During late January’s winter storms, three local interior design content creators used their stuck-inside time productively, posting photos and videos to Instagram about light bulb kelvins and closet storage, weather-friendly entry rugs and winter gear, sticker-like paint samples and planned painting projects.
These interiors influencers offer regular, relatable glimpses into their lives and how they transform their homes—whether it’s through a recipe or renovation, a clever DIY or decor tip, or a favorite household good or fashion find. Their behind-the-scenes content has garnered tens of thousands of followers and multiple brand collaborations, as well as launched decor and design businesses.
“We all enjoy seeing a beautiful room, but I think people also really resonate with finding a pretty solution to a design dilemma. They love to see those details because that’s inspiring,” says Anna Louise Carter of @designedbydixon.
Meet the interior design influencers
Anna Louise Carter
@designedbydixon, www.designedbydixon.com
“I would occasionally share tablescapes, but it was just for fun,” says Carter of starting her Instagram account 10 years ago while working as an event planner at Clemson University.
After leaving that position, she posted about her event planning business—she shuttered it during COVID—and “other things like home stuff,” she says. “And the other things took off.”
Through her direct-address and instructional videos, along with curated images of her 1960s home, Carter’s more than 82,000 followers can learn how to make an orchid arrangement in a Beatriz Ball vessel, set a tablescape, manage an upholstery project, and put together colorful outfits.
She also takes them along as she updates rooms in her traditional infused-with-color style, finds ways to corral the necessities of motherhood (including keeping teethers and burp cloths in decorative bowls), and transforms Facebook Marketplace finds.
“I share the little things that—I didn’t realize this at first—not everyone knows, like finding the right harp size for your lamp and lampshade,” says Carter, who calls her interest in design “an inherited gene” from her mother.
Through her decor business, Carter helps clients with specific requests, such as sourcing window treatments and wallpaper. “It’s unattainable for a lot of people to have a designer come in and redo their whole home,” she says. “I want to help them find functional solutions that are pretty at the same time.”
Favorite room: “Our living room—it’s where we spend our time,” she says, noting that she took a risk by installing a bold chinoiserie-patterned wallpaper and a leopard print wall-to-wall carpet in the large space. “I absolutely love it, and it feels so good.”
Allison Roman
@romanfamilyhome, www.allisonromandesign.com
After Roman finished a year-long renovation of her 1970s home, she had lots of in-progress photos and videos. She turned them into before-and-after content and launched them on Instagram in January 2023.
“I didn’t just start [the account] for fun,” the former teacher turned stay-at-home mom says. “I intentionally thought this could be a creative business opportunity, so from the beginning, I set out to post as if this is my job.”
The account took off when she shared her backyard’s transformation and the reconfiguration of the formal dining room into a mudroom, laundry room, and butler’s pantry.
Now, 173,000 followers engage with reels and posts about rooms updated in Roman’s modern classic style, videos of fashion finds, home products she frequently uses, and stories about her daily life.
“I think for people to really want to follow you, they need to feel like they know you. So, I want to give people enough about my life to show this is who I am, this is what’s important to me, and this is what I’m doing,” she shares.
And Roman does a lot, including holding an annual Christmas giveaway featuring local businesses, collaborating with other designers, modeling, and helping clients through her interiors business, Allison Roman Design.
“This is a creative outlet for me, and I just love it,” she says.
Favorite room: “My kitchen. It’s the anchor of the house. I gutted it—nothing looks the same. Now everything about it is exactly how I intended, and I use it all day, every day.”
Paula Angermeier
@townandcountryhouse, www.townandcountryhouse.com
Looking for a creative outlet, Angermeier first started a blog in 2008, followed by her Instagram account a few years later.
“I just loved the format. It was so visual, but you could still do a little bit of writing. I was almost on the ground floor and was a consistent poster. That built a following,” she says. And the account got even more engagement when @theglampad shared one of her tablescape posts.
Angermeier now has more than 61,000 followers and shares everything from her faith to hospitality ideas, recipes, and room renovations to her 2001 Federal-style house. Each inviting image or video is filled with traditional design details.
“I hope it is inspiring and enriching, but also real,” she says, explaining that she wants to create a space that is “comfortable and relaxing and a place to have a conversation, whether that’s a hard one or a happy one.”
After retiring in August from her position as head of communications for the Greenville County Museum of Art, she now works with clients through her interior design practice.
“I’ve wanted to be a decorator since I was young,” she shares. “I like solving problems, helping people figure out what will allow them to live better, and finding the best, and most attractive solution within their budget.”
Favorite room: “It’s a tie between the screened porch addition and the dining room,” Angermeier says, adding that while they are not the prettiest rooms, they are where she’s hosted many holidays, milestone celebrations, dinner parties, and family suppers. “The dining room is where my grandmother’s sterling sometimes meets up with take-out pizza and salad, and I just love that.”
