Planning parties, weddings, photo-shoots, and daily dinners: these are all reasons people pin. Home improvement boards are also popular, but building a house from the ground up, on an island in Greece, with your whole family? That’s definitely one of the bigger projects we’ve seen on Pinterest.
So between Julie’s work as a publicist and letterpress printer, Eugenia’s job at Google, and of course lots of pinning and blogging, we caught up with two sisters who are helping their dad’s dream come true.
First things first, can the Bazigos sisters describe some basics facts about each other?
Julie: We’ve grown up as best friends and have always been there for each other. Eugenia is definitely the little sister in every sense. I embarrassingly used to make her my go-for when we did art projects as kids, “Eugenia, grab me the scissors” and she’d bring them. She’s grown up to be totally independent, marches to the beat of her own drum, works incredibly hard, does what she wants, and doesn’t let anything stop her.
Eugenia: Julie has OCD - this is almost certain. She can’t deal with disorder and is the type who reorganizes supply cabinets for fun. She’s always in the middle of a project - and growing up, I was definitely her little helper :) She’s always inspired me to bring out my inner artsy, but she definitely holds the crown here.
Julie, you’re one-fourth of Secret Agent PR which specializes in design clients including the American Institute of Architects and Dwell Media. You also have your own design and letterpress studio, Cartoules Press. Meanwhile, Eugenia you’re a Berkeley alumna who’s now a Display Advertising Specialist at Google. Are you two competitive at all or did pursuing your own passions lead you to where you are?
E: Other than making a bet with her when I was 12 that I’d get better grades then she did in high school (I won), really not a whole lot. Our parents always encouraged us both and we just wanted to see each other succeed.
J: If anything we’ve always admired each other for the things we’re good at, and help strengthen each other’s weaknesses. I’ve always been the creative one, Eugenia’s always been the smarty-pants, great student. I was also a good student and Eugenia is creative as well, but we each pursued our own passions, while still having interest in each others work.
E: With Julie in PR and me in Advertising, we’re often thinking about the same things from different angles. It’s always fun when our worlds collide and we can seek one another out for professional advice.
J: She loves to attend design events with me, while I enjoy learning about the latest in the tech world from her, so we really balance each other out.
Eugenia’s “Living Room Love” board
From both of your boards, it’s easy to tell you’re both opinionated about design and interiors. How did you get interested in design?
J: I’ve always loved design. As a kid, I wanted to be an architect. I also love art, drawing, and creating so that’s definitely been a constant in my life.
E: Yeah me on the other hand — I’m a late bloomer in terms of appreciating design. I never really had much of an opinion until college. And even then, it didn’t cross over into being an obsession until last year when I moved to a new apartment in San Francisco. Along the way, I’ve taken inspiration from some of the most influential places I’ve lived — the bohemian, eccentricity of Berkeley; Andalucia’s bright colors and geometric patterns, and Greece’s easy lifestyle and beautiful shapes and colors. Pinterest and the rise of Emily Henderson have only perpetuated this obsession.
J: As I’ve gotten older and more exposed to the design community it became very obvious to me that this is what I was meant to do. Add Pinterest to the mix, and before I know it, it’s 3am and I’m so far down the design rabbit hole. Both my work as a publicist to architects and designers, and as a graphic designer and letterpress printer, I really get to use my educational background in communications, and my self-taught skills in graphic design to live and breath my passions on a daily basis in these various iterations.Your family is currently involved in building a house in Greece together. Can you tell us about how this all got started, the location, and your aspirations for it?
E: This was originally our father’s dream. Every summer we’d go to Greece and stay with our grandparents in their village on the island of Kefalonia. Those summers including a packed house full of our cousins, our parents, and our grandparents are some of the best memories of our childhood. I can always remember our father searching for property so that one day we could have our own house to create these memories.
In 2006 he found a piece of land with a sea view (which was number one on his list). Over the next few years he researched a crew of individuals he could trust to help build his dream, and oversee the process while we’re here in the States. It was all very exciting for Julie and me, but during the design stage I think is when we really became more involved.
Julie and Eugenia’s grandparents house in Kefalonia, from Julie’s blog
J: This house is definitely our father’s baby, but he trusts the two of us to infuse the house with great design. I should mention that he’s a mechanical engineer, a designer himself, so debating elements of the house with him can be challenging (and fun) for us, because he loves the practical; we love the pretty. Then throw my mom the artist/teacher, and my husband the banker into the mix, and you’ve got some lively discussion. It’s really brought us closer though, which I think is the point, and I will always cherish having done this with them. We look forward to the memories we’ll all be creating here for a lifetime.
Julie and Eugenia’s group board “Kefalonia House Inspiration”
Clearly a project this big takes a lot of planning: can you fill us in on how you’ve been using your “Kelafonia House Inspiration board”?
J: We actually have two boards. The first is a “Kefalonia House Inspiration” board, which is composed of images from other homes in Kefalonia, and Greece in general, that have inspired us. The second is called “Kefalonia House Products” and it’s composed of items we’ve already chosen for the house. It’s been really helpful for both of us to collaborate and put our visual ideas in one place where we can make notes, “at message” each other with our thoughts, and even show our family the board to illustrate what we’re envisioning.
E: Thankfully we only ask our parents to click on links - they aren’t exactly techies.
J: Pinterest is allowing us to pull together all of our family’s disparate design styles, and visually see if they can actually work together.
Have there been any major challenges along the way?
E: Oh man. Yes. We have way too many chefs in the kitchen. And speaking of chefs, deciding on the specific elements of the kitchen has been the hardest part.
J: When you think about how we’re building this house from over 6,500 miles away, so far things are running pretty smoothly. We’re so blessed to have family who live there year round who can check in from time to time, and we’ve hired a fantastic crew of professionals who have been doing a great job. If you consider the fact that my parents and Eugenia live in the San Francisco Bay Area, while my husband and I live in Long Beach, I’d say we’re pretty organized about getting this done.
E: There’s definitely a lot of Skyping going on to discuss details and the Pinterest boards really help pull that together.
Besides the house, are there other reasons you use Pinterest?
Eugenia’s “All Hallows” board
E: I’m currently organizing all sorts of ideas for Halloween. I’ve been finding so much inspiration as I plan for a party I’m throwing. Other than that, I use it all the time for inspiration and general happy procrastination.
J: Personally I love using Pinterest to curate my favorite design items, and to create visual wishlists of things I’d like to purchase for our home here in Long Beach. Professionally I use Pinterest to catalogue items that inspire me, whether it be in my stationery design, or packaging. I also write a blog, so I use Pinterest to visually capture the items I want to include in a post, and then I can easily site where the image came from by referencing my pin boards.
Thanks so much for sharing some memories and stories with us! You can follow the progress of the Bazigos house in Kefalonia on Julie’s blog here.
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