Home Decor Interview:

Kate Baxter from "Fabric of My Life"

1.  Hi Kate, thank you for joining us today. Please take a second to tell us a little about yourself, "The Fabric of My Life," and anything else of yours that you'd like to mention to our readers.

"The Fabric of My Life" is my own little corner of cyberspace where I like to document all my favourite inspirational finds, be it interiors, homewares, fashion or well-designed products that make me go ooooh! I started my blog when I was freelancing as an interiors stylist, as a way of cataloguing all the things I liked in one place, in order to develop my own personal style. Without realising it, I found that I was always drawn to interiors and products that were very retro in style, and through my blog – or my magpie’s nest, as I like to call it – I discovered that mid-century modern and Scandinavian style were very dear to my heart.


2.  One thing that struck me right away is how successful your blog has become in such a short period of time, especially since you're still so young. To what do you attribute this success to, and has "Fabric of My Life" exceeded your expectations?

When I first started out, my blog was all about what I loved and the images that inspired me in my work as a stylist. I never set out expecting that anyone would read it, and although I’ve always written with a voice that poses questions and involves my reader, I think I always saw it more as a visual diary of my evolving creative side, and in that way it was always very personal.

For the first six months or so, no one read it, not even my friends and that was fine. But then, slowly, very slowly, people started to stumble across it and began leaving me comments and words of encouragement and I began to get a glimpse of what the blog could evolve into. It all happened very organically to begin with, and then my blog was included in The Time’s Online’s List of top 50 Design Blogs in the World.

In an instant my blog following increased a hundred-fold and I absolutely freaked. Suddenly there was pressure to post everyday and to write authoratively about my subject and for a moment my blog became another thing that I had to do, and not something that I did because I enjoyed it. But all the lovely comments and positive words brought me back to reality pretty quickly and I realised how powerful and accepting the blogging community.

I began to feel very welcomed and included in this brave new world that is rapidly discovering it’s untapped vocal potential, and I am so very, very happy and proud to be a part of this.


3.  For readers who may not live in the UK, can you please explain what a "car boot fair" is?

A car boot fair is basically a jumble sale held on a school playground or playing field where people drive up in their cars and sell all their old things from their boot (I guess in the states the boot is call the trunk of the car…?). It is great for finding old treasures that other people consider to be junk and you often pay just a few pounds for a china tea set just because it is missing one saucer, or old Polaroid cameras that have been sitting gathering dust in someone’s attic for years.


4.  When digging around town for great finds at your local antique fair, is there any one characteristic you're looking for that always seems to catch your eye? And do you think this is something you've learned over time, or a talent you think you were born with?

I never have a particular characteristic in mind, I just know what I like! Often I’ll buy a beautiful set of coloured glasses and get them home to discover I already have a similar set because I always seem to be drawn to the same things!

Because I don’t have my own home yet, a lot of my purchases get wrapped in tissue paper and stored in boxes under my bed, waiting for the day that I move into a place of my own and can unpack all these beautiful treasures, and give them pride of place in a glass fronted 1950s cabinet or lined up along a shelf.

As I said, a lot of the time I am drawn to mid-century modern designs and I love coloured glasses, retro-patterned china sets and teak handled cutlery. One day my kitchen is going to be AWESOME.


5.  Have your friends and family generally been supportive of your blog, and do they share your interest in the topics you write about?

My friends and family have been really supportive, but the most amazing thing about blogging is all the new friends you meet along the way; some who remain cyber friends, but others who have become ‘real-life’ friends after endless communication via blog comments and twitter. Living in London, there are so many fellow bloggers who I have begun to meet up regularly with, and I am also a member of the Design Bloggers Collective, a creative group of UK design bloggers who meet once a month to share ideas and develop connections in the design world.


6.  What made you decide to book a trip to Amsterdam for the "Meet the Blogger" event? Are you looking forward to it, and what do you have planned while you are there?

The ‘Meet the Blogger’ event is an extension of the Design Bloggers get-together’s we have in London, and I am heading to Amsterdam with fellow DB Collective members Arianna of Arianna Interiors and Carole of Dear Designers. I am really looking forward to meeting some of the international bloggers I chat to regularly via twitter and who I already feel I almost ‘know’ through their blogs. Putting faces to twitter names is always so much fun (and it’s always amusing to introduce yourself as your blog name!) and whenever I’ve been in a room full of bloggers it is as if we have been friends for ages even if we have only just met in ‘reality’.

I’ve also never been to Amsterdam before, so I’m really excited to explore the city and hopefully uncover some little gems to blog about in the process. Really, I imagine it to be a weekend of bubbling creatively and I simply cannot wait!


7.  Kate, thanks again for spending some time with us today. For this last question, please tell us where you see yourself 5 years from now? Do you have any specific career goals or plans to expand your blog?

I try not to look too far into the future these days, and take every opportunity as it comes. Looking back five years to where I am now I could not have ever envisioned anything like this for myself, so I’m trying to be a little easier on myself in terms of setting long-term goals and not rule anything in or out.

As for my blog I’m trying not to put too much pressure on, to blog about only the things that truly inspire me, and allow everything to develop organically. It’s an approach that has worked so far, and opened so many doors and all I can do is keep on going through them. Who knows where they will lead...

That was a very interesting conversation and we thank Kate for spending some time with us today.  We hope she has fun in Amsterdam and we look forward to reading all about it. 

Be sure to head over to The Fabric of My Life today and become a regular reader of her blog.  Thanks Kate!