Real Living now has a page called Blog Watch where we showcase talented bloggers and their blogs. We'll run the full interviews with them here whenever we can.

Australian Jo Walker certainly has an eye for style, and it's not surprising, considering she used to be an interior designer. The Desire to Inspire blog is actually a collaboration with Canadian Kim Johnson. There's a bit of real estate stalking going on, as well as covetable homes and plenty of "big juicy pictures".

real living: What were you doing before you started Desire to Inspire and how did the blog start with Kim?
Jo: I was working for the government at a boring desk job. Desire to Inspire was my creative outlet. Kim and I met online sharing pictures of rooms on Flickr. We started chatting online and one thing led to another and the blog was born. It was a mutual decision. "Could we? Should we? Why don't we?" This was just over five years ago when design blogs weren't all that common.

RL: How do you and Kim coordinate and work on the blog together - does it make things difficult with her being in Canada?
Jo: We have a long established pattern of blogging between three and four posts a day. We "talk" by instant messaging and by email. We have never met and haven't even spoken to each other by phone or Skype. Until we posted a couple of videos on the blog of our own houses we have never even heard each other's voices.

RL: Is a real-life meeting between you and Kim ever on the cards?
Jo: One day... maybe. Life and the lack of funds just keep getting in the way. I have a money pit of an old house that needs renovating and Kim is saving to build the house of her dreams so that's where all the dollars and cents go. Plus Kim has seven (YES SEVEN) cats that would be hard to leave behind even if she came to visit for a quick holiday. Maybe real living can fly me over!

RL: What was the most challenging part about getting the blog set up?
Jo: For me the technical side. Kim is a web programmer for the Canadian government (sometimes I think the blog world is full of public servants) and she taught me everything I know. In the bad old days we even had to use html code to get the look we wanted. Our new blogging platform is a lot kinder.

RL: You must come across hundreds of amazing spaces - how do you decide what makes it onto the blog?
Jo: It's a gut feeling. I just know when a space has "it", the look we are going for on the blog. Other times it is because the photos are killer. Honestly a great photographer can make a junk room look fabulous. Big juicy pictures are like drugs to Kim and I. We love to pore over every detail.

RL: Is there any particular interior you've featured that you have absolutely fallen in love with?
Jo: One day I will love rustic chic, the next day Scandi boho, the next a 70s time-capsule room. I am so fickle. So no, I can never pin it down to one. Having said that I love Abigail Ahern's work - dark, moody, quirky.

RL: Are there any exciting plans in the mix for the blog in the future - what next for Desire to Inspire?
Jo: World domination... hang on, we are on the way to that one. Desire to Inspire will continue to grow but Kim and I will start looking at letting readers more and more into our own world. Kim has already started a fashion blog called Closet Rivalry (http://www.closetrivalry.com) and I am about to launch a new online business involving homewares and clothing. It's called Faded Empire (www.fadedempire.com. (I'm working on the website at the moment. Goodness, five years ago I had trouble knowing how to blog now I'm working on e-boutiques.)

RL: What do you think it is that makes the blog so popular?
Jo: Lots and lots and lots of pictures. Our readers don't want to wade through paragraphs of Kim and I going on and on about how a room works or what we had for lunch. It's not about a cult of personality it's about the interior design. They want the room porn, the big, juicy pictures - and we give it to them.

RL: You've trained as an interior designer. What made you decide not to practice? Is there anything you learnt that has always stuck with you?
Jo: Funny you should ask that question as I am now heading back into interior design, albeit in a small way. Money was the main reason I opted out in the first place. I was offered a job that paid better than the notoriously low wages of junior interior designers. Now I find myself wanting to practice again. As to what stuck with me, it's the idea that everyone deserves beauty in their lives and it doesn't have to be high-end design. Beautiful rooms can be created on a shoe string. They just take a very, very long time and a lot of hard work. That, and pull the furniture away from the walls.

RL: What's the most important thing you've learnt from doing the blog?
Jo: Time management. Kim and I spend hours and hours and hours surfing the net to find inspiration and the next great post. That is an awful lot of time spent away from family and friends unless we are clever about how we use our time. The other important thing is that a room doesn't have to be right on red-hot trend to be beautiful. Rooms that speak volumes about their owners are the ones that impress me the most.

RL: Having seen so many interiors, what do you think is the most important element of an interior design?
Jo: Personality. A space must speak of the person who lives there. If it is about you and your family then it doesn't matter if it is right on-trend or high-end design.

RL: If you had one interior design tip for someone decorating their home, what would it be?
Jo: Turn off those overhead lights. Use table lamps and floor lights instead. Ambient light is so much more flattering to a room and those in it than overhead lighting.

RL: If you had to pick one design period or era, what would it be (and why)?
Jo: A few years ago it would have been the 70s (with a touch of 60s plastic fantastic thrown in) but now I am pulled towards that era of bad taste and excess formerly known as the 80s. It's my mission to find something, anything, that was tasteful in that decade. My search is on.

RL: What is the best part of your home, the bit you love most?
Jo: My black bedroom. Black is such a soothing colour for the walls. It is a large room with high ceilings (I am lucky to live in a Georgian colonial style house built in 1860). People are surprised when they see it for the first time. They think it will be all Goth and depressing but it is more like a velvety night sky. Having said that, I love my stark white office too - it is the perfect foil for hanging all my art pieces.

RL: How would you describe the style of your own home?
Jo: Eclectic with a touch of boho and a dash of tribal. I'm a bower bird and collect anything and everything.

RL: Who lives in your house? (Please include pets and names!)
Jo: My husband Kelvin who is blind, his guide dog Mickey, Puki the parrot, twenty budgies (named blue budgie, violet budgie, yellow1, 2 and 3 ... you get the idea), 10 finches and some quail. My husband is the bird fancier. I wanted a cat but I guess that is out of the question now.

RL: What are the things that influence your own personal style the most?
Jo: Art, history, different cultures ... and what I can find in the secondhand stores.

RL: What's one thing people are always surprised to learn about you?
Jo: That I studied medicine then ran away just before finishing. I was more the creative type than the doctor type. Best decision I ever made.