Zoom-in Online

This week's interview is with a collective team from Remodelista: Sourcebook for the Considered Home.

Lydia Slavutin: Why did you decide to start/become involved with Remodelista?

Remodelista Team: Julie (Carlson) came up with the idea for Remodelista in the summer of 2006. She and her childhood friend Francesca Connolly were finishing remodels and comparing notes when Julie realized they had collectively amassed a huge amount of information on design files and fixtures. She and Francesca discussed the idea of creating a curated online site for like-minded people going through the remodeling and design process. She enlisted the help of two fellow design enthusiasts living in California, myself (Sarah Lonsdale) and Janet Hall.
The four of us share a reverence for good architecture and design and have an eerily similar aesthetic—a shared design DNA, we call it. As a result, Remodelista has a very consistent, clean look and feel. We focus on residential architecture (our Architect Visit feature is one of our most popular), fixtures and fittings (sinks, faucets, tile, etc.), and well-designed products for the home. Our aim is to help readers wade through all the design choices out there; our Ten Easy Pieces feature lists of what we consider to be the best choices in diverse categories such as cabinet pulls, doorbells, table fans, kitchen faucets—the things you can spend hours trolling the internet for.

LS: How did it come to fruition?

RT: We met regularly and fleshed out ideas on what would be the most useful way to present the information we had collectivley amassed on remodeling and design. We really began by creating a site that we all would wish to have if we were doing a remodel. This was the genesis and it grew from there.

LS: What are your thoughts on the growing popularity of the design blogging community?

RT: The number of design bloggers—and the audience of readers—has grown enormously in the past couple of years. While shelter magazines were the source of design inspiration for most people, the web now offers a myriad of different choices and points of view. The profusion of available information is great on the one hand, but it can also be overwhelming. At Remodelista, we consciously aim for a streamlined look that is accessible and easy to reference.

LS: Do you think that blogging about design has changed design? If so, how?

RT: When we first began blogging three years ago, a lot of information was not online or not easily accessible and searches could be lengthy. These days any product can be found almost instantaneously. I don’t believe that design itself has changed but the availability of information on design has proliferated and people are more open to the way they communicate design.

LS:  Do you use other design blogs as a resource for creative inspiration and endeavors?

RT: We always like to see what other design blogs are covering and what trends emerge and there are several that we look at daily. There are probably over 5,000 design blogs at this stage and it is always interesting to pick up a lead and follow it from blogroll to blogroll and it is great when you end up at some small esoteric site with a refreshingly new viewpoint. A couple of our favorites include Ancient industries, a small but well crafted blog and Hoping for Happy Accidents is a well curated, consistently reliable source of inspiration.

LS: What is your favorite part of your website?

RT: Architect Visits & House Calls profiles an architect or designer’s project and provides a window into a specific style and approach to design. 10 Easy Pieces is our round-up of what we consider to be the best in the category we cover; what some may consider mundane items, like faucets, get us excited, and compiling a top 10 list really makes you really look at the design and functionality of an object. None of us ever seem to tire about writing about design and there is always more to cover.

Not only can they design, but they are also excellent writers! Thank you Remodelista Team for your time and your contributions to the design world!