Houston's colorful DIY blogger
Creativity and business savvy grow Sugar & Cloth into lifestyle brand
To think it all started with tartar sauce.
In 2011, Ashley Rose, the founder of Sugar & Cloth lifestyle blog (sugarandcloth.com) and Instagram star with nearly 200,000 followers, was waiting tables at a local restaurant when a customer began yelling for tartar sauce. At that moment, Rose decided she needed to do something different with her life.
She started the blog as a way to showcase her favorite dessert recipes and do-it-yourself projects. She was always baking sweets and making things at home anyway.
Rose also realized she needed to attend as many networking events as possible to get her blog out there. She met Josh Shepard, owner of the photo-booth company Smilebooth, at one of those events. He offered her a job handling the company’s photo processing and graphic design, which still allowed her to work on her blog part time.
Sugar & Cloth quickly gained a following. In 2012, Rose was featured on Wired magazine’s website for creating a DIY monogram marquee light. She was later approached by Martha Stewart Living to create a Christmas nook for the home. She posted her projects on Instagram and Pinterest and got even more opportunities to contribute to popular DIY sites, such as Poppytalk.
“For two years, I worked out of my living room and dining room, wherever had the most light,” said Rose, 27. “I was making money but not enough to sustain myself, so I reinvested everything, even if it was just $50, back into the company.”
In 2014, Rose decided it was time to work full time on Sugar & Cloth.
“I needed to be more business-minded about the blog because I was getting so many jobs and because it was something I was passionate about. It didn’t make it any less terrifying,” she said.
By November, Rose moved the business into a space above Tout Suite cafe on Commerce with her boyfriend, Jared Smith, who is the photographer for her site. She now employs a social media assistant and has several freelance contributors. What started as a DIY blog has grown into a lifestyle brand.
Rose has worked with the Food Network, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Laughing Cow cheese, Lindt chocolate company and even had a Mother’s Day Hallmark card. She conducts regular DIY workshops and is developing a Sugar & Cloth notebook with an Austin company. She and Smith also are launching the Cool Photo School, an online photography course for bloggers.
Recently, they unveiled the Sugar & Cloth Color Wall on the back of The Headquarters co-working space at 3302 Canal in the East End. It’s become a popular backdrop for blogger selfies and fashion shoots.
“We wanted to have something that would have our key colors and that was big enough for our really large projects,” Rose said. “We also wanted to create something in the community for creatives. I don’t think we realized how much people would love it. It has totally made my year.”
A native of Charleston, W. Va., Rose says she got her craftiness from her father, Mike Burdette, who was always “fixing and creating things.”
“We spent an entire summer making a birdhouse mansion. We could have housed an entire flock. He was so detail-oriented about it,” she said.
Rose studied graphic design at Marshall University in Huntington, W. Va., but dropped out her junior year against her parents’ advice. “I had a scholarship, and I thought they were going to kill me,” she said. “But I needed a break to figure out what I really wanted to do.”
She moved to Houston in 2009, where she has family. Her brother, Tyler Burdette, lives in Houston.
Rose credits Sugar & Cloth’s success to keeping the blog “authentic.”
“I’m naturally a behind-the-scenes person, and I’m not a big selfie person either,” she said. “I really try to focus on the content. Being real and genuine makes the difference.”
Rose also has shed the aprons of her past, replacing them with bright-colored fashions and big skirts. She finds styles online at Shopbop and ASOS and locally at Myth & Symbol in Rice Village.
“My style could not have gotten any worse when I was waitressing,” she said. “I have definitely evolved.”