SOTP contributor, Roos Kriek, meets Live Loud Girl over breakfast to talk about her move to Dubai from the Big Apple, and how the interior stylist established her well-read blog on the back of a piece of paper on a US road trip.
A tall, blond, radiant Linda Dekkers walks into Le Pain for our breakfast meeting. Live Loud Girl – is her alter ego. She is also a loving mother of two gorgeous blond boys, a wife and a friend but being able to do what she really loves, makes her an even better at ‘all of the above’.
Over the past year, Linda has really established herself as an interior stylist in Dubai having worked on numerous projects and assignments. Her strengths? Well, it is first her enthusiasm and secondly she has made interior styling fun, affordable and accessible to everyone.
Big city girl Linda had a career in marketing at L’Oreal and later Coca Cola before relocating to New York for her husband’s job. She needed exactly five nanoseconds to make that decision – living in the Big Apple had been a ‘Sex in the City’ inspired dream of hers. A dream that became a reality as she regularly started running into the real life Sarah Jessica Parker.
But relocating also meant resigning from her marketing career and building a new life. A very different life it would turn out, as she went onto to have two children.
Her local nail studio in NYC became her ‘space’. Not because she loves having her nails done (that was just a bonus), it was more because it forced her to sit, think and evaluate what she was doing with her life. These trips even became necessary to the extent that her husband would sometimes suggest: ‘Hey babe, maybe it’s time to hit the nail salon again?’ when she had become less then good company at the dinner table.
And when the opportunity came for the family to move to Dubai, it was again Linda who was already packing her bags before the contract was signed. She was keen for a new adventure.
The difference this time was that she had a plan. Linda had always been interested in styling – buying old chairs, doing them up, selling them, that sort of thing. She needed a platform to develop more of her ideas. Prior to their departure for the Middle East on a road trip from Washington back to the city, the concept of ‘Live Loud Girl’ was born. It was something that she could take along with her wherever she went. The words ‘Live’ and ‘Loud’ stand for who she is: not afraid to take a risk, nor of making bold choices in life. Living in style is what she believes in. According to her, as life is short, it’s ok to take good care of yourself and of everything surrounding you.
Her first impression of Dubai was: ‘Wow, how different’. A complete opposite to where she had just come from, in fact. While NYC is cold, Dubai is warm; where as NYC is old, Dubai is so young. In the Big Apple she did almost everything on foot, here in Dubai she is always in her Jeep. When she met like-minded Marie Bouhas (@liveloudbymarie) she pulled out the notes that she had put on paper back in New York and the Live Loud Girl concept became reality. Her first blog post was online at the beginning of this year.
Now with almost 4000 Instagram followers, partnerships with fellow Dubai entrepreneurs, shops, cafes, as well as the styling of several homes on her list, Linda seems unstoppable. What’s in her head needs to get out, so, believe me, we will be hearing a lot more from this long-legged lady, currently living loud in Dubai.
Live Loud Girl – Blog, Shop & Style – is a concept by Linda Dekkers.
Blog – on things she loves in terms of interior styling. www.liveloudgirl.blogspot.com
Shop – It gives others the opportunity to integrate a piece of Live Loud Girl in their own home. Items are for sale at pop-up shops throughout the year. (Next one is at the night market at Tom and Serg on 16 December 2014).
Style – interior styling
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