Heart Home meets… Katie Treggiden

Every now and then it’s fun to turn the tables round, and interview the interviewer. Not me, mind, but Katie Treggiden, interview extraordinaire and author of the limited edition design book, Interviews.

A regular contributor to the Heart Home blog, Katie began her recent incarnation as a design writer through her blog, Confessions of a Design Geek, which won the Best Interior Design Blog in Great Britain at the mydeco Design Democracy Awards in September 2010, just five short months after she started writing it!

With that feather in her cap, it wasn’t long before she moved on to bigger and better things, and by September 2011 she had published Interviews, a collection of eighteen conversations with designers which is now stocked in the likes of the Design Museum and the V&A! Good, eh?

So you’re probably wondering how on earth she managed it? Luckily, she’s in a sharing mood and was more than happy to switch places and face the glare of the spotlight, for one night only…

I’ve just gone freelance as a design writer, which is a dream come true for me, so I’m not really having bad days at the moment! A really good day involves talking to someone who inspires me about a really exciting project – or getting to spend the whole day writing. I guess bad days will come when I start having to do tax returns!

I think inspiration can come from anywhere, but you have to be in the right frame of mind to receive it. For me, this means making sure I take time out to exercise and just some time to stop and look around me. People who are really passionate about a very niche subject also particularly inspire me though – what I call ‘niche geekery’ – I love it!


The biggest thing is belief. The difference between having an idea for a book and having published a book was simply the belief that I could do it. That; and a lot of hard work! Once you believe in an idea and absolutely commit to making it happen, there are no obstacles that can’t be overcome. I really believe that.

I’m still an aspiring design writer myself, really, so I’m not sure I’m in a position to give a lot of advice! Good advice I’ve been given recently includes – read a lot, write a lot, spend time doing something else entirely.


My moleskine diary, my iPhone and my ancient MacBook. Those three things contain my entire life and I’m not sure how I’d cope without them.

I am incredibly proud of my little blog, which won Best Interior Design Blog in great Britain just five months after I started writing it, and really was the starting point for a whole new direction in my life. I’ve also very proud of my book. I’ve wanted to publish a book since I was five years old, so that was a big one for me. And right now, I’m really proud of myself for following my dream of becoming a full time design writer. Fingers crossed I can make it work!


Lots of writing projects I hope! I’m in those early stages of talking to lots of interesting people about lots of really exciting projects, so if just a few of those come off, I’ll be a very happy bunny indeed!

Definitely grey – with a bit of yellow.

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