"We got married in 2008 and were living in a little basement apartment. I was an art major in school, and I started using the apartment as a canvas for my art and redecorating and trying new things.
I was pregnant with our first child, and I just started writing every day as a creative outlet and to keep our family updated. Chris was at work and one day he came home and I said, ‘I started a blog, and I called it Chris Loves Julia, I hope that’s okay.’ He said, ‘It’s true!’
I read a lot of blogs and I quickly found my niche, which was home design and decor. And I absorbed it and did it all day in my spare time. I treated it as my job at the time, even though I was making no money at all. We bought our first house, and we started doing a lot more DIY together. After Chris was done with work, we would tackle projects, like a built-in, and I’ve been writing pretty much every day since, documenting our renovation story. We’re actually renovating our third house right now. And they’re not flip houses; these are houses that we live in as a family. And we show the process of living through a renovation and doing some of the work ourselves, hiring it out, whatever is actually happening. We try to tackle a range of projects over a range of budgets and share those as well.
I’m not a designer, I never went to school for design, but I consider myself a home design educator. I love to give our audience the tools they need to make their home a place they love to be in. Anyone can love where they live.
Before social media, I was posting every day but it never felt like I was writing in my journal. It was like I was talking to my readers, and I would address them a lot. And there were so many conversations happening in the comment section, and I would reply to all the comments and really create bonds there. I always felt that what’s missing in a lot of home shows is the process and the mistakes and learning from those. And something that we really like to bring to the table is that we’re not experts, we’re doing this and we’re figuring this out and you’re going to figure this out right along with us.
And I think that there’s a vulnerability and authenticity that our audience really clings to. I have never tried to make myself appear as an expert or a designer. I just say, ‘This is what I’m doing, and this is why I’m doing it.’ And it’s amazing that our audience feels so connected and integrated with our lives to the point where they sometimes remember things that I don’t remember.”
