Why I’m Begging You To Steal My Interior Design Photos

September 10, 2014
9 Comments
Posted in: social media

Alright. There’s something that I really, really need to get off my chest.

It’s about interior design photos.

And it’s about the interior designers who own the photos, myself included. And this goes for anyone with a website who posts photos, so even if you are not a designer, this may apply to you as well.

All of us post photos of our work on our websites and social media for potential clients to see so that they can get an idea if they might like to work with us. And we are the owners of those photographs. They are the fruition of our creativity and hard work and they belong to US. Right. We already realize this.

The question comes up frequently on interior design forums if it’s alright to post interior design photos that are someone else’s work.

There is much debate about this, because in the olden days, NO, it was not alright. And we only have to go back about 5 years at the most to get to the “olden days.” At the risk of sounding like a completely patronizing asshole, there are still some ~~ignorant~~ well-meaning folks who ~~righteously~~ cautiously tell us that we are in danger of getting our ass sued. While not wrong, they are also not completely right, either.

I’ll explain.

These days, not only does every interior designer have a website, most of us are heavily engaged with social media. [whether we want to or not] Therefore, we put up photos of our work there too. And once they are on there, oh boy… if they are good— look out. I’ve pinned [on pinterest] from two people’s blogs, photos that are not theirs but are credited to their rightful owners. The first one had about 500 repins in two hours! That’s right. I thought it had to be a mistake, but by the end of the night, it was up to 1,100. It’s had well over 1,700 now in only about 4 days.

Rebekah Zaveloff via

And then there’s this beauty which has gotten nearly 400 pins in one day.

Lee Ann Thornton via

Here’s the thing. If we understand the deal [which I’ll get to in a sec], we should WANT other people to “steal” our work. We WANT other people to post our images on their own blogs, pinterest boards, twitter, fakebook, houzz, google ++++++++, etc.

But… there’s a caveat and it’s a big one too. There must be attribution via a link BACK to the OWNER’S website.

Here’s why we should want other people to post our interior design photos with a link back [aka: a backlink]

The google god absolutely creams his jeans when his crawling henchmen finds a link back to our blog.

googs’ crawler reports back.

“Hey googs, ya know that Laurel Bern bitch that we slapped back to page 27 last year cause she had 15 google+ accounts and 6 websites? Well, I was just trolling around and discovered that badass Loi Thai likes her stuff and has linked his blog to hers. Since Loi is getting like 50 million +/- hits a day on his website, that means maybe we need to rethink Laurel’s placement. And there’s more. Her work is showing up an awful lot on pinterest and people are talking about her on facebook and twitter, and by golly, dude, they are reading her ferkakta blog too. She’s been workin’ our crazy-meant-to-confuse-and-demean-system. [hehehehe] So, she deserves some credit for that. Don’t you think she should be on page one?”

[Hey, I think I like that creepy crawler!]

Of course, it’s not in any way personal; it’s all completely calculated and as cold as a salmon stuck in a Swedish iceberg in January. However, the point here is that ~~dumbshit~~ uninformed designers who do not want anyone else posting their interior design photos are totally, completely, thoroughly and entirely screwing themselves big-time and missing an incredible golden opportunity for:

FREE marketing
FREE publicity
FREE boost in internet rankings

And all of that translates to more people being able to find out about the person who owns the interior design photos. It increases the possibility that some of those people who would not have found them in any other way will contact the owners with the view to hiring them which means more $$$ in the owner’s pockets!

Still don’t want anyone but YOU posting your pics?

Fine, then get your ass off the internet and go and live back in 1985.

Okay. I know what y’all are thinking. You’re thinking, well… that’s a dumb move, Laurel. You’re posting other people’s beautiful images and therefore, you’re funneling business away from yourself!

Possibly. But in that case, they weren’t going to hire me anyway. In addition, I can only handle so much work. ;]

And furthermore, I am also trying my damnedest to show the world that we’re not ALL a bunch of opportunistic freaks who are out to filch you out of every nickel you’ve earned!

Yes, some of your nickels. :] But, most of us are doing this because we love beauty and love helping other people live in more beautiful dwellings, not to get rich or rip you off.

One last point I’d like to make. Please, please, please watermark your images. [it’s soooo easy on picmonkey] Lee Ann’s is watermarked as that one actually belongs to House Beautiful. House Beautiful WANTS us to pin their images as they have kindly given us a pinterest button and avenues for easily posting on FB and Twitter too.

photo by Laurel Bern

The other thing to pay close attention to is your alternate tag.

What the hell is that? I once asked that question too. When you see someone’s photo and you see something like dcp.img.003.jpg that’s the alt tag. It’s what get’s picked up by pinterest or your website if you don’t save it as something else.

You need to save it as something that’s going to benefit you. Something like this:

lee-ann-thornton-blue-pantry-house-beautiful-3.jpg.

That way, IF someone pins your image directly from your blog, THAT is what will show up under the description of your photo on pinterest. More free advertising and in addition, having those key words in your alt tag is going to work in your favor.

Well, Laurel.. all of that is all well and good but still… you should really ask for permission.

In a perfect world, that would be nice, however.

I have done that and am usually ignored.
I am using the photos to express a point of view; I am not in any way shape or form intimating that they are my work! [someone did this to me once by using one of my rooms for an ADVERTISEMENT! My wasband gallantly went out and verbally {in his gentlemanly way,} bitched-slapped that *&%!$(%&^! Thank you for that, Shimon!]
Do I really have to ask permission to say that I love you, I think that your work is amazing and I think it’s so incredible, I’m going to tell thousands of people about it and give you free marketing, advertising and tons of traffic back to your website?

No one has to ask me nuttin.

PLEASE!!! I am BEGGING Y’all to STEAL My Interior Design Photos.

Place them on your blogs, pinterest boards, twitter, fakebook… wherever… just give me back the f-word link and if you’re on wordpress, I’ll get a little notification and then I’m going to come running over to f-word thank you!

I mean, other designers in the know have come over to thank me. It’s a nice day when that happens.

I like it so much better when we as design community support each other and elevate our profession in a good way.

win/win situation.

It’s an abundant world. There’s plenty, plenty to go around!

xo,