OUR STORY

80 Degrees West started with a simple idea - to give people the opportunity to ask an interior designer for advice in an easy online format. People were constantly asking our CEO, Karen Anderson, for advice on the sly - "Can you help me pick colors if I bring some paint chips to our aerobics class?", "If I buy you dinner will you help me place my couch?" - it seemed like there was no easy and guilt-free way for people with small (but valid) questions to get just a little bit of direction and peace of mind from a professional.

And clients were sending piles of emails with links to furniture they liked and then shoe-horning their ideas into a PowerPoint slide to get their ideas across - wasn't there a better way to collect decorating inspirations and organize a decorating project online? We definitely thought so. So we created the Design Notebook.

The world has changed the field of interior design in a dramatic way. Everything is accessible on the web; amazing design ideas and products are available the world over. People shop online at all hours and want to work on their decorating projects on their time. Nobody wants to take a personal day so that they can meet with a designer.

And the choices are overwhelming. There are innumerable do-it-yourself tools out there - but wouldn't you just rather ask someone who knows the choices inside and out and can fit the solutions to your problems? Sure, we could build a digital tool to analyze your style and spit out a formulaic design, but really, where is the fun in that? And everyone wants to run their ideas past their friends or family. So we let you do that too.

So welcome to 80 Degrees West - Where All Decorating Begins. We hope you love being here as much as we love helping you decorate. Create a Design Notebook (it's free) and get started! If you have any questions or comments, just click on the Feedback tab or drop us a line at feedback@80DWID.com. We'd love to hear from you!