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Hardwood Floors

10 Steps For Planning a Timeless New Build

01/26/2018
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Are you building a new home? There’s a lot of decisions to be made and you may be wondering what you need to choose first. Here are 10 steps (and more importantly, the order of decisions) for planning your new build.  {source} In January and February we’re unusually busy in our eDesign department working on…

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What’s Next After the Grey Trend?

08/28/2017
53 Comments

Is the grey trend over? What colour trends are next? Knowing which colour is the next trendy neutral will not help you with your new build project or home renovation decisions. However, understanding how we are influenced by trends and how colour trend cycles work is design knowledge you can use. Lately I have been…

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How to Avoid the 5 Most Common Kitchen Mistakes

05/11/2017
51 Comments

Tricia Firmaniuk, my fabulous Virtual Design Assistant, wrote this great post about kitchens. Let me know what you think! ______________________________________________________________ How to Avoid the 5 Most Common Kitchen Mistakes Here’s a kitchen I found listed on Zillow that has clearly been recently renovated. And while the outcome is not terrible, I don’t think you will…

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Sell Your Classic House in 24 Hours Flat

06/28/2016
41 Comments

When Terreeia and I were in Toronto for my Specify Colour with Confidence™ Event in May, we had dinner with a good friend. We were talking about the extremely hot real estate market in Toronto (and Vancouver). In the last two weeks for example, homes in Toronto are selling for up to a million dollars OVER the…

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Two Classic White Kitchens To Copy

03/09/2016
74 Comments

We are finalizing the finishes and colours for Crystal’s white kitchen (see the before pics here). These are the two options we discussed. Option 1 Marble looking quartz with off-white cabinets and a walnut island with light floors (rift white oak), here are some inspiration pics. Via DecorPad This floor is darker than what we are installing…

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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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Should my Kitchen and Dining Room Match?

05/07/2015
37 Comments

Are you wondering if your kitchen and dining room should match? This is such a common decorating dilemma. See what advice I share with one of my readers.  I’m am a big fan and follower of your “Ask Maria” series. I’ve never done anything like this before so I thought I’d give it a go….

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The Problem with Your Orange/Yellow Floors

03/12/2015
75 Comments

I get this question so much, it’s time to focus on it for a moment. A lot of people have this problem. Or should I say “problem”? {Yellow/orange floors. Anything wrong here?} So here’s the question from a reader: “Have you ever had to decorate around a maple floor? Yes, I have just moved into what was…

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Soft Blues, Ethereal Whites & Grays: Before & After

11/13/2014
33 Comments

Remember the exterior transformation of this navy blue house I showed you awhile ago? Well, here’s the interior. Clearly my sweet reader and client Nicole has a wonderful creative eye and just needed some colour direction from me.  Lovely medium brown floors. Before  Walls – BM Stonington Gray After Before  After The blue ceiling is BM…

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