house & home kitchens & baths issue
August 15, 2012 at 12:27 AM 
If you pass by a newsstand someday soon (in Canada or the US) I hope you might find this, take it to the cash register, purchase it, bring it home and enjoy it. It's a little something I've been cooking up. Sure, I've worked on tons of printed mags during my career: TV Guide (about 112 issues), Canadian Living (about 65 issues), IMAGES (about 10 issues), that other decorating mag (about 117 issues)...and there are more titles, but I won't bore you with my CV. Each time a newly printed issue lands in my hands I get a little flutter of excitement. I still marvel at seeing my name in print. I still feel excited to see how a photo I styled or interior shoot I oversaw or story I wrote will look printed. It's a reminder that I've chosen the right line of work. The day I feel blasé about a newly printed issue will be the day I know it's time to find a new gig. But this issue is different for one reason:
Um, so, that's ME!!!!!! Can you believe it? Not gonna lie, not gonna play it cool. This is HUGE. This is where every magaziner wants to land. If you had told me a year ago that this would happen I would have said you were crazy. It has been quite a year for me both personally and professionally. It's like Conan said "Amazing things will happen."
Just to whet your appetite, i'd like to share a couple of related links. First of all, to complement the issue the House & Home web site has a great feature Blogger's Favourite Budget Kitchen Makeover Tips. Check it! Also over on the H&H site, I'm loving the video tour of Kai's kitchen, which is featured in this issue -- you will never believe how little she paid for her cabinets and where she found them. Total score! And learn more about that stunning cover kitchen in Kimberley Brown's blog post.
You may not be able to read it here -- but you will when you buy the issue ;-) -- just below my portrait is a little invitation to Join the Conversation. I really really really want to know your feedback -- the good, the bad and the ugly. Don't worry, I can take it. Be honest. Once you've had a chance to read the issue, whip over to the H&H Facebook page and jot down a wall post with some thoughts. This is the Internets -- it's all about communication. Of course, you can also @ us on the T-Dub: @houseandhome and @margotaustin
And here's one last inside scoop: I wrote out my name about 50 times before deciding on this version - HA!
PS. I'm just back from Prince Edward Island and I have sooo much to tell you about that too.
Reader Comments (4)
Hi Margot! Well, a big congrats on this issue, I have yet to pick it up but the cover is stunning, what an accomplishment! Can I tell you though, since you asked our thoughts :), I felt a little taken abake seeing it on the cover. I recognized the designer right away {love her work!} but thought to myself "but, she's not Canadian!". I had the same thought when Brad Ford's project was on the cover of the Trends issue last year. Now, certainly there is nothing requiring Canadian designers work to be featured exclusively in the magazine, but I wondered what stance the editors at HH had on this topic? Is it about Canadian content at all, or just good design for the Canadian audience?
Margot,
Congratulations on all the wonderful things! I picked this issue up and read through it yesterday. It seems the majority of House & Home's special interest publications are a "best of" culled from previous issues. As a regular subscriber to H&H, seeing images and stories already featured in past magazines is a big disappointment. Likewise I always feel that the homes featured in H&H should be Canadian. We have plenty of homes within Canada that can provide inspiration! Now on to passing my magazine along to someone else...
Hi Karla, thanks for jumping in and sharing your thoughts on this topic. It is a discussion I have had with a few people in the design industry. I can't speak for the decision to publish Brad Ford's home, since I wasn't working at House & Home at the time. I am happy to address the choices made for this special issue. In this specific instance the cover kitchen is from a story that features several H&H editors' picks for kitchens that are a big inspiration to them. It's the kind of story that is about casting a wide net -- one that isn't hemmed in by Canadian borders. It's like a blog roundup or a Pinterest page -- visual appeal is the number one criteria. As to why that particular image made it onto the cover rather than a Canadian room, well, that answer is both complex and simple. The complex answer has to do with the style of the room (will it appeal to the most people?), the angle of the image, light, colours, materials, is there room for cover lines? and many more factors. The experts on our team who take part in that decision process all draw upon our years of magazine expertise to make the decision. The simple answer is, we agreed that it was the most compelling image. Now, to zoom out to the wider issue of non-Canadian content again for a moment. There are many reasons this is occurring. The digital world, Internet, blogs, social media and frequent travel have opened all of our eyes to great design all over the world. The globalization of design is a general market trend that is not limited to House & Home content. ELLE Decor, Architectural Digest, Uk mags, Australian mags, online mags -- all are showing interiors outside their borders because their design-loving audience demands the best of the best. Also, the strength of the Canadian economy compared to others means it is more and more common for Canadians to own homes outside of Canada. Likewise, Canadian designers are taking on out of country projects more and more frequently. Another point to consider is that H&H is sold on newsstands across the US as well as Canada. It's important to us to appeal to the US reader as well as the Canadian reader. All of that said, H&H has been a champion of the Canadian design industry for 25 years and will continue to showcase the very best of Canadian interior design. Hope that helps address your question a bit. thanks again Karla!
Hi Steph, thanks for picking up the issue and for leaving your comment here. You are correct in your observation that special issues are made up partially of "best of" content from previous issues. This is not unique to House & Home but is the standard business practise of special issues put out by every publishing company -- Hearst, Meredith Corp, Martha Stewart, Condé Nast. In the biz we call them SIPs (stands for Special Interest Publications). The point of SIPs is to deliver content packaged around a more focussed topic than the more general main magazine. Every SIP features a mix of archive content and brand new never-seen-before content - the percentage balance of these varies. The H&H Kitchens & Baths issue has a ton of brand new content that has not been previously published -- in particular the featured kitchens and baths. I understand that some devoted readers who have committed all of the archive content to memory can feel like some SIP content is old news. But many readers find SIPs to be like collectors editions -- they hold on to them and refer to them when the next project comes up. I hope that helps explain the strategy for special issues. Also, check out my response to Karla on the topic of Canadian vs international content. Thanks again Steph.