- Feb 24, 2022
- 8 min read

Welcome to My Blog!

Hello World! I’m so happy you’re here with me as I expand my platform into the blogging world. I thought I’d dedicate my first post to telling you a little bit more about me, and how I ended up here in this position. I’ll take some time to fill you in about who I am and answer some frequently asked questions.

Please know that this blog isn’t going to be about me, though - it’s going to be about YOU and all the things I believe you can do to make your house into a home. I’ll share some styling tips, DIY tutorials, as well as things that inspire me in the hopes that I can pass that inspiration on to you. Let’s go!

Photo by @bohemeandbirchphotography

If you’re here because you follow me on Instagram, you likely already know the first part of this story, but I’m going to tell it anyways (sorry). This whole journey started for me back in April of 2021, when I laid awake next to my sleeping husband thinking about starting an Instagram account to document our home projects.

We had moved into our home in December 2019, and I had been frequently posting about the updates we were making on my personal account. Several of my friends and family began coming to me for advice, and urging me to start my own home decor account. That sleepless night, I was in my fifth stint of quarantine - being a teacher at that time meant that we were isolated every time there was a case in our classes - and I was bored. I was burnt out. I was somehow completely underwhelmed and overwhelmed with my job at the exact same time. I was in need of a creative outlet. So, at about 1 AM on a random Wednesday night, I pulled out my phone and started @bailey.at.home.

My first post. Cute.

At first, I started getting excited when my photos were getting TENS of likes. I talked on my stories like I was talking to thousands of people when I was talking to less than 100. And it felt weird. I felt like a poser and that I had no clue what I was doing. Soon, I started talking to lots of other creators and I made some great friends that helped me feel like what I was doing was right and I just needed to keep going. So I did, and my following steadily grew and I started meeting some of my own neighbours on Instagram that I had never even met in real life.

By December, my following had grown to almost 8000 followers and I was over the moon. Brands started reaching out to me and asking me to partner with them, the Calgary Home Shows reached out to me and wanted to feature me at the show, then to be the emcee! Things were going really well and I was happy with my little side gig. Then - the weirdest thing happened. I posted a reel that took me a few minutes to make (in comparison to others that I had sometimes spent hours on), and a few weeks later, it went WILD. Thousands of people were discovering my page.

Me at my first home show in October!

With this one viral reel, my following grew tenfold. And I was swarmed with questions about the projects we had done in our home. This was so exciting but I suddenly felt super inferior because most new followers assumed (and rightfully so) that I would have a blog or a YouTube channel where they could learn more about the DIY projects in our home. But I didn’t. I didn’t know that people would have cared to read my blog, so I had never started one. And a YouTube channel? That’s a whole other beast that maybe I’ll conquer someday.

It only a took me a few months to summon the courage but here I am, with my own blog. Something I’ll own that‘s truly MINE, not just a collection of my content on someone else’s platform. And I’m so excited for what’s in store. So that’s the story.

Frequently Asked Questions

What made you get into DIY and home decor?

Honestly, there’s no big impressive story here. I was always the kid who loved redecorating my room. I spent my weekends as a teen watching HGTV and yelling at the unemployed couple inexplicably buying a mansion on “House Hunters.” My mom was always a redecorator - constantly repainting our house, taking me on shopping trips to Pier 1, and refinishing furniture out in the garage. By the time I was in my teens, I was a Pinterest addict and enjoyed home decor shopping more than clothing shopping.

For some reason when my husband and I bought our first townhome, I didn’t do that much to it. Painted a few walls, hung up some art - but nothing major to completely change the space. Something felt different when we moved into our current home. I knew it was going to be more of a “forever” home for us, so I immediately sprung into action. I had purchased supplies for DIY projects before we even took possession. And we slowly began making this house our own, room by room, project by project.

See my next post for a full home tour with before & after shots!

Is this your full-time job?

No. My full-time job is as a teacher! I teach Junior High (brave, I know) in Okotoks, Alberta. What started out as a hobby & a creative outlet has turned into a viable side hustle and passion project through Bailey at Home, and I’m so grateful.

Me & some of my best teacher friends!

Where do you get your inspiration?

I’d say that I often turn to Pinterest when I have a specific idea in mind of what I am looking for. I love that I can keyword search and find hundreds of photos of exactly what I‘m looking for, and links to blogs where I can hear others’ experience and get advice. It’s also fun to create boards of things that inspire you and fit your aesthetic. If you’re interested, you can follow me on Pinterest here.

My current Pinterest aesthetic

Now that I’m so active on Instagram, I am so often finding inspiration from fellow creators, whether they’re my friends, through hashtags that I follow (my favourite is #hunkerhome) or just people that I stumble upon while scrolling through reels. There are so many incredibly creative and smart people on Instagram who are willing to share their knowledge and answer their followers’ questions. It’s pretty amazing.

How do you suggest someone gets started in DIY?

I think it can get overwhelming when we see skilled DIYers on Instagram or elsewhere who are rocking the power tools, cutting things right on the first try, and saying words that we don’t even understand when explaining their process. I’ve been there. But DIY does not have to be big huge customized projects that take weeks to complete. In fact, most of my projects are one-day projects (the best kind).

The truth is that you can step into DIY with a tool as simple as a paintbrush. Don’t like the colour of that vase in your living room any more? Paint it! Feeling like your bedroom is drab and needs a facelift? Paint just one wall - it will make a huge difference. So I guess my advice is to start small. Identify a small, achievable project and do the thing! Maybe on your next project, buy a simple tool like a hand saw/mitre box and try to learn one new skill. Remember that there’s hours of YouTube videos, hundreds of blogs, and tons of Instagram DIYers who will be able to answer your questions, and we all want to cheer you on. You can dooooo it!

I will also have a post coming up about the 3 most important tools in a DIYers belt - stay tuned!

How do you get your husband to let you do all these things to your house? (Yes, sadly this IS a very FAQ).

Well, first of all, I don’t need my husband to “let“ me do anything. But I’m very lucky to have a partner who is supportive and honestly just very chill about what I choose to do in the house. He is usually 100% down to help, even when I don’t ask for it, and even if he doesn’t quite understand what we’re doing. Sometimes we’ll be halfway through a project and he’ll hear me say something and suddenly go “Ohhhh,” because he finally understands what’s happening. Sometimes he doesn’t understand it ever, until he sees the finished product and he proudly takes a picture of it.

I still like him this much.

I can totally understand if your partner wants a say in what projects you undertake in the home, and there are a few ideas that my husband has just said flat-out “no” to. But ultimately he recognizes that doing these projects brings me joy, so he usually doesn’t protest too much about anything. I know I’m lucky, but also I feel like this should be the norm.

Tell us a bit more about you & your family.

Alright. I will end this christening post with just a little bit more talk about me. Then it’s on to before and afters, DIY tutorials, home decor tips, and plant recommendations — that sounds like a great first 5 posts, right?!

I’ll tell you a bit more about me with 5 fast facts…

I was born and raised in Calgary. Pretty much an Alberta girl through and through, I work every year at the Calgary Stampede and I love to camp/hike in the mountains!
I am a bit obsessed with my dog. If you stick around enough or follow me on Instagram, you‘ll definitely be seeing Paisley in my posts. My dog is needy, and loud, and spoiled, and I love her so much.
I love to travel! Lately, this hasn’t really been a thing, but usually my Husband and I save up and take a big trip in the summer because we’re both teachers. Our most recent adventure was England, Scotland, and Ireland and we loved it. I can’t wait to get back out there.
When I’m not traveling, though, I’m a complete homebody. I love curling up and watching Netflix or reading a good book, and I’d rather do either of those things than go out - haha.
I put milk in the bowl BEFORE my cereal. It just makes it less soggy and you can’t convince me I’m not correct.

Sorry the cat’s not in the pic, but she’s an indoor beast.

My family at this moment consists of myself and my husband, Jared. Together we have one loud dorky dog, Paisley, and one cuddly quiet cat, Shiva. We live in our home in Calgary, Alberta. I am from Calgary, but Jared is a Saskatchewan boy. We started dating at the very end of high school and have been together ever since! He is my best friend, my DIY buddy, my travel companion, and just genuinely the best most supportive husband ever. I’m sorry if that makes you gag, but hey, it’s true.

I’m going to include some pictures below that will give you a slice of our life so you can feel like you know me, even just a little bit. THANK YOU so incredibly much for reading this very first post ever, and I hope you’ll stick around to see what comes next!

You can subscribe to my newsletter on my homepage to stay in the loop.

Oh, and make sure you’re following me on Instagram to see projects in real-time!

Aaaaaand leave a comment below to say hey!

Bailey

(I don’t know why that was my instinctual sign-off. Am I gossip girl? Should this be thing?)