2015 Hall Of Fame Nominations Now Open!

Nomination deadline is January 9!

It’s time to begin the exciting process of electing new members to the Design Bloggers Hall of Fame! Many thanks to Traditional Home and Ethan Allen for sponsoring the 2015 Design Bloggers Conference Hall of Fame Awards.

Design Bloggers…it’s your time to be recognized on the global new media stage! We are excited to announce that nominations for the Design Bloggers Hall of Fame are now open. We are also excited to announce that this year’s awards will be sponsored by Traditional Home, our National Media sponsor. The role of the Hall of Fame is to recognize excellence in blogging and new media in the field of interior design. Each year, a new set of outstanding design blogs will become eligible through an open, online nomination process leading up to the ultimate recognition as Hall of Fame inductee.

The winners, and runner ups, will be determined through a combination of ratings by a panel of judges and a public vote. The awards will be presented live, and the inductees recognized during the 2015 Design Bloggers Conference at the Grand Hyatt Buckhead Hotel in Atlanta on February 26, 2015.

Nominate a Blog Now!

The Rules

Here is how the Design Bloggers Conference Hall of Fame Awards process works:

  • The awards are open to any English-language design blog.
  • The nomination period will start on December 11, 2014, and continue through the end of the day (Eastern Standard Time) on January 9, 2015. Nominations are open to the public and will be made via the Design Bloggers Conference website (see below to nominate a blog). A nomination can be made by simply adding a comment to the page for the designated category nominating the blog for consideration. Each blog nominated for a category will be included in the selection process; additional nominations for a blog in the same category will have no effect, so once a blog is nominated for a category there is no reason to nominate it again.
  • A panel of expert judges will evaluate all the nominated blogs for each category during the period January 9 – January 16, 2015 and will select the top five blogs in each category.
  • The public will be given the opportunity to vote for the finalists of each category from January 19 – February 6, 2015.
  • Each category winner will be chosen based on 50% of the input coming from the judges and 50% coming from the public vote.
  • The awards will be presented live at the Design Bloggers Conference at the Grand Hyatt Buckhead Hotel in Atlanta on February 26, 2015.

We look forward to your participation!



Jennifer Boles to Speak at Design Bloggers Conference!


JENNIFER BOLES

Jennifer Boles was born and raised in Atlanta, GA. Upon obtaining her bachelor’s degree in history from University of the South (Sewanee, TN), Jennifer returned to Atlanta to pursue a career in business and finance. After ten years spent in the business sector, Jennifer decided to pursue her passion for interior design and the decorative arts. With an intense interest in design history and a love of writing, Jennifer started her design blog “The Peak of Chic” in the Fall of 2006. Her website-read by design devotees from around the world- focuses on design trends, historical homes, history of design, and all things design related. Recently named “blogosphere darling” by Departures magazine, Jennifer has been featured in numerous publications including The New York Times, Town & Country, Elle Décor, and Array. In 2007, Jennifer became a contributing editor to House Beautiful. Additionally, her first book, House Beautiful Fabrics for Your Home, was published in 2010. As the inaugural winner of the Best Writing on a Design Blog award, Jennifer was inducted into the Design Blogger’s Hall of Fame in early 2012. Jennifer’s second book, In with the Old: Classic Décor from A to Z, will be published by Clarkson Potter in October 2013.

When she’s not writing, reading, or thinking about design, Jennifer spends her time traveling, collecting antique and vintage ceramics, and buying far too many books.

Tobi Fairley to Speak at Design Bloggers Conference

The Design Bloggers Conference welcomes back Tobi Fairley to speak at this year’s event. One of the first speakers to grace the stage at the inaugural Design Bloggers Conference, Tobi was inducted the following year into the Design Bloggers Hall of Fame. Traditional Home Magazine predicts “Tobi will be like Cher or Oprah, one of those women for whom one name says it all”.

Tobi Fairley has redesigned her life and her brand, launching Tobi Fairley & Associates as a full-service consulting and design company. The company provides custom-tailored education, enlightened mentoring, and common-sense tools to help companies and design firms improve their business.

Tobi’s vision for her new brand is to empower others to cultivate their strengths and create inspired solutions for business, design, and life. Her unique combination of degrees in interior design and accounting, and an MBA from the prestigious Sam M. Walton College of Business, gives her a competitive advantage in the design industry, and offers a creative approach to the world of business.

Since establishing her design firm more than a decade ago, Tobi’s projects have spanned the nation, and her award-winning designs for high-profile and celebrity clients have been featured on television, and in top-shelf shelter publications around the globe.

Tobi’s design blog, created in September 2008, is currently read in more than 124 countries worldwide. In 2010, Tobi introduced her DIY design service, InBox Interiors, and launched her popular intensive courses and programs, including Design A-to-Z, Designer MBA, and her MasterMind mentoring program. Designers, business pros, and design enthusiasts alike have attended these programs from across the United States and Canada with rave reviews.

The most recent addition to the stable of businesses under the new brand is Tobi Fairley Home, which includes a collection of fabrics, pillows, and lighting in Tobi’s signature style – bright, bold, and tailored.

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The Irreverent Jason Oliver Nixon on the Design Bloggers Hall of Fame Awards

I love a good awards ceremony. Ever since I won the Pinewood Derby as a Cub Scout at about the age of seven, I have been obsessed with trophies and those satin blue ribbons with lots of ruffles and lettering in big, bold gold type that my friends who jumped horses had all over their walls.

Frankly, there’s nothing better than a gilt statuette perched atop a plastic base. In time, the gold will start to peel and the nut and screw holding the plastic base to the urn or statuette will loosen, but so what? By the time your statuette is un-screwed, you probably won’t remember what the award really stood for anyhow.

The best awards are the ones that can be put to a good use and not clutter up the bookshelf: I won an award for something a few years back, and that chunky glass pyramid now works perfectly for smashing ice before cocktail parties. My chipped-ice martinis are famous, so thank you to the Folio Magazine Awards.

Just remember: Today’s peacock, tomorrow’s feather duster. That’s what my mom always told me, and they are good words to live by. Your blog might kick some major metrics ass right now, but don’t rest on your laurels. Speaking of which, we are design bloggers so who wants to rest on an uncomfortable laurel anyhow. If I plan to rest upon anything it will be a Trina Turk-covered daybed in the courtyard of a hotel in Palm Springs, n’est-ce pas, and not some tree branch.

Frankly, if I were in charge of this awards ceremonies, I would be giving everyone a Jereboam of vodka: What could be better than a double magnum of liquor to keep you in a celebratory mood. And I would probably throw in a few mixers, too, for winners like this was some VIP lounge with table service.

“Here’s your Stoli, and we’re throwing in some Mr. & Mrs. T Bloody Mary Mix, cranberry juice, some celery, a few limes, salt, and peanuts. Thank you so much for your dedication. Now go Tweet, sweetie, and drink up, buttercup. #killerpartyinroom405 later”

So, welcome to the Design Bloggers Hall of Fame. It’s sort of like the Best-Dressed Hall of Fame, only we aren’t critiquing your engaging fashion ensembles but rather your gimlet-eyed glance upon the worlds of style and design. Your blog rocks. Seriously. And we love you, dearly. Just don’t blather on too much when you get up here to accept your award, and don’t close your eyes when the requisite photo is snapped.

And, good lord, I am hosting.

Just stay awake. I have no intention of going down in the annals as the James Franco and Anne Hathaway combo-from-hell or a nose-picking Chevy Chase of the Design Bloggers Conference. If the motor idles, I am ordering in pizza and Chardonnay, and we can play “Chug Boat” and Tobi Fairley can be Florence Henderson and Ronda Carman, Charro.

Or maybe I’ll loll about in the audience and ask provocative personal questions (“So, what do you REALLY think of Kelly Wearstler, and did you see her Playboy spread years back?” Or “Do you think anyone is going to hook up at this conference? Name the names.”).

Or I’ll get Bethanne Matari from Currey & Co. up here to tell off-color jokes.

“OK, so this one time at band camp…”

Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy lunch.

Oh. And next year we want to hear just where you stuck your award.

Jason Oliver Nixon to Host Design Bloggers Hall of Fame Awards

Have you made your nominations for the Design Bloggers Hall of Fame yet? Nominations will close on December 21 - make sure your favorite blogs are recognized!

The awards will be presented at lunch during the first day of the Design Bloggers Conference on February 27 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. We’re thrilled to announce that the host for the awards ceremony will be design/lifestyle writer Jason Oliver Nixon.

Jason Oliver Nixon doesn’t just understand the fabulous life; he knows how to unearth it. Far beyond his ability to quote Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Draper, and Noel Coward, it is Nixon’s laser-sharp ability to discover what is truly cutting edge and unique that has led to his current role as a lifestyle guru and authority on taste.

The Global Lifestyle Editor at Delta Sky magazine, the in-flight publication of the world’s largest airline, Nixon has the task of trend-spotting and cultivating and searching out global content and talent to ensure that the publication maintains an inspired, innovative vision. He lives out of an acid-orange Globe-Trotter suitcase, constantly on the prowl for the latest and greatest finds.

Nixon began his publishing career at Condé Nast Traveler, where he served as an Associate Editor and new products editor for three years, covering the travel-product beat and writing features and front-of-book stories. He held a senior editorial role at Fodor’s Travel Guides’ book division and was the Editor of New Media on the fodors.com website before turning to television. He was the launch Field Producer for E! Entertainment’s “True Hollywood Stories” series and the Executive Producer of Robin Leach’s Gourmet Getaways at the Food Network and simultaneously wrote regular restaurant reviews for Paper magazine and a column for the James Beard Foundation’s monthly newsletter. Nixon was awarded with a James Beard Scholarship to attend the esteemed French Culinary Institute, and as a result, was inspired to write the book New York’s 50 Best Places to Eat Brunch.

Nixon eventually left the Food Network to return to the publishing world in affluent Palm Beach, Florida where he launched the Ocean Drive magazine spin-off Ocean Drive’s Palm Beach, a luxury-targeted, general-interest publication. Later, he became the Editor in Chief and Editorial Director of Niche Media LLC, successfully re-launching Hamptons magazine as a controlled-circulation, general-interest summer weekly to target high-end consumers. The magazine’s overwhelming success led Nixon to subsequently launch several highly targeted regional magazines for the group, including Gotham, Los Angeles Confidential, Aspen Peak, Boston Common, and Capitol File as well as Niche’s custom-publishing division, where he developed branded publications for companies such as Tourneau. Nixon has served as the Chief Luxury Officer for the Four Seasons Hotels magazine where he oversaw all design, style, fashion, and accessories coverage for the publication and served as a roving brand ambassador.

Nixon contributes regularly as a writer, producer, stylist, fashion consultant, wrangler, and lifestyle guru to such publications as Virtuoso Life, Town & Country, and Entrée, the Neiman Marcus magazine. He makes frequent appearances on E! and MTV as a style correspondent. Nixon is also one half of the Brooklyn-based interior design firm Madcap Cottage (f/k/a John Loecke Inc.), whose colorful projects have been published in magazines and newspapers such as Domino, House Beautiful, Country Living, Better Homes and Gardens, the New York Times, British House & Garden, and the New York Post. Nixon curates a global style and design blog entitled Demystifying Design that captures his and John Loecke’s far-flung adventures and fabulous finds as they scour the world for Madcap Cottage.

A native of Tampa, Florida, Nixon is a graduate of Maine’s Colby College. Nixon splits his time between a row house in Brooklyn and a renovated schoolhouse in New York’s Catskill Mountains, where he can be found puttering in his garden and Tweeting about his plants.