Q&a with dafna & debra from classica decor

With 10 years experience in the interiors industry, Dafna and Debra present Classica Decor as a go to for all things interior! With fabulous posts providing readers with lashings of inspiration, they truly are a brilliant team of bloggers! I had a chat with them to find out a little bit more about the creatives behind this successful blog.

What are your key inspirations?

Fabrics’ colours and prints usually inspire us. Choosing fabrics is the key when we start working on a project. Due to fabrics’ texture and colour richness, we like to choose the fabrics first. In addition to fabrics we sometimes get our inspiration from rugs that has special patterns. This is the foundation of the design. Any other item that we are choosing has to compliment the rug and fabrics.

Tell us a bit about your journey from setting up to now?

We came to the US 6 years ago from Israel. Israel design style is mostly contemporary and modern. It is different than the traditional style, which is very common in Texas. It was important to us to understand how the interior design market works in Texas before opening our company. We did a comprehensive research, looking at other design companies and blogs, in order to understand the Texan market. During this time we have met great people in Texas. The Texan people are very hospitable, and wonderful to work with. We discovered, that it is essential to have a website and being active in social media and designers blogs.

Can you tell me about your ideal client?

All our choices for the design are made according to the client taste needs and style. We want our client to be happy and satisfied with the new décor. The ideal clients knows what he likes, regarding colours and style, and trusts us with his home new décor, lets us choose every detail for the design, and does not want to interfere in any choice we make. We definitely like working with a big budget, that way we can choose anything we like, but we are experts in working with small budget as well.

What do you think are the most important key rules to follow when starting out as a designer?

When starting as a designer, there are components, which are crucial for your success. Today, it's not enough to be a professional designer who has enthusiasm about his work. It is only one of the components you need to succeed. The first step is to write a business plan, which will guide you in the first few months.

We recommend reading and following articles on how to establish your business, and be aware that you should always learn and adjust your business plan according to the market changes and needs. Prepare up front everything you have to deal with, and configure who will be your ideal costumers. This is your target audience when building your new website.

Creating a blog is the next step. Having a blog will help you drive traffic to your website. Make sure your posts have a valuable content. Learning how to promote your website on Google will help you get more traffic. Learn how to present yourself and your work at the first meeting with a client, and how to present your ideas and suggestions at the second meeting. We recommend having a 3D rendering with the presentation. Most clients find it hard to envision the new décor in the space and the 3D is a very good way to make them see your vision.

What are your most prominent achievements to date, and what are you aiming to achieve in the future?

We are expert with design to sell and professionals in giving any home the WOW factor it needs to get sold fast. We had a couple that was trying to sell their house for 2 years. We have prepared their house for sale and within two weeks the owners received 3 offers. The house was sold 25k above the asking price. While designing a house for sale, it is crucial to use furniture that fit in the space perfectly and not go with oversized ones.

We are very proud about our work and it's a great achievement to sell a house fast. Our minds are constantly working and we have lots of ideas how to develop our business. We recently came out with a new program, for anyone who wants to design their home by themselves. It contains all the information a person needs to know, in order to create a beautiful new decor.

We call it Design Touch. We see this program as a milestone of self-designing to anyone who is not a designer and we hope to see users for this program all over world.

If you could use 5 images to describe your personal tastes/style, what would they be

Silver patterned canvas wall art Geometric wall art in dark green Cream bedroom with light blue and cream eyelet curtains either side of the bed Black and gold hexagon patterned headboard behind a double bed Cream and gold living space, with floating shelves and vintage accessories Our personal taste is mostly contemporary, we love light colours like pastel, but also earth tones. We love the beach style, its accessories and colours. On the other hand we can relate to any style and colours, whenever we start working on a new design project, regardless if it fit our personal style, we always love the outcome.

Who do you see as your main role models?

We love the Portuguese designers especially Ana Antunes. She is one of the best designers in Portugal and she also has her own TV show. We also like Candice Olson from HGTV, and Jonathan Adler.

What do you think we'll see as an emerging trend in 2014?

The trends in 2014 are moving towards the modern look, less is more. Colour wise, the bold and strong shades are no longer here, 2014 is all about lighter pastels shades. Yellow and blue are replacing the pink. White and black are here again as well, however yellow is very dramatic, so we will see how it would hold on over time. Historic patterns are coming back, and we will see a lot of geometrics patterns like the Greek key pattern as well as Greek sculptures. Flowers are back, but this time they will come with a white background.

The matchy-matchy is out, all the prints and patterns are mixing together, like strips with dots and flowers. We will see fabrics with more depth in 2014. Those fabrics will stimulate our senses. The textures will make the space warmth. Interior design becoming more sophisticated, the designers are working harder than before to achieve the perfect look. The bright side of it is that it allows us to mix all kind of patterns and prints, more than before.