Blog to book: Design*Sponge at Home

I’ve just finished reading Design*Sponge at Home by Grace Bonney, based on her popular interior design blog Design*Sponge. I discovered her blog five years ago and it’s gone from strength to strength and it’s a delight to see that the book (which is beautifully put together) made Amazon’s Top 10: Best Books of 2011: Art & Photography.

I really enjoyed reading Bonney’s introduction to the book (merely two pages of the 390 page book), which is a familiar story for many of the early blogs which went on to enjoy such success: “I had no idea how my life would change when I clicked a button on the screen that said PUBLISH”.

The driving factor for her in started the blog was to “connect with people like myself… Even though no one joined in the discussion at first… I didn’t care because I loved having an outlet where I could write about my passions. I was thrilled to have an outlet to express my love of design…It made me feel less like the crazy girl in the room who’s always going on about cool wallpaper. And yet, as it turns out, I wasn’t alone… Within weeks, my blog was eliciting comments and e-mails and I felt like I was connecting with a community that I didn’t even know existed. We started having online conversations about the kinds of things I previously thought interested only me…”.

She says she was “going on and on” about design until her boyfriend said “Hey, have you ever thought about starting a blog about design? Maybe you could use it as a writing sample or a portfolio and use it to apply for a job at a magazine one day?”

A passion shared and then joy and surprise at a newly found (and formed) community.

“And then one day I realized that what began as my own personal blog had become the design magazine I had always wanted to read – and work for.”

Bonney grew up wanting to be a journalist for a newspaper, and ended up creating the job of her dreams. I love it!

Reading her book reconfirmed to me that the best blogging (and writing in general) is by people passionate about their subject matter. People who write for the love of it, even if no-one else is reading.