Welcome!

I've moved to Substack

Hello! Whether you’ve been a long time reader of my blog CREED or are new - I’m so happy you’re here. I’ve been blogging about design since 2008, back in the days of blogger initially then continued on my own websites, now, I’m thrilled to make the move, finally, to Substack.

I have a passion for writing about interior design and home renovating which began on blogspot 17 years ago, before social media feeds took over and bloggers and their audiences went with them but I continued to this day authoring a blog on both my websites. After far too many years on the scrolling feeds, feeling disconnected and frustrated with catering to an algorithm, it feels like a big exhale to reset and return my focus to long-form content which is what I crave and enjoy the most.

As an interior designer who’s spent 30 years designing spaces and homes for clients - I have a LOT to say about design and believe foremost that good design can live anywhere and beautiful interiors are not defined by luxury labels or price tags. I spent 10 years as a lead designer for commercial spaces before launching my own practice, Carol Reed Interior Design in 2005, and grew a successful residential career in my native Toronto with its flourishing design scene and booming demand for luxury real estate. But today, I’m happiest living ‘my design life’ in a small rural fishing community on the East Coast of Canada, where homes may look humble but life is rich and simple beauty is everywhere.

Here inspiration is in abundance, I find beauty in weeds and wild flowers, in the imperfections of crooked old floors and weather worn finishes, I admire the grace of historic homes that have stood for centuries and in the patina of furniture reflecting generations of storied lives. To me luxury living is the sound of the surf through open windows, the smell of the salt air, feeling sand between my toes, and savouring the fresh taste of today’s ocean catch on our plates, with a side of homemade pickles. It’s a powerful sense of place that takes over your senses, nullifying the need for frivolous decor or contrived details - here I feel grounded by the sea, in tune with the ebb of the tide and shifting colours of each season, carefree to just let loose in the wild Atlantic wind and a deep serene calmness in the misty fog. As someone who was born, raised, and lived in the big city my entire life - In my wildest dreams I never would have imagined this place - a small rural beach community of lobster fisherman, would become home.

I was a city girl through and through, always chic from head to toe in the latest $400 jeans, Chanel glasses and Louis bags, zipping around Toronto’s design district and poshest neighbourhoods on the daily. Long days in my ‘luxury’ car going from appointments to meetings, showrooms, lunch dates, drink dates or dinner dates…..arriving home at 7 would be considered early, dinner before 9 rarely happened, before another 2 hours on the computer before bed. A lifestyle sustainable only by working non-stop. Then, I happily left it all behind,,, for an old house by the sea.

I traded traffic jambs and hurried crowds for a place where every drive is a scenic one. I’ve swapped sourcing at high-end shops, perusing designer showrooms and splurging on imported blooms - for foraging wild flowers, beach combing for rocks, and hunting through old barns for antique gems or discarded treasures. While evenings out at trendy restaurants and shopping epicurean food boutiques are no longer part of weekly life, having fresh daily catch delivered to our kitchen, radio bingo with the neighbours and daily walks on the beach is now a joyful new norm. THIS has been home since 2012 and where I’ve spent the second half of my design career. It’s where I’ve continued to work as a designer which has included having projects and features published in national magazines - and most recently,, being named to House & Home’s Top 100 Canadian Designers. If you’re thinking it hardly seems feasible, you wouldn’t be wrong.

Far removed from the design scene and the trends of luxury markets - rural coastal Nova Scotia is the most unlikely place one could chose to build a career as an interior designer, but that’s exactly the challenge I sought 13 years ago. I defied the odds, charted my own path and followed a bigger vision of what I believe design is about. None of it’s been easy. And it hasn’t been without great sacrifice. Establishing design roots in a new strange place, bringing the value and emotional benefits of good design to ‘the middle of nowhere’ has been my biggest career challenge. I discovered it was not only possible to do, it was also more meaningful. But let’s be real, none of it was possible without high speed internet and being within the delivery zone for online shopping - two things that were non-negotiable in moving here.

After nearly a two year search we found and purchased our old house in Nova Scotia, our wish list didn’t include anything specific about the house itself because I knew I could redesign it. We chose a house based purely on location and setting. Nestled in a meadow, the exterior of the house maintain’s its original 1850’s carpenter gothic design. The interior had no redeeming features at all. What I fell in love with was the old barn, a majestic horse chestnut tree and a sand beach. The tree was everything, it gave the house such a rooted feeling and sense of belonging like the tree and house had stood together for a 175 years sharing a long history of storied lives. I wanted to have that connection, that same feeling for a house like it’s where I belonged - with a lifetime of memories and knowing it will still be there 100 years from now welcoming someone else home. Enduring the test of time looking every bit as well designed then as now. The house, the barn and the large ocean side property in their very tired unloved state, have been a labour of love to revive and renovate over these past 13 years and continue to be a seemingly never ending work in progress.

As I’ve helped clients design their own old or dated homes, or new ones from the gound up, I’m also going through this process myself always having to be very mindful of budget and patient with timing. We all share the same motivation and ultimate goal through all this effort and planning - making a house become a home.

We made this major life shift with an open mind and sense of adventure, long before the exodus from cities began in 2020 when people from all over Canada started flocking to the East Coast. We made the move here when it was the norm to move away from Nova Scotia to seek work or to just find ‘more’ - not knowing if it would work out, if we’d return to Ontario, if this would become a seasonal home or if we’d settle here long term. Honestly, up until just a few years ago we still weren’t sure. During all these years I’ve never written about my experience living and working here on the blog or social media but now with perspective and on a more community based platform like this, I’m looking forward to doing just that.

On this substack I’ll be sharing my design point of view, deep dives into project before & afters, the process, advice and insights from thirty years in this industry but also stories from my own home and life in Nova Scotia - about restoring our 1850s gothic fisherman’s cottage, how it feels to leave behind a big city design career (and friends and family) and about finding your place in a small town, setting roots, and how perspective on beauty, home, and life evolves as time passes and the people we love most do too.

As a real time example of my life in rural NS: while typing this post on Sunday morning I”m sitting in my barn with the doors flung open, sound of the surf crashing and a breeze flowing through. A few paragraphs in I see a text pop up from a client interested in a new piece of art, I texted the artist, a renown Canadian artist (also a past client and now friend!) based in Lunenburg who in response headed over to his local exhibit in town and then called me with the gallery manager on speaker phone to co-ordinate the acquisition and delivery logistics. This all transpired in less than an hour and was about as easy going and casual as chatting about the weather with a neighbour, which we also did. Design and art lives everywhere in many ways, sometimes inconspicuous or unexpected. Somedays I’m hanging a vintage find from a thrift store on a wall, other days its a serious investment piece by an acclaimed artist - it might be in the same house - there’s a level of appreciation and joy from both.

I’m jumping in with an overwhelming amount of topics in my head that I want to write about but also with no rigid schedule or format so I’m not sure exactly how this will unfold but I’m excited to see were it goes. Whether you’re a design enthusiast, curious about interior design, or just intrigued about life in rural coastal Nova Scotia, I hope you’ll join me!

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