For some interior stylists, their own home is their shop window. They share photos and videos of their decorated living rooms and bedrooms on social media. What’s it like to put something as personal as your home on the world wide web? Three stylists slash interior influencers tell.
Wendy Koning (51), 88,000 followers: ‘People came by who know me from Instagram’
“Weird that a simple video of my garden has been viewed a million times. I’m way too lazy to spend a lot of time on it: I have 2000 unfinished drafts. Sharing on Instagram is part of me. If I haven’t posted anything for a day and a half, I have so much fun that I want to share. I drag my things back and forth like a kind of hamster in the house. My great love is black, tall and the outdoors. It all comes together on my Instagram.
I want to show that you can be happy at home with what you have. I also share funny, recognizable stories. The other day a teenage son asked ‘what all those dead plants were doing here’ after I had bought all new plants. Followers find that very funny. I sometimes wonder where the boundaries are for me in online sharing. In the early years as an interior stylist, I consciously kept my house hidden because I didn’t want to influence my clients. At one point I thought it would be fun to show and that got a bit out of hand.
I no longer share the front of my house on Instagram. When I walk to the mailbox with my fluffy haircut, I don’t want people to recognize me. When I did share the front cover, people who know me from Instagram regularly came by. I don’t have to, that’s what my friends are for. I am sometimes recognized at the local Jumbo. Then people start talking about something and I think: huh, how do you know that? And then the penny drops: oh, yes, Instagram.”
The video below has been viewed a million times.
Irene Meerman (46), 7500 followers: ‘I don’t want to share joys and sorrows on Instagram’
“I jokingly went to share some pictures of my interior on Instagram when I was still working as an HR employee. I got so many responses that I soon tried to get work out of it. I approached major brands for collaborations, but was told I had no experience.
Still I kept trying: you get a hundred times no, but that one yes gets you further. I am now an ambassador for brands such as Wehkamp and Pip Studio. I built my network through Instagram. You follow a masterclass here, a training there and before you know it you are in an online community with all kinds of professionals. It has brought me many clients, both for collaborations and for my first jobs as an interior consultant.
I like to show on Instagram what you can do in the field of sustainability and creativity. It is for me the most personal thing I do in the field of work. I don’t want to share joys and sorrows on Instagram, even if you learn in courses that it gives you more followers. Recently I was approached for a TV commercial to show my house but that is going too far for me. As long as I post myself, I am in control of what I show.
Interior reflects who I am. Basically I’m calm, but if you know me you know that I’m also into crazy things. You can see that in my interior: I like calm, natural colours, but with quirks such as a fake robin on the wall or three painted vases on top of each other. I think it’s important to be different, it makes a house its own and playful.”
Sanne de Koning (29) and Leroy Tirion (31), 84,000 followers: ‘People say our house looks like a showroom’
“Our house is an online inspiration platform. We have our own webshop where we sell furniture and accessories that are in our house. A large part of the interior changes every week. People like to see items in a home environment so they know how it is in their own home. We feel at home in our house because of the warm tones and materials.
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People say our house looks like a showroom, but when we get home, there’s just clutter. It is not as static as in the pictures. Initially, the Instagram account was intended to record our renovation in a kind of visual diary. Then we started sharing more and more atmospheric images, but at a certain point we realized: this is actually just promoting other people’s stuff.
During a dinner with Leroy’s sister, we chatted about her interior store that recently closed. She knew many suppliers and came up with the idea to let us work with them. If people want to buy something, we meet with them at a location where the items are or we provide an address where you can view samples. Our house is only an online inspiration platform: we don’t want customers over.
“We do the styling based on feeling and a bit of practical experience from Leroy’s sister. We do style interior, but our focus is the webshop. We initially wanted to do a styles course, but the business was going so well that we didn’t have time for it.”
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