When designing my bathroom I spent many an evening searching for inspiration on Pinterest. And that’s when I stumbled upon Design Soda. I completely fell in love with her bathroom (especially the floor). It was just what I was looking for. Geometric floor tiles with a glamorous feel (check out my bathroom makeover for pics). Since then, I been following Ruth (or Ruthie as she’s known) and have watched her grow. She currently has over 11k insta followers and runs a successful interiors blog. And whilst, I love reading blogs and following them on social media, I’m always fascinated by the person behind it all. People buy people right? I’m intrigued by them. Who are they? What kind of life do they lead? What makes them tick? Does anyone else feel like this or am I just being nosey? So I thought I’d share some insider scoop on the real Ruth, the lady behind Design Soda, and her interior inspiration.
Brief Biog
“I live in a 3 bedroom victorian Semi-Detached in London (just!) with my partner and my 3 year old. I’ve got 2 history degrees. I work in a library part time and for the other half I’m an interiors blogger. I started blogging about 4 years ago. It was a space where I could explore my passion without boring my partner with the thousands of design ideas I had for our home. Since then my blog has evolved massively. It’s turned from something that has helped me learn what I liked style-wise and documented my passions, to become something of an outlet for my own identity when I first had a baby, to something that’s now become a part time career.”
Insider truths
How I would describe my style? “I really struggle with design terms as I feel limited by them, so I guess eclectic is the one that fits me best. Our home is fairly bohemian in feel. It’s a relaxed family space. I like collecting vintage but am also just as at home with modern pared back Scandinavian design. I use colour a lot but not in an especially punchy way, our style is definitely eclectic.”
What’s your favourite room?
“My goodness, does it sound bad to say my bedroom? I would have to choose a space that I am most relaxed in and where I get time to be quiet, somewhere I can’t see to-do lists or household chores. My reading nook would, of course, be my sophisticated answer, but the honest one is my bedroom. I love lounging. I don’t get to do it as often as I used to now that we have an energetic toddler to contend with. But I feel most at peace in my home winding down, so being in bed with a good book or a magazine in the evening is pretty close to my idea of heaven. And if there’s fresh linen and hot chocolate, all the more so.”
Where do you get your inspiration from?
“I take influence from things around me all the time. Of course I spend a fair bit of my time looking at interiors in the usual places – Pinterest, interiors magazines, Instagram, other blogs, or checking out the latest decor in hotels, at design shows and looking up new and interesting companies. But living in London is what really inspires me. From ideas to steal in commercial settings (I’m often taking mental notes over coffee in cafes) to the amazing architecture, great styling in shop windows and the colours people wear on my tube journey. Inspiration is everywhere!
I also look at what’s around me all the time to see what might spark inspiration, often it happens to be things that others are starting to talk about. We are all sponges tapping into our environments. So when something does spark I write pretty quickly and don’t plan too far ahead, although I often have many draft ideas in bank too.”
What’s your biggest interior mistake?
“Not anything too disastrous, in our first apartment we tried to paint a floor white without sanding it properly and the result was the wrong side of shabby! But I am horribly impatient with design, always wanting to see the end results, so slowing down is something I struggle with, usually my partner Dan reins me back to tortoise and not hare.”
What your guilty pleasure?
“My guilty pleasure is kitsch! I had a very big thing for kitsch in my late teens which I’ve never really been able to shake, so each room has at least one piece of kitsch in it. But actually I quite like this as it breaks up any of the more serious design decisions and injects a bit of fun!”
What 3 interiors would you take to your own desert island?
“Now that is a question! I think I’d be practical and take a bookshelf and the cocktail trolley(!), and then just because it is a thing of beauty my favourite Scandinavian Klippan throw, though actually in a lot of ways I see my home as my own desert island or retreat so I’m not sure I want to go anywhere!”
What’s next?
“Next for me is renovating the living room which is a little daunting as I know it’s one of the rooms that people most like (and the reason I won a Pinterest interiors award this year). On the work front I’m going to carry on doing what I’m doing, but I maybe starting a workshop soon and possibly something new with the hashtag (#colourmyhome), so watch this space!”