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Brown

Richer Wood Tones: Yay or Nay?

06/02/2025
52 Comments

When we bought our new house, I reluctantly decided to refinish the hardwood floors. They were white oak but the stain had a too warm violet/red tone and they were too dark. I wanted them to be a timeless, medium brown. More golden brown than red. They turned out beautifully and I’m so glad we…

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Hey Black & White! It’s me, Beige. I’m Back!

11/07/2024
36 Comments

This design critique dissects a newly constructed home that awkwardly merges fading black-and-white modern trends with emerging beige/Tuscan elements. It’s a showcase of mismatched finishes, random accent walls, and poorly coordinated bathroom designs that exemplify current transitional period confusion in interior design trends. So, what can we learn from this? Keep reading… When colour trends…

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2025 Colours of the Year: A Colour Expert’s Guide

11/05/2024
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Major paint and colour brands have begun announcing their anticipated colour trends for 2025. As a colour expert, I find the annual Color of the Year (COTY) announcements fascinating, as they offer insight into upcoming design directions. And, it’s always a fun game to see if you agree with their predictions. So let’s take a…

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Ready to Renovate your new Black and White Bathroom?

07/04/2024
48 Comments

I’ve been saying beige is back for a couple years already and there are signs it’s picking up momentum. There are plenty of inspiring well-done designer examples of earthy beige kitchens and bathrooms going around social media. And very soon there will be a lot of DIY copies. A wind change towards beige I like…

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Timeless Penny Tile in My Bathroom Renovation

03/09/2023
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I have always wanted to install a timeless penny tile floor and I finally made it happen in my primary bathroom renovation. Here’s a look at the floor tile colour and pattern I chose, plus some of the changes we made in our bathroom design. After I completed the renovation of our main bathroom in…

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Which Tile for the Entry of Our New House?

10/09/2022
199 Comments

It’s so hard to be objective with your own house renovation project. I’m trying to choose a new floor tile and need your help! The photos you recently saw of our new house were the real estate photos that were taken and reused from four years ago. This overgrown menagerie of trees jammed up way…

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How to Update a Tuscan Living Room

03/13/2022
79 Comments

Changing your wall colour every time new paint colour trends are revealed can be a frustrating endeavour. Today I’m responding to an upset reader and addressing the one thing that paint colour cannot do for your room. It’s a lesson we can all learn from. Interior Design by Maria Killam Last week I received this…

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The Truth About the Brown Colour Trend

02/17/2022
39 Comments

At first glance, it feels like brown is making a comeback from the 90s, but this new brown colour trend is different. Here’s what is new about the brown trend and some of my timeless guidelines for not going overboard with this new trendy neutral. Last week Vogue wrote an article outlining why brown is…

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The 2022 Trends We’re Warming Up To

12/15/2021
36 Comments

Warmer colours, more texture and less contrast are just some of the interior design trends forecasted for 2022. See which colours you’ll be seeing more of in the coming months in my complete 2022 trend report. Who decides what’s trending? Mystery surrounds trends. Where do they come from? It’s easy to imagine retailers scheming to…

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Skip the Blue: I’ll Have a Beige Christmas Instead

12/08/2021
31 Comments

A living room refresh prompted a more neutral Christmas colour palette for my director of eDesign, Tricia. See how she added both texture and contrast to her beige Christmas decorations for a pretty, yet seasonal take on an emerging colour trend. For the last couple of years, I’ve wanted to create a more pared-back neutral…

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Tricia’s Living Room Refresh & A Sexy Cognac Sofa

04/11/2021
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Today’s post is a guest post by my Director of eDesign Tricia Firmaniuk! Enjoy! ____________________________________________________________________ Hi everyone! Not so long ago I was sharing a living room refresh with a practical, slipcovered sofa so I could avoid stress about the dogginess. Well, that sofa was also a sofa bed, and we needed to shift it…

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Is Brass Out? How to Mix Metals like a Pro

10/14/2020
50 Comments

I often get asked how to combine metal finishes in lighting and hardware. The look of matching all your finishes is long gone (even when working with brass). Here are a few guidelines to help you mix metals like a pro. Thank you to the Washington Post for including my bathroom in a recent article…

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Maria Killam’s Trend Forecast for 2020

01/05/2020
52 Comments

The new colour for 2020 is BROWN It took 11 years for brown to be back in fashion. No one wanted to wear it, because everyone was busy trying to eliminate the Tuscan Brown trend from their homes. I do smile when I read articles declaring that ‘Earth tones are back’ just because people are…

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