Katie Flannery

Contributing Writer

About

Katie Flannery is a writer and editor for BobVila.com. Since September 2020, she has been offering readers advice about general home improvement, kitchen renovation, service and product costs, and repairs. With over 20 years of professional writing experience, she’s successfully generated hundreds of news articles, blog posts, interviews, concert reviews, album reviews, press releases, proposals, essays, and academic papers.

Experience

Branching out from her strong academic and music history background, Katie enjoys putting together articles and blog posts about various topics. Preferring to not have one specific writing niche, she’s been featured in home improvement, law, business, health, education, fire and safety, automotive, music, and gardening websites, such as Pure Home Improvement, Boyer Law Firm, Price It Here, B-Lann Equipment, Money Task Force, UroTuning, Colorado Music Buzz, Boulder Weekly, and many more.

Through her years as a university professor, Katie has honed her writing style to balance the interests of professionals in the field and the curious reader who wants to make their way as a DIYer. She has produced numerous articles for BobVila.com, including product reviews, buyer’s guides, how to find and hire the best professional for the job, “best of” pieces, and the cost of repairs and products. Katie strives to make her writing clear and beneficial to homeowners who want to complete a home renovation job on their own or find the perfect professional to remodel their space.

Education

Katie has a very diverse background in music, with specialty areas ranging from clarinet studies to medieval and renaissance music history to American popular music. She has earned degrees in music education and clarinet performance from the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York; in musicology from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado; and a certificate in French and German studies from the State University of New York in Albany, New York. She has taken her experience from the academic world and transferred it into the home improvement realm.

Highlights

Specialties and interests: Home improvement, kitchen renovation, service and product costs, and repairs
Education: Degrees in music education and clarinet performance from the College of Saint Rose, Albany, New York, and in musicology from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado
Other work: Katie’s writing appears in various blogs, home improvement sites, and college and university publications

Best DIY Advice

As a novice DIYer dipping her toes into the ocean of home improvement, Katie advises that it’s always best to prepare and educate yourself about the project you want to tackle and don’t be afraid—just leave the potentially hazardous jobs to the professionals.