BLOGOSPHERE Katie-d-i-d
by Marcia Sherrill

KATIE-D-I-D

A true “California Girl,” Kathleen “Katie” Denham, creator of the blog www.katie-d-i-d.blogspot.com, is the stuff of a Beach Boys song. Born blonde and beautiful, this former Southern Californian is the daughter of an aerospace engineer dad (who worked on the Apollo and Gemini spacecrafts) and a cultivated, patron of the arts mother. It is from her mother that Denham inherited her love of the arts and all things design. As a child, Denham’s household words included Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Larry Bell. “I remember spending many an afternoon doing homework in the courtyard of the Pasadena Art Museum, a place that fostered my love for art, design, and architecture,” she recalls, “I was very lucky to live near exceptional art museums including the Norton Simon Museum.”

Her aesthetically-rich
childhood left an indelible impression on her yet Denham was torn between choosing scholastic studies in art or business. The yin and yang of her parents’ diverse careers sent her zigging and zagging through college. Beginning as an art major at the University of California Santa Barbara, Den-ham transferred to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where she majored in Business Administration. Denham laughs now saying, “Biz-Ad was a depar-ture, I know. I thought I was being so practical, but let’s face it: If you don’t have anything to apply it to, how practical can it be?” A short stint in Louisi-ana, where she studied Interior Design, was follow-ed by her return to California where she graduated from the Design Institute of San Diego with a Ba-chelor’s of Fine Arts degree.

While living in the Bay Area,
Denham met her future husband, Tom, on blind date on New Year’s Eve. The couple eventually settled in Sacramento where they began to raise a family. She speaks about the specialness of California’s state capital saying, “It has simply been a wonderful place for a family, and it is ideally situated – less than a few hours away from San Francisco, the Wine Country in Napa, and Lake Tahoe in the Sierras. Here in Sacramento, I have had the most fun designing kit-chens, homes, restaurants, and offices – this city has experienced such development and growth since we first called it home.”

Growth not only applies to the city, but to Denham’s Internet “voice.” She is one of Northern California’s chic and bright design bloggers who has taken the Internet by force, disseminating her insights and observations about the world of style. Most popular of her blog rep-orts are from her own “Diary of a Remodel” starring the Denham family.

Katie-d-i-d reveals not
only the ecstasies – but the agonies too – of the Denham’s remodel of their 1911 “Foursquare” – a Victorian distinguished by its large proportions and simple four square room symmetry. Of it, she says, “I love symmetry, so when we found the house, it was clearly a serendipitous moment – the kind that you just feel is right. We had been looking at Tudors, but one day one of my daughters forgot something she needed for school, so I jumped in the car and went tearing over there when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a For Sale By Owner sign on this pretty Victor-ian – with what brokers euphemistically call, ‘lots of original detail.’ I immediately pulled on the brakes and noticed the owner sitting on the porch. Before I made the walk up to meet him, I knew this was the house for me. It was love at first sight.”

But the restoration
her new “love” was not without a price. “It has been quite an undertaking,” says Denham, “All aspects of the remodel have been chron-icled in my blog, including reactions from of our daughters, Hannah, 16, and Maggie, age 12 – even our dog, Cooper, receives the oc-casional honorable mention.”

No doubt the process, while being personal, has been a great success. Denham notes, “While some people would be pulling their hair out and hiding their oftentimes remodeling fru-strations from the neighbors, I actually wel-come the world into our own personal hard-hat zone!”

Could HGTV be next? Stay tuned.