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Before and After

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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Mixing Metals: How to Update a Brown Kitchen by adding Brass

09/17/2015
37 Comments

Barbara built this house with her husband 5 years ago ago. He wanted a wood stained kitchen and although she’d love to have a white kitchen now, she wasn’t prepared to paint it in this phase of the decorating project.

Her biggest complaint was with the pendant lights, they created a lot of visual glare and she wanted them replaced.

Also, she needed drapery to block out the sun in the wintertime when it slanted through the windows.

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7 Ways to Make the Most of What You Already Have | Before & After

07/26/2015
125 Comments

Crystal called me to help her pull together her new house. This was her request:

“I used to have a colourful condo. Oranges and yellows have always been a favourite of mine, and in the last 5 years, I’ve loved pinks. I hired a designer about 6 years ago, and I guess she was successful at convincing me that colour was kids’ stuff and neutrals were sophisticated.

So out with all my stuff and in with the new. Cream, chocolate browns, and greens. I found it bland and lifeless, although yes, very nice and sophisticated. So I started adding pink with Designers Guild bedding, decorative pillows, etc. I also bought some whimsical paintings with colour punches (I’ve attached photos of them).”

I was very impressed by your colourful portfolio and would love your help.”

See the before and afters here. . .

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Are You Still Using an Instant Camera to Photograph Your Work?

07/22/2015
5 Comments

I used to think I could get away with using my little instant camera when taking photos of my work. A year of lessons has shown me what’s really possible when we take professional photography seriously, even in so-called uninspiring spaces like boardrooms and offices. Come on in for a peek at some photos I took of my own photography instructor’s new space.

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Living Room Makeover from Brown to Indigo Blue | Before & After

06/01/2015
40 Comments

My client Barbara and her husband had built seven homes together. Every time they would start a new build, she would say, “Can we please save enough money to decorate at the end?”

That day never seemed to arrive.

Last year, her husband passed away, and Barbara decided it was now or never. She’d been following my blog for years, so she felt she could trust me to give her the look and feel she wanted. In January, we started the decorating project: the living, dining, kitchen, and master bedroom.

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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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The Very Best Way to Choose Your Main Neutral

04/09/2015
58 Comments

Lynda was moving into this pretty little house in a new subdivision: She needed some help with a new colour scheme and was stuck on wall colours. One on-line consultation with me and she had a plan. Lynda had some existing furniture and artwork she wanted to work with, and she sent me a glimpse of her…

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Before & After: The Pinterest School of Styling

03/29/2015
27 Comments

Interior design & styling by Maria Killam As I lay by the pool on my recent vacation in Kauai, I had already read both of the beach novels that I brought, so I went through my client’s library  and pulled out The Alchemist. My sister Elizabeth posing for my photo Three years ago, when my client…

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Fresh Solution to an Expensive Problem: Kitchen Valance

01/11/2015
66 Comments

My sister Elizabeth called me and said “Now that the Christmas garland draped above the window above my kitchen sink is gone (below) it looks sooooo empty.” Photo by Tracey Ayton And, she really hated looking at the bad transition between the end of the backsplash tile (below) which could not continue above the window….

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