Interview with Lucy Freedman

Lucy Freedman is an interior designer and consultant who has designed a wide range of beautifully luxe houses in London and beyond. She also has a successful blog (over 45,000 hits so far!)... 

www.lucywillshowyou.blogspot.com

So Lucy, tell us about the ethos of your blog...

I set my blog up as a kind of constant portfolio I could refer to of what inspired me. I then used it as a reference board for potential clients - it's basically all the things I love.

What are the challenges of writing it?

You have to be careful - I only update stuff that I've found. So yes the light is from Hector Finch, but I found it (after a long search of lights in Claridges and trawling my suppliers to see who made it) as opposed to non-designers just grabbing random information and uploading that.

What's your style as a designer?

I used to say I was too young to have a style. But actually I think I do now - very clean, modern, fresh and eclectic. The most important thing I do is listen to my client. If they want a certain style of sofa and I think it's not going to work, I'll present them with five options I know are going to work and allow them to decide. My clients come to me because they enjoy the process of having someone else help them find something they might not be able to find or they just want you to choose it and they don't mind. So I have recently been given the opportunity to be a little more personal with the work I've done and choose what I (think will work), which is amazing. (Some of my) clients have no idea what style they want or what colour they're looking for - that's where I come in. That's how I know I'm developing a style because people like it and clients are often friends of friends… I'm offering ideas and I get a yes or no immediately, how rewarding is that?

In terms of the web tell us a bit about how you interact with it…

I'm completely obsessed with apps. I got my iPad three weeks ago and I have 60 apps already. All my apps are travel related. A lot of my clients' inspiration comes from places they stay when they're working. They might work in the city and stay in beautiful hotels around the world, but they still have no idea where to buy these products… As well as working out what they like and what they don't like, it's working out where they stay, what restaurants and hotels they go to. This gives you a real insight into a client's mindset. A guy that goes to Goodman every night because he wants a really good steak or (Cecconi's), J Sheeky's or Scotts: you're going to know the sort of aesthetic they value. They're not just going for the nice tablecloth, they're going for the nice chairs, the beautiful tableware. They're not just going for the food - put it that way!

Interior design firms are now becoming very savvy with their apps aren't they?

Yes - perfect example, I had a client meeting this morning. I met my client when she was having breakfast with her family, I was just there with my Ipad, I had my Mac as well and we were looking at a lighting company… Their apps were so amazing, there were single pictures of all these lamps we were looking at and they were just so clever... I like to share my information… If you keep things to yourself it will never be returned. I really believe in that ethos. When I sit in a showroom with one of the fabric guys I'm working with, if I give them as much information as I can and help them, they're going to be so much more receptive to me, and I think that's why I have really good working relationships with so many people in the industry, especially all the guys and girls at Chelsea harbour and Pimlico Road. 

So tell us about your favourite apps…

Newstand. Amazing - all my favourite magazine subscriptions including Conde Nast Traveller, WallPaper, Luxe, Project, Elle Decoration & Interior Design.

Luxury Hotels.

Mrs and Mrs smith - boutique hotel booking website.

Flipboard - is amazing!

Twitter - I tweet a lot for my work… follow me (@DiscoverDeliver).

How to Spend It - I'm addicted to How to Spend IT!

Jetsetter.

Addison Lee - For when I'm not whizzing around in my grey Fiat500, Giacomo.

Yatzer - the app of the amazing design website.

Concierge - small but good...

What do you use your Ipad for most?

Grouping all of my images in iPhoto - this is amazing. All my favourite hotels, I keep pictures of them to discuss with clients. Last week I was in Paris for Maison et Objet and stayed at Le Royal Monceau and Hotel Thoumieux in Paris. When you're working with a client and you're trying to show them a light for example, it's really helpful if you've got an image of it in situ, so they can see the scale of it etc. That's why the iPad is so brilliant. 

Your blog is full of images… 

Yes they're all ones I've found or ones companies have sent me. It's almosy ‘my' online iPhoto as well as being a reference for me because, as my LWSY blog title says "Lucy Will Show You, all the beautiful things that I come across and want to share with you…" I look at so many images everyday and if I don't categorise them in a particular order I'm never going to remember them and that's such a waste.

Would you have any tips for anyone else setting up a blog?

It's interesting because I have a blog that's completely self-indulgent but my blog is for me, it's not for anyone, I regularly forget that other people read it and I often have my mum or dad calling telling me I have a typo and then I get embarrassed because I realise that other people read it but I have a site reader service and I've had about 45,000+ hits on my blog, so I must remember to proof read my words!

Do you read any other blogs?

I don't read that many other interior blogs because I don't want to be diluted. It doesn't enable me to write my pure thoughts. I think there's a difference between reading an industry magazine and somebody else's professional blog. I want in the future to be very successful so I want it to stay honest to my true thoughts. I'm sure that I'm guilty of this too but I feel like there are so many repetitive images. I get a lot of my images from press departments, or they are my own photographs. I don't write that much: I'm not a writer. It's just a visual diary. People like visual blogs because it's a quick hit of inspiration. 

So upload what you want, don't think about your target market…?

Exactly - write it for yourself. It should be an imprint of your personality.

You don't have advertising do you?

I get emails every day from some known companies and some unknown strangers. I cannot stand blogs that look like they're clearly out to make money.

Have you got a lot of business in terms of design work from your blog?

I have, and a referred client asked to see my work I showed him my blog. From the visuals on my blog it obviously reassured him that I had good taste and I got a very nice project out of it which I'm actually still working on.

So your opinions on design itself…

I might get obsessed by a particular hotel but I love supporting friends and people who I think deserve as much as they can get and one company is a guy called Stuart Scott who's an amazing furniture designer. If you type his name into Google, up comes my blog because I talk about his pieces so much on my blog. So I'm also doing him a bit of advertising. I know for a fact that I have increased the sales of some companies because I have a picture on my blog that leads the viewer to making a purchase. 

Do you want to carry on being a free-lance designer? What's your vision for the future?

I will always be an interior designer. I've just become the design director for a new company which is to be announced shortly which hauls in all my knowledge of design into another online company. It's going live in March. I'm completely committed to this new project now, but I shall keep my interiors business and shall always consult, it's important to keep your name known in the industry. I've worked on some utterly incredible houses over the years, but I've worked hard all my life, I think it's starting to pay off. 

Interview by Alice Kahrmann - 02 Feb 2012