Properly right now’s the day. From right now it is possible for you to to affix me over on Substack the place I’ve been busy behind the scenes hanging the curtains, unpacking the archive and arranging the furnishings able to welcome you in. A few of you should have already seen the e-mail I despatched on Monday by which I mentioned I might clarify in somewhat extra element whereas I’ve determined to maneuver home.
I’ve been very completely satisfied right here in my little nook of the web however occasions have modified and it’s time to maneuver on. I very a lot hope you’ll include me to Substack. There’s room for everybody within the new home and there are many thrilling new methods to construct a neighborhood.
I’ve been writing a minimal of three posts per week for practically 12 years. That’s lots of free content material. This was one of many first interiors blogs within the UK once I launched in 2012. It’s one of many final ones standing in 2023. I really like our neighborhood and the help you might have given me over time however the panorama has modified and I need to change with it.
Mad About The Home has all the time been supported by sponsored posts and collaborations. That is what allowed me to proceed writing without spending a dime. However these partnerships are tougher to search out lately with the transfer to video content material and the dominance of Tiktok and Instagram. As I really like a nonetheless picture and a phrase (or 500!) nevertheless it has develop into tougher to help this sort of digital journal with out some type of monetary recompense.
The opposite possibility is, after all adverts. I’ve resisted this with each fibre of my being. I by no means wished to spoil a put up about lovely design with banners and pop-ups that interrupt your studying. It’s like being shouted at by a stranger as you stroll down a phenomenal nation lane. That mentioned, within the drive to help writing as a profession there’s barely {a magazine}, weblog and even newspaper and journal lately that doesn’t use advertisements whether or not it’s for designer purses or backyard sheds.
For the previous few months I’ve thought-about placing the weblog behind a paywall. However that felt like a punishment to all of you who’ve been right here for thus a few years. So, quite than paying hundreds of kilos a yr to host this website, I’ve determined to maneuver to Substack which gained’t price something and the place a quickly rising neighborhood will permit me to extend the variety of readers on a component free/half paid for foundation. These of you who subscribe may have obtained an electronic mail from me already with particulars of a reduction. There will even be free content material over there too so nothing wants to alter should you don’t need it to.
As Farrah Storr, former editor of Elle UK and present head of author partnerships at Substack, mentioned in a latest put up about trend writers flocking to the platform: “Ask round and also you’ll hear fairly rapidly how a lot more durable it’s on the market to get sponsorship offers. Paid partnerships, in the meantime, are sporadic at greatest and compromising at worst. What trend writers and creatives crave, due to this fact, is a gentle, significant income stream, delivered by the very individuals who eat their work: the readers.”
A few of you could already be conversant in Substack. Others much less so. It’s primarily a subscription publication platform that permits me to publish content material that may be each free and paid for. Briefly, as an alternative of me paying hundreds of kilos a yr to a internet hosting engine so I can deliver you free content material, I can stay over there and write as a lot as I would like and a few of you could really feel capable of help that by taking out a paid subscription.
I’ll nonetheless write tons – phrases are my old flame. I’ll nonetheless write without spending a dime – however only a bit lower than earlier than. And by writing a bit much less and realizing that I can nonetheless earn a residing I’ll have extra time to analysis and write higher phrases. And I’m so excited for that.
I hope that it would be best to help me in that writing by becoming a member of a brand new neighborhood over there which shall be a quiet place to learn and digest and chat quietly over tea and biscuits quite than shouting over the music.
The enjoyment of Substack can also be which you can obtain the app and observe plenty of completely different writers to create your individual interactive journal that’s always updating. Everybody has each free and paid for content material so you may combine and match how a lot you wish to see from every individual. There may be meals, trend, journey, politics, way of life and, after all, me.
HERE’S THE PLAN:
For those who enroll as a free subscriber (follower) you’ll get two posts a month (for the launch month of November there shall be six).
For those who select to develop into a paid subscriber right here’s what you’ll get:
- 4 posts a month (along with the 2 free ones)
- These will embrace common posts on the place to buy, how you can fashion and particulars of nice design locations in addition to inside design information and renovation and adorning recommendation. Extra of what now we have shared over right here for thus lengthy.
- Full entry to the very best of my archive which I’ve moved over there – together with issues like “What to Purchase should you Hire, 15 Inside Design Guidelines to Dwell By, How you can Discover Your Inside Design Model, and What to Purchase if I do know I’m going to Renovate.
- Entry to a month-to-month drop-in design clinic the place you may ask me questions and we will chat all issues interiors. In case you are unable to attend I’ll electronic mail the recording to you afterwards.
- First have a look at the completed home in Italy and behind the scenes of the renovation.
- First invitations to the inside design retreats I shall be operating there subsequent yr.
Substack additionally has intelligent options reminiscent of Threads the place I can, for instance, begin a dialogue on that week’s Househunter (which is able to stay as a free put up however we will all chat about it and, crucially, you may chat to one another extra simply quite than this barely clunkier format of leaving feedback). Or Chat, which is a basic place for nattering – very like a personal WhatsApp group the place I would present you an incredible lamp I’ve noticed whereas out and about for instance. I’ve additionally simply found there’s an audio operate and, as I’ve by no means recorded audio variations of my books, I’m serious about do ebook readings – would you want that?
It’s extra interactive with extra revolutionary methods to attach and I’m so excited to get began. For those who subscribe to my weblog updates right here you’ll begin seeing updates from Substack in your inbox any further. You’ll be able to unsubscribe at any time and you may improve to a paid subscription at any time. Costs are £6 a month or £65 for the yr (until you seize that low cost which is 20% off decreasing it to £52 a yr) so it’s lower than a cup of espresso per week. It’s legitimate till 3 November 2023.
THERE’S MORE
As well as there’s a one off annual payment (founding member) of £350 which will get you a forty five minute one to 1 design session with me and a personalised signed copy of one among my books – whichever one fits you greatest for the stage you’re at in your design journey.
See you over there. And there’ll nonetheless be content material over right here within the type of bulletins and information and occasions in addition to posts in regards to the store which is relaunching quickly.
Thanks all a lot on your help over the past 11 years, I hope you’ll include me on the following stage of the journey. My first new content material shall be out on Monday and it’s a tour of the non-public Milan dwelling of the designer Piero Fornasetti. It’s an unimaginable home that’s not open the general public and also you gained’t wish to miss it.
Enroll right here
XK
Supply: Mad About The Home
