Designer Interview: CMB Display Designs

One of the best parts about being a part of the handmade community is making connections with other indie artists who you would never have the chance to meet otherwise. One of the people that I have made a connection with this year is Carolyn, the designer behind CMD Display Designs and Vintage Finds, and a stay at home mom from Ohio.
Carolyn's shop is full of vintage decor for the home, mainly painted vintage frames upcycled into cork boards and bulletin boards. The designs are beautifully simple and tasteful, with lovely fabrics covering the cork, and a clean, polished, professional style. She also sells adorable pushpins for the boards, upcycled from vintage jewelry, and I seriously can't wait to buy one of these sets before I go away to college again, they are just so cool! Here's one of my favorites:

With matching pushpins:

I interviewed Carolyn about her craft, inspiration, and her blog "Customized Living: Live Beautifully" Read the interview after the jump...



First I asked Carolyn to tell me how she got started with her shop. She explained to me that she inherited a treasure trove of her grandmother's clothing and jewelry and that was the starting point of her designs. She loves the jewelry and clothes and wears it often and when creating a display for the vintage costume jewelry that she inherited she came up with the idea of the framed corkboard covered with beautiful fabric. That was a hit, but she wanted more, and when playing around with some of the jewelry she decided to make pushpins out of the vintage beads (which I must say is one of the coolest things ever). While on the hunt for some jewelry to make these creations with she came across tons of other vintage finds which she included in her shop as well. It seems now she has struck a lovely balance between her crafty creations and vintage finds that complement them which will surely bring her success.

Carolyn lets everything inspire her: music, art, fashion, travel, even her dining room china. Her love of vintage represents her connection to her grandmother, and how every vintage piece is unique and special, and different than the mass-products we make now.

So where is CMD Display Designs headed? Carolyn would like to expand her blog, the source of connection to customers, which I think will be greatly successful for her, as well as increase the number of antique one-of-a-kind frames in her shop, beacuse there is something special about a one-of-a-kind piece. She also plans on adding more of her vintage collection to her shop.

If you haven't seen Carolyn's blog, "Customived Living: Live Beautifully" you should probably check it out right now and click "follow", you will not be disappointed. So far her blog has increased her shop views and allowed her to connect with other lovers of fashion and home decor, but she also gives her readers a vast resource of design knowledge that is different than most of the design blogs out there.

Her blog is all about applying design and decor to real life in a practical way. She blogs about ways to look good, but not lose the uniqueness and home-y-ness of the house, a balance between beauty and what is real and living. She says " I’ve never wanted to be the kind of mom whose kids can’t run up and give them a hug because they’re covered in mud or spaghetti sauce. But I do want to look good."

You can check out CMB Display Designs on Etsy (where I got the pictures in this article)

But make sure you take a look at her Facebook Page and Blog as well.

I wish CMD Display Designs the best of luck not only in shop sales but in artful creations and inspiration as well. Favorite piece of hers? Let us know with a comment!

Happy Wednesday!

Love, Chelsea