2025 was a big year for EHD, full of more “ups” than “lessons” (which is all you can really ask for), and I feel enormously grateful to still be here. We are closing out the 15th year of the blog, which is wild (that’s most of my adult life!). Some of you have been hanging out with me since I was 30 and watched me win Designstar, host a TV show, have two kids, buy our first home (then move three times), write two books, explode the business (in both a good and bad way), reign it back in and y’all, if you read frequently you really do know me. I could cry when I think about it in a macro way. Thank you so, so much. This year felt full of so much hard work and fun, with my team killing it to create so much daily content on so many platforms. We have systems that really work (amid a ton of necessary flexibility), which is remarkable since we are so lean (me + my 5 full-time crew + Kaitlin, who shoots everything, and Arlyn, who freelances and contributes weekly). It was a record year of reveals (forty!) and a lot of personal growth (what else is mid-life for?).

In January, we added our fantastic social media manager, Marlee, to the team, which was the missing piece that we all needed. Marlee rounds out the awesome Portland crew of Gretchen (producer and stellar right hand) and, of course, our wonderful photographer Kaitlin, along with Jess (editorial director), Mal (email marketing and social manager), and Caitlin (partnerships and revenue), who are killing it from LA. Our workflow really fell into place mid-year with the more filled-out team, which felt sooo good to all of us. Our numbers even grew, which is exciting to see after 15 years in. And while there are always some failings and learnings (life inside digital media is wild, folks), we have such a good rhythm with a dialed-in team that cares so much, loves the work, and is willing to pivot or try new things all the time (or support me when I say no to opportunities). I feel extremely grateful for each of them every day and just really hope that I can continue to offer career growth for as long as possible (I want them to stay here! But more importantly, I want them to thrive individually, so I feel lucky every day they commit to me and allow EHD to be where they work). Like Ester Perel says, “the quality of your life is the quality of your relationships,” so the love inside the EHD team really is the biggest highlight:) But let’s wrap up all the other stuff anyway!

Room Service Sofa Shoot

We started the year with our Room Service sofa line shoot, which we did at three different locations, over 8 days. It was A LOT and so fun (Gretch killed it at producing). I learned a lot from this (I probably overshot and overspent – whoops), but loved that we did it all in-house and created such beautiful photos and videos. The tariff situation made us move factories from Mexico to Texas, which required new samples, extra shoots, and more trips for approval. But we are proud they are made in America and can get to you much faster. And thanks to you all who have left reviews – it makes a huge difference in both the Wayfair algorithm and in sales.

Friends & Family Makeovers

What a gift to get to help my friends and family while also doing my “job”. Two of my life-long best friends, Robyn and Nicole, live up here (which was a huge reason I moved back), but we are all so busy with multiple kids and big careers, so by designing their homes, I got an excuse to spend more time with them and really integrate myself into their schedules more often. And I truly couldn’t be happier with how both of them turned out.

Robyn’s living room turned out painfully cozy – I was so jealous. Every time I walk in, I think, “damn, this is such a pretty room.“

Nicole’s home, I mean, what an honor to be able to style and decorate it. They love great design and were willing to do almost everything I said. This is the same team that owns The Carly (which Max designed), so you definitely can tell they care about design.

Seems clear to me from both projects that I’m really into this blue + green + rosey/burgundy color palette. More friends and family projects coming at you in 2026:) But man, those two were so gorgeous.

Renovating The Garages

Probably the most life-changing project we did this year for the business was remodeling our vintage garages, turning them into the most epic prop and furniture storage (and studio).

If you didn’t see that full reveal (with epic before and afters), please go check it out. And a huge thanks to my brother’s company, Afore Construction, for GC-ing this project. It involved far more logistics than I had predicted, and it’s just so rad and functions so well.

Finishing The Backyard

I’m not sure what else to say besides I’m so grateful for this home and property, and I love sharing it. We really pulled the bandaid off and decided to finish (almost) all the messy stuff at the same time (outdoor kitchen, landscaping, pickleball court), and I couldn’t believe it was done in time to enjoy summer.

While I have persistently feared about my kids growing up with this abundance, this yard was used and abused by hundreds of people this summer, and felt like a community hub. And celebrating and connecting with neighbors, friends, and family feels pretty dang good.

Two Epic Team Retreats

Being long-distance is hard no matter what relationship you are in, so I really try to get us all together 2-3 times a year to stay connected. Most of the team came up for the sofa shoot to be a part of it in January (Caitlin couldn’t due to family stuff), and then we headed out to The Carly in May and Manzanita in September (both are rentable, BTW, and incredible places).

Man, I’m getting so sentimental. It was just such a stacked year, and I couldn’t do it without these women whom I care about so much. We vision-boarded, shopped, planned, brainstormed, cooked, drank, and watched garbage TV.

It will never be lost on me how lucky I am to work with these talented, fun women, and for so many years now. Very excited for our 2026 retreats (thinking Joshua tree in winter and who knows where in spring and fall – any suggestions?).

We Finally Started The Guest Cottage

It was time. And at first it felt daunting, but now that I reframed it as a low-pressure, experimental design project where I get to learn (almost) every trade and craft, I’m so excited to get more into it. If you haven’t caught up on this, it’s the 1850s original farmhouse that needs all the things. Read these blog posts if you want to deep dive into the project:

• The First Tour Inside Our 1850s Carriage House – Let The Restoration Begin!!!!!
• DIYing The OG “Homestead” – The Carriage House Exterior “Before” Tour
• Our Guest Cottage Inspection Report – WHAT IS WRONG WITH HER???
• What Are We Really Doing With Our Guest Cottage? Is There A Budget? And Other Burning Questions Answered
• How Big Is The Guest Cottage? All The Dimensions And Floor Plans For Us To Geek Out Over
• How Much Will It Cost To Remove Asbestos And Lead Paint From Our Guest Cottage (+ What I’m Willing To Do Myself To Save Money)
• Our Guest Cottage Update: How Much Will The Foundation Repair Cost???
• Guest Cottage Update – How Do You Design A House If You Don’t Know How You’ll Use It????
• We Demo’d The Guest Cottage Ourselves – Here’s How It Went
• The Guest Cottage – What Do We Do With The Sliding Train Rack Door??
• Why Is The Guest Cottage So Much More Fun To Design Than Any Other House Ever?????

The River House Reveal!! In A Print Magazine!

I worked on my brother’s house for 4 years, and not only is it done, but we got an 8-page spread in a major print magazine, Better Homes and Gardens. Print media is not dead, folks. And I’m honored to be in it. It’s always really great for business (my brand partners really value IRL mentions in print) and just feels special. My parents were pretty delighted to see two of their kids in a magazine together.

It felt like such a great culmination of so much hard work and fun. Now, we still have their sons’ room to do (and maybe the pantry and front patio), and you’ll see some partnership content being published early next year, but for the most part, it’s a wrap. I absolutely loved doing this project, especially with my brother and sister-in-law. I know that it wasn’t terribly relatable (budget-wise), so we tried hard to really show the process, with design content that felt more universal or personal to my brother and his family. I learned so much – about designing a new build, and about my own design process. One of the best gifts of this job (or any creative career, really) is that you’ll never design the same thing twice, so you are always learning, gathering experience, making mistakes (some preventable, some unpredictable), and that process makes the job feel so rich and fulfilling. Especially when it’s over, and you love it (thank god!).

Our AI Comment Monitoring

Finally, a reason to celebrate AI! A personal highlight for me was the ability to read and respond to comments again, now that we had AI technology that filtered out anything too mean-spirited. We’ve monitored and approved comments for years, but I would still accidentally see the “unapproved” comments in the backend when I went in to reply to the nice comments (as you do when you are logged in). So this filter put the “mean-spirited” comments in a folder that Caitlin (our non-AI human) would then go in and manually publish (or delete). The filter wasn’t perfect, and many of my replies even got filtered out at first, but it was a night-and-day difference for my anxiety. And I know that not all of you agreed with this, which I get, but what I can’t express enough is that while I’m very not perfect (I’m pretty aware of my faults and my privilege – and the two are very correlated), I try really hard to be a net positive in the world (and so does my team). And if/when I’m riddled with anxiety, this blog suffers – I become so guarded that it’s a shell of what it used to be, or I dive into an avoidance spiral and barely show up at all. There is a reason why most bloggers have moved on or burned out, and the negativity on the internet from strangers is high on the list. So this is to protect our mental health (my team’s included) and keep us focused on the work, connecting with you all, which we enjoy immensely. And don’t worry, I’m not living in a bubble, surrounded by yes people. We receive feedback and shift all the time (and some of it is very, very uncomfortable for me to hear, but I’m always grateful once I process it in a healthy way). But this is a place that I want people to enjoy coming to, including us. We want people to feel better while here, not worse. It’s a home design blog with, yes, a lot of my personal life, which could be triggering (and I get it, I have people on the internet that trigger me, too), so this tech has made me able to enjoy the conversation. It’s like it’s 2010 again 🙂 Anyway, I don’t want to harp on it much more, but it’s so nice to avoid the few bad apples, and so I can focus on most of you are so wonderful, well-meaning, and full of helpful suggestions or constructive criticism. Thank you so much for being here.

Some Learnings…

Sure, our rug-line got cancelled (which I wrote about here), and we got hacked so many times that I had to invest in urgently rebuilding and migrating the site on the fly (which was stressful and costly). I learned a lot about myself and the business from both of those situations, which is very humbling and then empowering. And some content flopped while others went viral – such a mystery! Our YouTube video series on the guest cottage was so good and fun in my opinion (Gretchen and Marlee tag-teamed there, and I LOVED what they created). And yet the views were low (for the amount of time it took to create), so we are constantly trying to understand “why” and improve, pivot, or just let go and move on. I’ll never feel fully like I know what I’m doing, and every year is just so different. And if I’m being honest, I’ve dove even further into spirituality, which has helped me immensely feel more aligned and connected to the world, my family, my creativity, you, and of course, the Universe or God. I’ve felt much more content, letting the other stuff fall away. And let’s face it, the world feels so bleak right now, with so much suffering that not appreciating our blessings and practicing gratefulness would be criminal. But going into a new year, you KNOW I have some resolutions, improvements, things I’m excited to see if I can shift in my life.

Anyway, thank you so much for being here and allowing us to still be here. We really, really love it, and we know that it’s a privilege to love what you do so much. While there is no perfect job (and all of us have annoying tasks that we dread or avoid), we know that being able to create design content for a wide, supportive audience is such a gift. And the fact that we are still here has so much to do with you, the daily readers who help us feel supportive even as the blogging world continues to disappear. We made it 15 years, folks. January 1 marks the beginning of year 16, and I’m really, really excited to see where it leads. So much love, Emily.

Opening Image Credits: Photo by Kaitlin Green | From: Announcing Our First Furniture Collection: ROOM Service by Emily Henderson