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Ask Maria: Is My Living Room Too Beachy?

01/23/2016
33 Comments

Jeffrey Bilhuber  When I saw this Ask Maria question, I immediately thought of Jeffrey Bilhuber’s recent spread in House Beautiful Magazine. The answer to your question today lovely reader, is inspired by my favourite decorator. Here’s the question: I recently moved with my husband into our first house!  I have been so excited to make…

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80’s Peach Bathroom to White for Just the Cost of Paint

01/18/2016
38 Comments

My lovely client Sharon consulted with me this past May and here is the beautiful result: Her sitting area off the kitchen painted BM Wickham Gray The pickled 80’s oak cabinets. After Her gorgeous kitchen after with the stunning chandelier. Sharon used White Delicatus granite for her countertops and Annie Sloan mix of Old White 25% & Pure…

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Maria Killam’s Trend Forecast for 2016

01/04/2016
26 Comments

image source The look of 2016 is White, Colourful, and Organic. Here’s how I want you to read this forecast. Trend reports are generally about what’s NEW. It doesn’t mean that the trends I talked about in 2015 or 2014 are OLD. After all, trends in interior design cannot be in one year and out the next….

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Best Countertop for Stained Wood Cabinets

11/05/2015
35 Comments

Updating a kitchen or bathroom with stained wood cabinets? Here’s the best countertop colour to work with your stained wood cabinets for a fresh look. When I received this Ask Maria question asked slightly different two times recently, I thought it deserved a stand-alone post even though my regular readers will have already ready my…

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My Sister’s New Kitchen: Surprise! It’s NOT Subway Tile!

07/05/2015
87 Comments

When my sister Lea and her partner were getting ready to move into the Eco Village in our town, I helped Lea choose finishes, colours, and lighting.

Greg wanted wood-stained cabinets (not white) and Lea really didn’t mind either way, so I specified a light maple, along with medium brown engineered wood flooring.

She did NOT want subway tile because she thinks it’s boring (clearly not brainwashed enough by reading my blog, sigh), but agreed that we would stay away from accent tile and keep it off-white to coordinate with the quartz. We settled on this moroccan pattern.

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Where to Start When You Have a Blank Slate

05/10/2015
43 Comments

Jacqueline called me and said:

“Help! My laundry room is finished, it’s white, I followed all the advice on your blog right down to copying the shelves in your laundry room, but now that I have a white Maria Killam laundry room and I can do anything I want, I have no idea where to start!

What colour should I paint it? I painted it BM Grey Owl because I had some leftover paint but it’s doing nothing for me!”

I said, “First, Grey Owl is almost like a neutral, muted blue/green grey that would look great in a bathroom with lots of blue grey marble that coordinated with it, but for your laundry room to look fabulous, it needs a colour!

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When White Walls are the ONLY Solution

04/30/2015
17 Comments

{via pinterest} In the very beginning of my design career I was fortunate enough to have some great mentors. One was a very talented designer who probably couldn’t tell you about undertones but she had amazing spidey senses when it came to choosing colour. As designers working in a paint store, our job was to book in-home appointments with customers…

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4 Ways to Decorate Around Your Charcoal Sofa

04/28/2015
36 Comments

Today’s post is about decorating with charcoal, really important to know since it’s such a popular neutral right now!

If you have a charcoal sofa (just like during the brown trend, when most neutral-loving shoppers purchased a brown one) it’s time for me to help you bring this colour to life.

Why?

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A Peek Into My Spring Garden

04/12/2015
43 Comments

I have received a few emails asking how my garden looks in the winter, so I thought I’d show you some pictures, along with a few of the before photos thrown in. Can’t resist those!

This yard has undergone such a transformation from just two years ago, when MaryAnne White found me and helped transform the ugliest landscape on the street into one of the prettiest.

When we moved in, this was the walkway to the front door:

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