Decorate Workshop Highlights From London Launch Party

Hello everyone and happy Friday to you! I'm so pleased to share some photos from my book launch party for the UK edition of Decorate Workshop, photographed by London-based photographer Lucy Lu. Most of these photos (unless noted otherwise) are from Lucy, thank you Lucy! The lovely party at Anthropologie on Regents Street was a huge success - it was packed with more people than we had expected, which is never a problem and always an honor BUT it was tough to fit so many comfortably so needless to say we had standing room only by the time we began our lectures. Decorate Workshop fans filled the 3rd floor and we had a great night. Want to see for yourself?

I was joined by one of the UK's top bloggers, Will Taylor, from Bright Bazaar and American stylist James Leland Day, who lives in Berlin (his home is in Decorate Workshop and his living room shown above) who spoke alongside of me about the book from what inspired it to how one goes from blogger to author, the process of writing an interiors book and how to style your home with tips from James and later, I chimed in with tips on how to pull inspiration from the many images you see and translate them into something that works. I have to thank both of these fab guys for being there and presenting so well - Will is a natural and James has such a strong background in styling - they both were such a nice addition to the party and guests really loved having them, too.

Will showing everyone the inside of the French fold book jacket - all editions have a special jacket that you can unfold, iron and display on your wall. Mine is above my desk in my work studio.

I really love bringing together special guests in all of the events that I do - last year for Decorate some of my special speakers included Abigail Ahern, Leslie Shewring, Sania Pell, Betsy Burnham, Nicole Balch, Fernanda Bourlot, Zia Priven, Matt Stinchcomb (co-founder of Etsy) and many others. In fact, whenever I host events I always try to add a few guests to accompany me because I enjoy the support and friendship - it makes doing events a lot more exciting and a lot less about "me" and more about "we".

Will interviewing me during the launch party - I was trying to focus, I was a bit nervous because we had problems with the sound system - we were able to fix it later on but it kept throwing me off track at first. We did our best - thanks to everyone who endured the first 10 minutes!!!

I love this photo - it looks like this cute lady is embracing my book. It actually made me feel emotional seeing this. The idea of giving a little slice of happy to someone is quite a nice feeling for an author to have.

Will is such a charming and caring soul but also has an excellent business brain behind all those bow ties and polka dots. James was really getting into how he designed his living room - shown on the board to his right. That is an image from my book as well.

A closer shot of the board showing James' living room as seen in Decorate Workshop.

Between all of the beautiful cakes that Anthropologie laid out for us to feast on, the prosecco, the inspiring space and the entire 3rd floor being filled with design lovers and bloggers, it was quite a lovely experience. Anthro even gave everyone who bought my book a 15% coupon for their next purchase and a linen Anthro tote. What a nice touch! Along one wall, I had a bookcase in my honor titled, Holly Becker's Favourite Things" where I had shopped the day before for things that I loved from their home & fashion accessories floors so that my guests could check out a few of my favorite things. Problem was, the event was so packed that it was hard for people to go examine all of the pretty things there!

I had a rough summer, filled with a lot of ups and downs in my life (mostly downs) so to be here with all of my fans and have them so excited to see me and celebrate my new book was nothing less than a fantastic boost for me personally - and of course, it was cool to sign and hold up my book for the camera - I loved celebrating this accomplishment with all who came out.

I love this shot of me talking to Ari from Arianna Interiors who is also co-founder of Heart Home magazine. Ari is one of those people who is genuinely so sweet and charismatic, there is nothing fake about her. I think she was admiring my hair or necklace in this photo - she always has a way of making you feel at ease and taking you beneath her wing. I really adore this lady!

This photo of James made me smile. He really loved being a part of the festivities and he walked away feeling inspired by everyone, too. The energy was so positive. It was a truly lovely event.

I only wish that I could have spoken to everyone - I know I missed out on meeting so many of you and for that, I'm sorry! It was my intention to meet everyone but the event was too full and once the book signing begun I was there until after the store closed dedicating books to some genuinely lovely guests.

I felt honored and inspired by the event and to think the day before, I ran into a street concert with Robbie Williams performing right before my eyes and the same evening after the book party, I ended up in a private bar at a hotel where a friend Charlotte was staying and who walks in and says hello to us, American rapper/actor Ludacris. Yeah, really. He was so chill and his friends and I chatted about the south (where we are all from) and later, my book and blog! Riot! It was funny to see him and how normal they all were but the best part was when one of them googled me and said, "Hey you're famous too!", that was a riot! Here's a photo of me with Ludacris who is currently in London filming Fast & Furious 6 - funny right?!

So that was my book launch party. I hope that you liked it. If I missed any of the photographers who took the photos above, PLEASE let me know so I can link you below. A big thank you to Jacqui Small Publishing (Jacqui, Joanna, Sian, Sarah, Anabel, Jessica and Sam), Anthropologie EU, Lucy Lu, Will Taylor, James Leland Day, Debi Treloar and some of the homeowners who attended in addition to James like Sania Pell, Emma Cassi, Stephanie Rammeloo and Yvonne Eijkenduijn.

(images: Lucy Lu, Mimi, Janine and Margarida)