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Sneak Peek: Decorating Progress in West Vancouver

10/20/2011
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Don’t you just love this fabulous textured, African-inspired lamp? It is truly a piece of art! It arrived this Monday along with the sofa and two chairs in pale green linen I had custom made for this client. Ignore the pillow, it was just floating around and I stuck it on the chair. The real toss…

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Vancouver Interior Designer: The Truth about Cloud White

10/15/2011
79 Comments

I think it’s kind of funny that one of my most read posts is one of the first 5 that I wrote when I started this blog almost 3 years ago, “The Best Trim Colours–NOT Cloud White”. Since then, I always have to heavily explain why I’m specifying it when I do. My clients are like “WHAT you’re giving me Cloud White? I read that post Maria!”

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Decorative Pillow Giveaway

10/13/2011
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Many of you know that I never design a room without toss pillows, I truly believe they are one of the most important accessories in a living room. There are so many beautiful ways to make a pillow. Pillows by Dezign is hosting a giveaway of their beautiful toss cushions and one lucky readers will win a gift certificate for $200 each! Enough for almost 4 pillows for your sofa to freshen up your look.

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Thanksgiving in the Country

10/09/2011
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We are here in Yarrow for Thanksgiving at my sister’s/mom’s farm. And I have a few pics from my mom’s carriage house to show you. My mom has a lot of hand painted rocks by one of her best friends. This one is at the front door. Markus and William September 30 was the day…

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Vancouver Colour Consultant: The Best Gray Paint Colours from the Experts

10/06/2011
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What do you think of when you hear the color “gray”?

Dull – Dingy – Boring? Fresh – Dramatic – Clean?!

Open any shelter magazine or walk down Madison Avenue because GRAY is the trendy color of choice! From fashion to interiors, gray is all the rage, and if done properly, can create an amazing space!

We’ve asked several designers, bloggers and DIYers to tell us what their favorite gray is and why. Each featured designer participated in one of Maria’s True Colour Expert Workshops.

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Three Ways to Write a Design Blog People will Read

10/02/2011
23 Comments

I’ve been percolating on this post for a while so to celebrate the launch of my new website, here is my best advice if you are considering starting a design blog or just need some inspiration for yours:
Be Bossy (but in a charming way)
Every time I make a statement like ‘Accent tiles are bad’, ‘White Kitchens are the be all and end all’ or ‘Gray only works in the company of colour’, I get comments like “OMG Maria you talk like having a White Kitchen is like a religion” for example, and well, it’s true.

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One More Day Before the Launch

09/29/2011
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Okay, tomorrow is the day. . . the day my site will go live. This is me, waiting without a lot of patience! Pinterest It will happen sometime in the afternoon if all goes well. We are still working on last minute issues with transferring all my blogger posts over to WordPress. See you next…

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Advice from a Celebrity Decorator

09/26/2011
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In this issue, Jeffrey Bilhuber (love him) gave some decorating advice from his latest book. I especially loved this advice:

“Decorating is about the big picture. If you say ‘I’d like a pink lamp’ and I just go get a pink glazed ceramic lamp, you should fire me. What a decorator does is bring you a blue and white Delft lamp and say “This would look perfect in a pink room”. Jeffrey Bilhuber

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