Podcast
Emma Blomfield talks about co-founding interior design tech platform, decor library
Emma Blomfield joined Steve Grace on the latest episode of Give It A Nudge to talk about how she founded decor library as a platform to streamline the way interior designers work.
About the guest
Emma Blomfield
Founder at Emma Blomfield and Co-Founder at Decor Library
Emma Blomfield is a Sydney-based interior designer, stylist, and author of two books published before she was 30. She founded her interior design and styling business in 2011 after starting with e-decorating services before remote work was mainstream, and co-founded Decor Library, a technology platform that centralises product sourcing and project management for interior designers. Emma’s natural aptitude for design traces back to childhood hours spent building floor plans in The Sims, which she credits as her own version of Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours rule.
Episode overview
Emma Blomfield joined Steve Grace on Give It A Nudge to share the parallel stories of a 10-year interior design business and a brand-new tech startup built to solve the industry’s chronic admin problem. The conversation covers e-decorating before social media existed, the role of The Sims in building design intuition from childhood, writing two books before 30, the challenge of building a tech platform as a non-technical founder, imposter syndrome and how to deal with it honestly, and the COVID boom that transformed Emma’s business when she expected it to ruin her.
Ten years of interior design, self-taught
Emma has a business degree with a marketing major. She never studied interior design. She landed her first role through Seek, majored in visual merchandising, and then found herself building floor plans in The Sims every day after school for three years before she could articulate what she was actually drawn to. When she eventually started her business in 2011, those hours were already behind her. Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours rule validated what she had been doing intuitively.
“When I was a kid I was obsessed with The Sims. I would download floor plans from Point Piper homes and build those floor plans within The Sims and use the cheat codes to get all the money. That was probably three years after school every day.”
Emma Blomfield 4:00
E-decorating before social media
In 2011, e-decorating barely existed in Australia. Emma started offering online interior design services through her own website before social media had become a marketing channel, connecting with design bloggers who wrote about her services in exchange for links. When COVID arrived a decade later, Emma had an established e-decorating infrastructure that most designers had to build from scratch, which contributed to doubling her revenue that year.
Writing two books before 30
A publisher approached Emma after hearing about the decorating workshops she was running in remote and regional Australia. At 26 or 27, she felt she should wait a decade before writing a book. The publisher told her age was irrelevant. The first book, Home, came out in 2017. The second, Keeping House, followed two years later. She has copies for both but questions the imposter syndrome that comes with being a published authority on something you never formally studied.
“I constantly keep waiting for someone to come and tap me on the shoulder and say, what do you think you’re doing? Go back and do something else relating to marketing. Because you’ve got no right to have done what you’ve done.”
Emma Blomfield 32:00
Co-founding Decor Library
Emma had wanted a centralised product sourcing and project management tool for years. Interior designers need to remember hundreds of trade supplier logins, search paper catalogs, and manage client projects across multiple incompatible platforms. Her tech co-founder had been encouraging her to build it for three years before she finally sent him a Google Sheet with four years of bullet points. He was in Singapore, flew back, and they started building. Decor Library launched with a marketplace, a project management layer, and a client-facing portal.
“I sent him a Google spreadsheet that I’d written bullet points in for the last four years. He said, I’m coming back to Sydney next week, meet me in my hotel and we’ll talk about how to make this happen.”
Emma Blomfield 35:00
Key takeaways
Chapters
0:00Introduction and Emma’s two businesses3:00Starting with visual merchandising and a marketing degree4:00The Sims: childhood floor plans and 10,000 hours8:00E-decorating in 2011: building a business before social media12:00Rocket Internet, the Iconic, and working five years part-time16:00Writing two books before 30 and teaching in regional Australia20:00COVID: losing everything then doubling revenue24:00The interior design process: admin, clients, and managing projects28:00What Decor Library does: marketplace, project management, client portal32:00Imposter syndrome and backing yourself without a co-founder35:00Co-founding Decor Library: the Google Sheet and the Singapore meeting37:00Malcolm Gladwell, books, and what’s next
Mentioned in this episode
Frequently asked questions
What is Decor Library?
Decor Library is a technology platform for interior designers that centralises product sourcing, project management, and client communication in one place. Designers can search hundreds of trade supplier catalogues without remembering individual logins, manage their client projects, share sourcing with clients through a client portal, and export product selections. It was co-founded by Emma Blomfield and her tech co-founder after 10 years of Emma building her interior design business the hard way.
How did Emma Blomfield start her interior design business without any formal training?
Emma has a business degree with a marketing major and never studied interior design formally. She began with visual merchandising, found her way into property styling, and started e-decorating in 2011. She attributes her natural spatial and aesthetic intuition to years spent building floor plans in The Sims after school, which effectively gave her the practice hours that formal study would have provided.
Why did Emma Blomfield write two books before she was 30?
A publisher approached Emma after hearing about the decorating workshops she was running in remote and regional Australia. She initially resisted, feeling she should wait until her 30s or 40s. The publisher told her age was irrelevant and encouraged her to go ahead. The first book, Home, came out in 2017. The second, Keeping House, followed two years later. Both are based on her five elements of decorating framework.
How did COVID affect Emma Blomfield’s business?
Emma initially expected COVID to destroy her business. She lost every project she was working on in March 2020 and feared she would need to find other work. Instead, the combination of her existing e-decorating infrastructure and the surge in home renovation activity during lockdowns produced her best year yet, doubling revenue on the previous 12 months.
What is Emma Blomfield’s biggest business mistake?
Emma describes running a packaging redesign through a panel of experienced advisors and ending up with a result that pleased everyone but impressed no one. The lesson was that panel decisions optimise for consensus and produce average outcomes. Exceptional work requires someone in the room who is willing to be polarising, and the creative decision-maker has to trust their own instincts rather than deferring to collective approval.
Topics discussed
Full transcript
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Show full transcript (38 minutes, 7 sections)
0:00 Introduction and Emma’s two businesses
Steve welcomes Emma and asks her to introduce both her design business and Decor Library. Emma explains she has had Emma Blomfield Interior Design for 10 years and co-founded Decor Library to solve the platform fragmentation problem she experienced throughout that decade.
4:00 The Sims, visual merchandising, and starting a business in 2011
Emma describes her business degree, early career in visual merchandising, and the childhood habit of building floor plans in The Sims that she only later recognised as professional development. She applied for her first interior design job from Seek, connected with the creative side of property styling, and started offering e-decorating in 2011, finding early clients through design bloggers before social media was a meaningful channel.
12:00 Rocket Internet, working part-time, and taking the leap
Emma describes her parallel career working for Rocket Internet brands including the Iconic and Zanui, initially three days a week for five years before being made redundant and going full-time into her business. She recalls the chaos of the early Rocket Internet warehouse in Sydney, the three-week rule for new hires, and the infectious energy of that period.
16:00 Writing two books and teaching in regional Australia
Emma describes being approached by a publisher after running workshops in remote and regional areas. She initially resisted on age grounds, wrote the first book at 27, and released the second two years later. The imposter syndrome that comes with being a published authority in a field you never studied formally is a theme she returns to throughout the episode.
20:00 COVID: losing everything then doubling revenue
Emma lost every project she was working on in March 2020. She expected COVID to end her business. Instead, her e-decorating infrastructure converted the wave of home renovation interest into her best year ever, doubling revenue. She describes the challenge of scaling suddenly: finding enough freelancers, managing project delivery, and simultaneously starting Decor Library with a development team in Sri Lanka.
28:00 Decor Library: what it does and how the business model works
Emma explains the full Decor Library platform: a marketplace where trade suppliers list their catalogues in one searchable place, a project management layer, a client portal for sharing sourcing and getting approvals, and export functionality for product schedules. The platform charges designers a monthly subscription and takes a percentage when a product is sold through the marketplace.
32:00 Imposter syndrome, co-founding the tech business, and what’s next
Emma describes the imposter syndrome that comes from being self-taught, how having a co-founder reduces that noise compared to running a solo business, and the packaging redesign mistake that taught her panel decisions always produce average outcomes. She closes with excitement about the augmented reality and texture technology that could become part of Decor Library’s future.
About the host
Steve Grace is the founder and CEO of The Nudge Group, a technology-focused recruitment and advisory business. He has built and scaled companies across Australia and the US, and hosts Give It A Nudge to spotlight founders and operators building something meaningful.
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