Five Quick Questions for Arren Williams

The U.S. has loads of great decorating blogs but Canada? Not so much. So I was delighted to stumble upon Arren Williams Design Lab, a site I added to my blogroll a few months back. Canadian House & Home named Arren’s site one of Canada’s best home-grown blogs in its January 2009 issue and the attention is well-deserved.

After years of working as a freelance stylist in both print (H&H, Style at Home, Flare, Chatelaine) and television (CityLine, The Style Dept.), Arren knows plenty about how to dress up a room or a table or a bookshelf. And his blog features lots of lush interior and product shots, many taken by pro photographers. Arren is also blogging about the ongoing reno of what will eventually become his new home—oh, the choices, the choices.

A popular feature on Arren’s site is an item he calls Five Quick Questions, which he puts to design celebs like Kelly Wearstler, Jonathan Adler and Canada’s own Samantha Pynn. I thought I’d turn the tables and throw Arren a quintet of my own Qs, interspersed with some sexy images styled by the man and pinched from his blog.

Photos courtesy of Flare; Photographer Donna Griffith, Art Director, Tanya Watt, styled by Arren Williams

Q. Your blog describes you as “a freelance stylist, editor and trend reporter.” How did you get started in this field?

A. Mostly by accident and a bit of luck – After years of display, design and retail I was poached by an art director to work as a prop stylist on commercials. From there I stepped sideways into magazine work, first freelancing with Style at Home, then Canadian House & Home, then I picked up some great commercial clients and even spent a stint on-staff as Chatelaine‘s decor editor. A few years back I went freelance again and have been working for, well, just about everyone since then!

Q. Is design talent born or made?

A. I think most of it comes down to education, it’s all about training your eye and learning about whatever sparks your fancy (I was collecting Art Deco at 12, lol). One thing is for sure, money definitely doesn’t buy style.

Q. Among other things, your blog is charting the progress of your home renovation. Any regrets about taking this on as opposed to buying something already “done”?

A. Never! Well, almost never… It’s been lots of work for sure (and still is), but I wouldn’t trade in what’s really a custom home for something off the shelf’; already done just isn’t us, and besides, I’m sure there’d be popcorn ceilings to deal with…

Photo above left courtesy of Chatelaine: Photographer Andreas Trauttmansdorff, Art Director Caren Watkins, styled by Arren. Photo above right, courtesy of Style At Home: Photograher Yvonne Duivenvoorden, Art Director Susan Rogers, styled by Arren.

Q. Where do you find the time to blog every day, in addition to all the other balls you’ve got in the air?

A. I try to put in an hour every morning, usually as soon as I’m up and have had a shot of espresso to get me going. It’s a commitment, but I do enjoy it.

Q. What are the best and worst parts of your job?

A. People are under the impression that I live quite the glam life, and there are swanky bits for sure, but for the most part there’s an awful lot of schlepping involved (let alone all the different magazine and tv deadlines I have to juggle). My car is always jammed with bags full of props on their way to or from a shoot, and I’m often working as late as the stores are open.

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