Originally published on July 13, 2016.
It looked like a home magazine spilled out in Brooke Ulrich’s St. George stucco home, with it’s perfectly executed design.
The 35-year-old graciously moved to the kitchen, where she began to give new life to an old bench, mixing paint and reupholstering like it was her job.
In a way, it is.
Ulrich (‘07) is the creator and star of the popular personal decorating blog All Things Thrifty. Her blog, which features daily posts of what she’s creating, making or fabricating, attracts more than 800,000 page views a month. It has led to collaborations with local boutiques and national brands such as Home Depot, Proctor & Gamble and Better Homes & Gardens.
It also has turned Ulrich into a crafting master — something that she didn’t feel comfortable saying five years ago when the blog was conceived.
“We had just put all of our money into a buying a home and didn’t have any leftover to decorate or furnish it, so my husband and I decided to do it ourselves,” said Ulrich.
With advice from a family member to begin a blog chronicling the redecorating process, Ulrich went to work snapping photos of each project and listing how other readers could do the same thing.
With the first post dictating how to make a stencil out of painter’s tape, Ulrich emailed her friends and family that she had created a blog and invited them to come along for the ride.
“This is bigger than I’ve ever imagined it would be,” responded Ulrich to her rise in blogging fame. She now boasts 73,000 plus Facebook fans and 69,000 followers on Pinterest, all readers who want to learn how to make their lives a little better.
But standing in her kitchen now with 12-year-old daughter by her side, Ulrich ensures this blog is for her family. “This how I can enrich my family’s life and create opportunities for my children. Once it get’s away from that then I will stop. But for now, we are having a great time.”
Brooke graduated with a degree in Communication. Learn more about the Communication program.
