Introduction to me and my world...

So I thought that it was about time that I jumped on board and finally started a blog in the hope that someone will read it... For those of you who don't know me I'm Bhavin, a thirty something British born Indian gay man and have been running Bhavin Taylor Design for the last four and half years. I create interiors that are bursting with personality using my signature style of injecting colour and pattern in bold or subtle hues. I love everything to do with colour and pattern and will be using this platform to talk about anything and everything to do with this. However as this is my first blog I thought that I would share my story of how I came to where I am today as it hasn't always been the smoothest ride.

My first real memory of my creative side being shown off was at the age of 5 when I performed my first Bollywood dance, dressed as a girl (yes you read that right) at my community Diwali function and won first prize. However, I will move on from that swiftly and fast forward to the time that had to start making decisions about what I wanted to do as a grown up, and chose to study fashion and textiles at university and loved every minute of it. For my final graduate show I sent 12 men down the runway in some crazy outfits to George Michael's let's go outside, whilst 2 guys and I pole danced down the edge of the catwalk. It was just glittertastic! However, once I got into the real world I learnt very quickly that I did not enjoy being a part of the fashion world - it was definitely dog eat dog and that I did not fit into this bitchy world. The last straw for me was when I worked as a buyers assistant and would hate the thought of going into work and dealing with my awful boss. She was pretty much like Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada and I just couldn't take it anymore. As it did for Andrea in the movie a switch flicked in me and I decided to walk away.

After making the decision to move on from that world I had no idea what I was going to do next. At the time I owned a property with my ex and needed money to pay the never ending bills, so I started temping for a pensions administration company, a far cry from the design world. I actually did this for a few years and was bored out of my brain. I did not have a creative output, never really felt happy and for me that was a real struggle. In 2009 I decided that enough was enough and that I had to turn my life around. I had noticed over the past years that my passion for interiors had grown over the years, so decided that I was going to quit my job and go back to school to study Interior Design. I did a 10 week intensive course at KLC School of Design and on day one of the course instantly knew that things were going to get better. It was definitely an intensive 10 weeks of studying with long hours spent at my desk but I loved every minute of it.

After completing that course, I worked for a designer in London working on multi million pound properties which was so much fun. Who doesn't love designing spaces when there is no budget to stick to? It was at this point that I realised that I was finally doing something that made me happy and every morning I would jump out of bed to go to work. In 2011 I got the opportunity to live in various places in North America and meant that I was able to work at some amazing design studios over there. It was great to experience how different cities had their own design styles, however their love of all things beige was a little too much for me LOL.

Following these amazing experiences I knew that I wanted to start making my own stamp in the design world and in 2014 I started Bhavin Taylor Design. Starting your own business is definitely a hard thing to do and it took months to get my first client, but eventually they came. It was a small project with a small budget and I knew I had to make it a good one as this was going to be the start of my portfolio. I decided that I was going to go bold with the colour scheme and make a real impact, whilst making sure that it suited the client. I still look back at this as one of my favourite projects as it was this that made me realise what my design style was.

So in a nutshell that's pretty much how I got to starting my own business, which over the years has had many highs and lows but is definitely not a roller coaster ride that I want to get off. If I have learnt one thing over the years it is that you should love what you do otherwise what is the point?

If you're still reading this then thank you very much. I'll do my best to get the next blog post out soon, which no doubt will be a colourful one!

X