Sarah is the beautiful soul behind A Beach Cottage. She is a Brit living in Australia who blogs about her gorgeous cottage home by the beach -but, I guess the title gives that away. She also has the absolute best accent ever – it’s like English infused with a touch of Aussie. I kept having to remind myself to pay attention, I was so distracted by the beautiful voice.

How long have you been blogging?

I have been blogging for about 2 and a half years.

What made you decide to start a blog or website?

I decided to start blogging as a log for the renovations we were doing on our old cottage and to document our huge seachange from London to Australia. One night surrounded by packing boxes and feeling exhausted and rather burnt out with it all I somehow found home blogs and was totally inspired by women from all over the world who were blogging about their homes and lives and DIY…it filled me with enthusiasm and so there and then I signed up for a free blog…on a whim I called it ‘abeachcottage’ in response to the real estate agent who had included that in his description of the old place which was a stretch of the imagination!….and have been blogging here ever since.

When did you realize your blog had become so much more than you had expected? What was the biggest unexpected perk or bonus of your site and being online?

I began to realize that my blog was much more than I expected when people started to comment on what I was doing, my house, my styling and photography and saying how great it was…I was very surprised at this and how quickly it took off…I was logging in mainly as a way to keep me focused on fixing-up our cottage but it became apparent that other people were interested in this too…this has proved to be a huge personal thing for me….after a long time a happy stay at home mum I was missing me in my life and the blog and the internet have given me the opportunity to still stay at home to be there for my family but now I can fulfill my creative side.

The biggest perk of my blog has been how it has opened my eyes to how fantastic the world is and to how lucky we are to live in the beautiful place that we do. Behind the lens of my camera and by my writing on the blog I began to see there is beauty all around me happening every day and how grateful I am to be living by the sea.

I have also been very lucky to have come into contact with lots of inspirational people, been featured by some big internet sites, been in magazines and newspapers on the other side of the world…two and a half years ago if someone had told me the biggest newspaper in Ireland would be featuring our run-down cottage on their pages I would have laughed out loud…that is a wonderful perk to having a blog…

What other blogs or sites inspire you?

I am inspired by many blogs and sites but right now I am absolutely loving my account on Pinterest – I love spending time pinning inspirational images to my boards and seeing what other people are being inspired by.

Tell us about the design makeover process? How did you choose the colors, fonts and ideas that inspire your personal brand?

I started the design makeover process by gathering a collection of websites/blogs that I liked the look of – and then I picked the elements I liked from all of them and combined this for the look I wanted….I was looking for a rotating top banner, a clean, fresh look, and a light background. I also wanted vintage typewriter font and sea-inspired colours. I wanted the ability to change the pictures in my banner easily should I want to and I wanted the blog template to have the capability for me to have a menu with lots of tabs available along the top.

Darcy had the ability to easily interpret what was a fairly basic brief from me and combine the elements I wanted with a wonderful colour aesthetic.

We also had rather a lot of hurdles to get over because at the same time as my blog makeover with Darcy I moved my blog to a self-hosted WordPress blog, this was an interesting ride for both of us, which was full of twists and turns…I was very grateful to have Darcy on board for this, her professionalism and commitment to me and my blog was second to none.

Her design gave my blog the polished more professional feel that was missing but without losing the personal feel of me and what abeachcottage is all about…that was exactly what I was aiming for.

How did you find / hear about Graphically Designing?

I found Darcy and Graphically Designing through seeing many of the blogs she had already designed…I realised that blogs whose design I appreciated were often designed by Darcy…hence I perused her Portfolio and decided that she would be perfect to put into action the ideas I had to move my blog to the next level.

Anything else you want people to know about you or your blog?

Well I have been absolutely delighted with my blog and its design, however, the same as in my cottage, I am always in the mood for a good makeover, so Darcy and I are looking forward to a fresh new spruce up for abeachcottage, sheduled soon and I can’t wait to see what we come up with…

Thanks, Sarah! Please visit Sarah at A Beach Cottage… Follow her on twitter… or join her on Facebook.

Melissa has such a great sense of style and such a consistent idea of her brand. Melissa has innovative ideas, loves beautiful things and she usually writes to me in a numbered list or bullet points. Gotta love that organization! She is a writer, speaker, decorator, mom and inspiration to many.

Project goals: Create a design that was clean, open, easy to navigate, but still full of texture, layers and images like Melissa loves. Allow her content to take center stage, while still leaving room for the advertising space her ad partners require.

CMS: WordPress and the Genesis Theme Framework by StudioPress.

This is the second design Melissa and I have done together. Her first design showcased a really cool bulletin board category system on her sidebar. But once that caught on around the blogosphere, Melissa was ready to set the next trend!

I’ve enjoyed working with Darcy on my last two blog redesigns! She takes the time to understand my detailed vision and makes it come to life! I appreciate her efforts in helping me to keep my blog design evolving, fresh and unique! Working with Darcy is always fun!

Want to see more? Please visit Melissa and The Inspired Room.
Follow Melissa on twitter.
Fan The Inspired Room on Facebook.