIY and home décor bloggers that inspire me:

AKA Design

A Swell Place to Dwell

Hodge: Podge

Keeping House and Everything Else

Satori Design for Living

Suburble

The Happy Housie

patio-close-up

What’s your top advice for other bloggers?

Go for it! It’s going to take time and you’re going to meet some great people along the way – it’s so much fun! You get to be your own CEO and you’ll discover so much more about researching, writing, photography, and HTML (the behind the scenes part of how your blog looks). You’ll learn about advertising maybe and networking on social media, and marketing perhaps. It takes work for your blog to grow but you get to decide how and where you want it to go.

We want to hear from you! Do you know a blogger we should feature on Cityline.ca? Maybe it’s you! Email us at submissions@cityline.ca and include “Cityline Featured Blogger” in the subject line. And don’t forget to include a link to the blog! Look forward to hearing from you!