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How to pick Exterior Colour without a Designer

06/04/2009
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I have always admired the combination of colours on this elementary school so yesterday, I stopped and walked right up to the building and matched the colours to my  fan deck. I highly recommend simply owning a fan deck from any paint company for this reason but I recommend Benjamin Moore fan decks because most…

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The Best Exterior Trim Colours—NOT Cloud White

06/01/2009
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The first post I wrote on best exterior trim colours, The Best Trim Colours – NOT Cloud White is the second most popular post on this blog next to White Kitchen Cabinets. The reason for the ‘NOT Cloud White’ headline is a lot of people rely too heavily on go-to colours without first considering the…

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5 Ways to Become a Better Speaker

05/30/2009
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Okay here it is, the play by play of my wonderful trip to Calgary as the Keynote Speaker for the House of Persian Rugs, Designer Event.  Here I am at the airport in Vancouver, another gorgeous day (we’ve had a lot lately, and that is rare in May!). I sat beside Carley on the plane. …

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Keynote on Colour in Calgary!

05/27/2009
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Well my lovelies, I’m off tomorrow (Wednesday) at the crack of dawn to fly out for my speaking engagement to a group of talented Calgary designers!  I am very excited! Calgary image via flickr Since most of you approved my yellow sweater from my last post,  I’m wearing it tomorrow night with an orange skirt…

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The Beautiful Men in my Family

05/26/2009
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It was my nephew Luukas’ graduation (from high school) this past weekend. These are a few photos that the professional photographer took which I thought were so fabulous! Doesn’t he look like a model? Of course I’m completely biased! Photography by Level 6 Images       Here are all 3 of my nephews together!…

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How to make your Old Carpet look new using Colour!

05/24/2009
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One of my past students at Vancouver Community College, Nour Enayeh recently completed a decorating project with a Montessori school. This is the ‘after photo’ (the before is the second one). She said that the Montessori program believes that kids should not have a bunch of primary colours to distract them from their activities, so…

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Powder Room Colour

05/22/2009
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Everytime I don’t take a ‘before’ picture and then I finish decorating the room and it looks this cute I regret it! I am working on decorating a town house for the owner of reVISION Custom Home Renovations (pictures to follow, we are still waiting for some furniture to arrive). I did finish the powder…

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Proof That I Don’t Judge When I’m Consulting with You

05/21/2009
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When a client hires a designer for a consultation, sometimes they find themselves apologizing for the state of their house. Perhaps because it’s dated (What? You mean we can’t all completely re-decorate every 5 years?) or messy, because of their children, or that it’s dirty, eg. there’s drywall dust everywhere, etc. source First of all,…

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The Money shot for reVISION Custom Home Renovations

05/20/2009
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Remember that kitchen I styled in January for this renovation company?  Well here is the professionally taken photograph, by the talented Anna Beaudry (the photographer I hired for my website). Photo by Anna Beaudry  See the difference with the images taken by my ‘point and shoot’ camera here, and if you are interested in seeing…

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Lattes & Renderings with A Schematic Life

05/19/2009
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Michelle Morelan from A Schematic Life and I met for a latte last week and she surprised me with this drawing of a room I designed for one of my lovely clients (see the rest of the space here). Here’s the actual image below.    A few months ago, Michelle drew a villa I rented while in…

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Colour Needs Context

05/11/2009
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A paint colour by itself is neither warm or cool, clean or dirty. Because the ONLY way to describe colour is by comparing it to another. If you’re trying to help a client with a paint colour (or choose one yourself) you need context. Let me explain. Pottery Barn Colour Needs Context The best explanation…

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Happy Mom’s Day!

05/09/2009
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A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. Tenneva Jordan This [quote] is my mother, she is the most generous person I’ve ever known. Generous also in that she is the first to forgive and forget and take…

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Authenticity. . . the currency of the Future

05/06/2009
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‘We know it when we see it, and we love the people who live it—the ones we can count on, always, to be brazenly, exhilaratingly themselves.  In the age of spin and truthiness, authenticity is the real deal: speaking up for what you believe in, refusing to be ruled by the desire for acceptance, listening…

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