Why I Started IDO Home

In 2011, I started what was then Interior Design Online with a fairly simple idea: to help people find unique pieces for the spaces they create and live in.

What began as Interior Design Online evolved over the years, and in 2025, when we moved to Shopify, we refreshed the brand and became IDO Home. The name changed, but the idea behind the business didn't.

Whether it's a home, office, retail space, hotel, lodge or restaurant, finding the right piece isn't always easy. Sometimes you know exactly what you're looking for but can't find it; other times you simply know that something is missing.

At the time, starting an online interiors business was a risk. Buying furniture and higher-end homewares online wasn't nearly as commonplace as it is today. These were considered purchases, often with a significant price tag, and there was a real question around whether people would feel comfortable buying beautiful, high-quality pieces without first seeing them in a traditional store.

But my experience before Interior Design Online had taught me something important: people were looking for more choice, and they often didn't know where to find it.

From Hotels and Procurement to IDO Home

Before starting Interior Design Online, I worked in procurement for SkyCity and with the Sheraton and Langham Hotels, alongside my work in interior design and procurement. Over the years, I was involved in projects ranging from large-scale hotel fit-outs to boutique hotels in Taupo and Queenstown, as well as other hospitality venues.

Selections for The Langham Auckland — fabrics, finishes and materials from the design and sourcing process.

A big part of my work was finding the right product for a particular space while also making it work within a budget. That meant sourcing furniture, lighting, accessories and finishes from suppliers both locally and all over the world.

Over the past 30 years in the interiors industry, I’ve built strong relationships with reputable suppliers across New Zealand and Australia. For me, that matters. I didn’t want IDO HOME to simply be another online store filled with products. I wanted it to be an extension of the knowledge, experience and relationships I’ve built throughout my career — bringing together a considered collection from trusted suppliers and making great interior products more accessible to our customers.

The Langham Auckland — one of the hotel projects from my years working in interior design and sourcing.

I loved that process.

It wasn't simply about finding something beautiful. It was about finding the right piece – something that suited the design, worked within the budget and gave the space its own character.

That experience also taught me that a successful interior doesn't have to come from one particular style or collection. Often it's the unexpected piece, or the combination of different pieces, that gives a space its personality.

Over time, people outside of work would also come to me and say, “I'm looking for something like this. Where can I find it?”

Sometimes they knew exactly what they wanted but couldn't find it. Other times they could describe a feeling, a colour or a style and needed help finding the piece that would bring everything together.

That was really where the idea for IDO Home began.

Creating an Interiors Store with a Difference

When I started IDO Home, I didn't want to create a store where everything fitted perfectly into one particular interior style.

And 15 years later, I still don't.

Our collection isn't designed to tell you that your home needs to look a certain way. We deliberately offer a broad range of styles because you never know what someone is searching for.

One person might be looking for a beautiful oversized gold mirror. Someone else might want a contemporary console, a traditional lamp, an unusual piece of wall art or simply that one accessory they haven't been able to find anywhere else.

Homes are personal. They evolve over time, and often the most interesting interiors aren't created by buying everything from one collection or following one particular trend. They're created by bringing together pieces you genuinely love.

Taking High-End Interiors Online

Looking back, launching an online interiors store 15 years ago was certainly a leap of faith. But I could also see an opportunity. Not everyone could easily travel to the main centres to shop for interiors, and even large showrooms could only display a fraction of the product available. People could spend hours visiting stores and still walk away without finding the piece they were looking for.

There was the challenge of selling larger and more expensive pieces online, but there was also the cost and complexity behind sourcing them. Freight, importing, warehousing and working with suppliers locally and internationally all form part of bringing a diverse interiors collection to New Zealand.

But being online also gave us the opportunity to do something that was very important to me: give people access to a much wider selection of interiors than we could ever fit into one traditional showroom.

It allowed IDO Home to become a place where you could browse and discover something you might not have originally set out to find.

And helping someone find that piece they’ve been searching for is still one of my favourite parts of the business.

The Piece That Makes the Space

What I enjoy most about IDO Home hasn’t really changed since I started the business in 2011.

I still love helping someone find that piece.

It might be the mirror they've spent months searching for, a piece of furniture that finally works in an awkward space, or something completely unexpected that they fall in love with.

For me, interior design has never been about creating a perfectly curated home that looks exactly like everybody else's. It’s about finding the right pieces to give a space its own identity.

That's why you'll continue to see different styles sitting alongside one another at IDO Home. Some pieces are classic, some contemporary, some glamorous, some understated and some are simply a little different.

Because you never know what someone is looking for.

Emma Dodds
Founder, IDO Home