A Reflection On 2012…

Like we did at the beginning of last year and to ease ourselves back into the blogging groove, we would like to share with you some stats on our blog’s activity in 2012. Here are some interesting facts…

We wrote exactly 100 new blog posts in 2012 and uploaded a whopping 572 images. Our busiest blog day was June 7th, the most popular post that day being the CrazySexyCool Wall Decals give-away. Our blog readers are spread over an impressive 178 countries, and just like last year, the most visitors came from South Africa. The United States & The United Kingdom were not far behind.

The stats indicate that the most popular posts to be…

1. Décor Dictionary: Recycling & Upcycling attempts to define the rather elusive terms, recycling and upcycling – specific to the design industry.

2. Décor Dictionary: Hollywood Regency Style – we asked Capetonian Interior Decorator, Kim Stephen of In A State Of Luxe to define this trending glamorous décor style for us.

3. Consol’s SUPER Solar Jar! inspired us to try our hand at product styling… and boy, what a ball we had doing it!

4. Décor Diva: To Paint Or Not To Paint in which Rose discuss the current trend of painting vintage furniture pieces.

5. A Valentine’s Picnic… without the corny clichés put new stylish spin on the old romantic picnic idea.

Rose and I also sat down and discussed our personal favourite blog posts of 2012…

Rose said:

“Monday was the first time I switched on my computer since 20th December. It really felt that I had come out on the other side of the Mayan Calendar, almost like Mayan afterlife. Now in the present moment here in the very early stages of 2013, one of the best things I did today was glance back at the blog posts we wrote during 2012. This little exercise also brought home to me some of the business successes that Design Monarchy had in 2012 – big and small. It inspires me into the new year.

Without any further ado, these are the blog articles that stand out for me. I would love to expound the reasons why, but since lethargy still clouds my mind, I just went on my gut feel.

Design Indaba was actually the highlight design activity of last year. It was the first time that I had attended any the conference itself and needless to say, I was blown away. I was inspired to dizzy heights coming out of Design Indaba ‘s talent. That is why I think I was attracted to the article that covered the beautiful Design Indaba ceramic works.

It was via Twitter that I stumbled across graphic designer, Leila Fanner’s work – strangely, since she hardly ever tweets. Since meeting her, we have discovered so much in common and gone onto become friends. Leila is also the graphic designer that is responsible for Design Monarchy’s new look company logo. That new logo was just simply another sign of the maturity that is slowly happening within our company.

2012 also saw the development of the Ask Décor Diva column coming out of design queries from our readers. I loved this, the “feature bathroom” query being one of my highlights! PLEASE, don’t hesitate to let us have as many of your design dilemma queries as possible – the Décor Diva needs to be kept busy.

Marica’s Get The Look article on the Contemporary Lounge so did it for me. She really managed to nail that one.

There was a moment last year where I had that ah-ha! moment coming out of all the blog reading I do. I realised that Tea Towels were just so cool. Marica translated that into a cool post on these nifty décor accessories.”

For my part – like Rose, the Design Indaba was also the most unforgettable event of 2012! Attending the conference and listen to all the local and international speakers was jaw-dropping amazing.

I also had a ball earlier this year when we did a 3-part blog review on the developing trends we observed the previous year. I think trend-watching has become on of my favourite activities!

Another blog post I thoroughly enjoyed was James Russell’s knowledgeable guest post on the History of Toile de Jouy – it gets the award for the most interesting read of 2012!

Getting our hands dirty with our little Consol Solar Jar shoot was also a blog highlight for me. Running around my backyard in the dark was a lot of fun!

Lastly, I also enjoyed putting together the post on using ladders as décor accessories… so much so that my one friend thinks I ladder-obsessed.

So what do you think? What as your favourite posts of 2012?

Thanks for all your wonderful support during 2012 and STAY WITH US, we promise to deliver the goodies.

Is there anything design and décor related you would like to see us writing about – any local person, place, space, query – let us know – WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE HEARING FROM YOU!