My Story

My background

First of all, are you wondering how I came up with the name Cuckoo4Design? Well, here it goes!

Years ago, when my son was still little, he had a play date with the son of one of our friends. And you know how kids say things they’ve heard from their parents but probably shouldn’t repeat? Well, the little cutie pie came up to me and told me that his daddy calls me the crazy German. I really do take that as a compliment because, after all, I leave an impression! So when I thought about what to name my blog, this little scenario came to mind, and I had just found my new love for cuckoo clocks. It all made perfect sense. I know there are lots of “cuckoo for” websites out there, but it fits this crazy German perfectly.

Design and art have been my passion since I was a little, and then I enrolled in art school in Germany as an 18-year-old. The town I grew up in is Lohr am Main, and I went to school and worked in Würzburg, two very beautiful German cities that still hold a big piece of my heart.

Würzburg will forever be my favorite with lots of wonderful memories.

Over the years, we have written many blog posts about my trips home to Germany, amongst some other traveling. You can check it all out on my travel page.

When I finished art school, I worked at one of the largest furniture stores in Germany while earning a degree in visual merchandising. That’s really where it all began. It was the most creative job, learning from in-house carpenters, painters, and incredibly talented coworkers. I loved every minute of it. Think Ikea showroom on a much larger scale!

After that, I started an internship in Marketing here in the United States, where I met my future husband. I never thought I would end up staying! I get really homesick at times, and my projects keep me sane. While working in Marketing, I also finished a degree in Graphic Design, which was rewarding but never quite as fulfilling as working hands-on with a room and furniture. Transforming an ugly piece of furniture into something beautiful or knotting some macrame is my safe place. I get really competitive when I want to figure out how to make something.

Looking back, the combination of a visual merchandising background and a graphic design degree turned out to be the perfect foundation for a home decor and DIY blog. And I do all of this in my second language, which still surprises me sometimes.

I ended up staying home with my two kids when they were young, and I wouldn’t trade that time for anything. So many of my friends and family have always told me that designing, painting, and creating is what I should be doing, and I know they are right.

My small home

We live in a small twin home, and I mean that proudly. I grew up in Germany in a row home, which is completely normal there. Homes are smaller, people live in apartments and condos without any stigma attached. A lot of people in Germany don’t think a bigger home is better.

When my husband and I got married, we saved our money while living in an apartment and eventually bought our “starter home”, the little twin home we still live in today. We got to build it from scratch and make our own design choices, which was such an exciting time.

Life had other plans for us staying long-term, but honestly I’m glad it worked out this way. One big reason we never upsized is that we spend a significant portion of our money traveling to Germany every year to visit family. When my kids were small I went twice a year and now I try to get back as often as I can. That matters more to us than square footage.

We also made the choice early on to live on one salary so I could be home with our kids. I wanted to raise them the way my parents raised me, and I have no regrets about that. I started this blog as a hobby back then, mostly to keep my family and friends in Germany informed and updated on what we were doing. That little journaling habit slowly turned into a small business that helped pay the bills over the years, and eventually expanded to YouTube as well. Like a lot of bloggers right now, I’m navigating some big changes with AI and search, and honestly, it’s uncertain territory, and things aren’t looking good at all. But what keeps me here is the community. If you’re reading this, I’d love for you to become part of it. Leave a comment, say hi, tell me where you’re from, or what brought you here. Back in the early days of blogging, that back and forth between readers and writers was one of the best things about the internet, and I miss it. I don’t want to just talk into a void, and I don’t think you want that either.

I’m a firm believer that size doesn’t matter when it comes to making a home beautiful and functional. It makes me a little crazy when people say, “Oh, this is just our starter home, so we don’t want to put too much money into it.” Life gets in the way for a lot of people, and you might be there longer than you think. So just make it look as nice as you can! (Check out the rooms in my home on my home tour page)

We live in a wonderful neighborhood full of nurses, teachers, plumbers, police officers, business owners, and everything in between. We have street gatherings, happy hour on the porch, holiday parties, and an annual block party. That community is worth more to me than any bigger house ever could be. We raised our kids together, and if I have the privilege of getting old, we might turn this neighborhood into a retirement community.

My work has been featured in DIY magazine, HGTV magazine, Better Homes & Gardens, and Domino. In 2014, I was named one of the 17 Best DIY Blogs by Domino, and I was proudly a Better Homes & Gardens Stylemaker from 2015 through 2024 when the program came to an end.

My family

Both kids are adults now. My son graduated from college, and our daughter is attending college.

How time flies! Below you can see my kids when I started this blog.

My cats

No about page would be complete without mentioning my cats. We have four, Walter, Maya, Willy, and Frank, and I also feed a rotating cast of outdoor strays. They are absolutely part of this blog.

You can meet them all on my Meet Our Cats page.

So this is my story. I hope you’ll stick around and look through the blog, there’s a lot here! You can also find me on YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest.

You can reach me at info(at)cuckoo4design(dot)com

Tschüß,