Ask Maria: Can a Novice Benefit from my Course? Before & After

I often receive emails like this:

Hello Maria, I retired a couple of years ago and I have been taking interior design classes at the local community college. I would love to take your color workshop. Do you think this would be beneficial for a novice, Interior Design student?

This post covers two questions. What does it look like to get a Room Refresh (after my last post where so many of you said “Well let’s see some before and after pics”)

AND, how comfortable is a colour enthusiast or brand new decorator in my courses? Read on to find out:

Style at Home Inspiration picture

Here’s a fun and happy colour scheme I helped one of my lovely readers create, first by consulting with her on-line and then she subsequently came to my course when I was in Dallas this past March!

Here’s the before picture of Flora’s dining room:

Flora was undergoing a renovation, I advised her to continue her existing medium brown flooring into the dining room.

After

She replaced the faux moulding with real wainscotting and I choose a blue for her ceiling to coordinate with her existing dining chairs. SW Icicle. We talked about colour for the walls in this room but like so many of you now, Flora wanted white walls throughout.

Here’s Flora’s email:

I found Maria’s blog in January 2015 after of course being frustrated with selecting a new color scheme for my 80s ranch home that I had never purposefully ’styled’.  I immediately purchased her e-books and read nearly all of her past blog posts.  I then also purchased her online 3 hour course.  For me, the online course was the biggest impact because of Maria’s approach to the design process – Color Confidence Method.   It put her undertone classification to work for me.  I’m an engineer and yet while I had always looked at my home for functionality, I had never looked at a room to see if when I walked into a room did it make me happy.  

Maria’s design approach to look at the fixed finishes  – what will stay, what will go, and what inspires my space (and me)  then determine which undertones I needed to work with was transformative.  It helped me both arrive at the undertone I needed and wanted to work with as well as identify future “fixed” element changes.  At this point I decorated my formal dining room using artwork inspiration, Maria’s design approach and her undertone system.  I loved it!  

In October 2015, after decorating the dining room, deciding on a green/grey undertone main neutral, and wanting to replace some of those fixed finishes I decided to do a home remodel project.  I turned to Maria’s online 3 hour consultation process where my primary objective was to determine a comprehensive color scheme with flow to pull together my decorated dining room, kitchen, family room and formal living room.  

In my consultation, Maria confirmed my off-white trim choice, helped refine my wall neutral from green/grey to griege, chose ceiling color and provided me with a color flow path that included furniture, lighting and rug proposals.  In those 2 hours, Maria helped me to love where my home was going.  I had the confidence to commit to the color selections including a pale blue sofa with deep red rug in my living room.  In June 2016, The remodel finished and I’ve implemented most of the design.  It’s stunning on it’s own and provides flow throughout my home that I am continuing to implement.   

in March 2016, while my remodel was underway I had the opportunity to attend Maria’s True Color Expert Training in Dallas – just 15 minutes from my home.  

I felt I probably had learned what I needed to from the ebooks, online course and personal consultation, it was money I should put into the remodel, but I decided to take the leap and hope there was more.  

I am so glad that I took the TCE course!  

I was able to build on the foundational color UT knowledge gained from the ebooks and previous materials and focus on the how to use the knowledge in settings other than my home.  

The hands on exercises with paint chips, fabric color swatches, hard finish samples, design examples and best of all the color boards were incredible.  It was so eye-opening to see the effectiveness of the color boards and how Maria held the boards with the samples and showed how to eliminate the UT that didn’t work and fine tune to get the one that works great.    

I especially liked when she asked the group to analyze the room we were in as it was OK, but uninspiring and as it turned out changing wall or trim colors wouldn’t help the room as other elements were too bossy.  It would be left to “Style to the Max!” – #8 on Maria’s 10 Lessons from 15 years of Decorating. 

  

Although I won’t become a design professional, after Maria’s training I have the knowledge and confidence to see and use colors in decorating. Flora Sanders

Flora is a big Disney fan so she sent me these cookie jars as her inspiration colours! She has Disney artwork in her dining room as well!

The inspiration palette we created during our consultation (above).

After

After Walls SW Incredible White

The following testimonials are from colour enthusiasts who participated in my courses, as I mentioned in a previous post, my last course in Dallas, almost half of those who attended were not professionals:

I enjoyed Maria’s class so much and felt very comfortable among all the professionals in attendance. I learned so much from Maria. She is a wonderful teacher and her system is easy to learn and apply even for the average home owner. The color boards are a wonderful tool and I have used them successfully to assist my sister in choosing a paint color for her bedroom.  She was working with multiple fabrics and although she had a color in mind, once I applied Maria’s system it was easy to see it was not the correct color, narrow down the selection, choose the correct color and still achieve the look she had in mind.

I am looking forward to continuing to chose colors with confidence!

Thank you, Maria! Denise Massaro

I’m a busy stay-at-home mother of three and have been following Maria’s blog for many years.  I always dreamed of taking her course so when I learned it was being offered near my home I jumped at the opportunity!  Although I’m not a design professional, I am a design enthusiast and a serial painter (I’ve literally painted every surface in my home at least twice!).

Although I have a good sense for color, I still second guess my decisions and have difficulty creating harmony within connecting spaces.  Maria’s course taught me how to do that and more.  She has created a unique and easy to follow system that takes the guess work out of color selection.  The course was fun, enlightening and taught me how to choose the right color the first time.  Once you see the world of color through Maria’s eyes you’ll wish everyone would take this course!  Lisa Brady

The following story is from Gina Pardoe who participated in my course as a colour enthusiast and someone who was very interested in turning her passion for colour and design into a business:

Then I received another email just yesterday with a slightly different worded question:

“Maria, I am very interested in the workshop and was wondering if people who take the plunge and attend are able to be a colour expert as a profession. I have been a makeup artist for Lancome and I have a background in fashion illustration.  I’m wondering if the workshop will teach me the tools needed to start a business.”

Here’s how I responded:

There are many people who attend my course as a complete novice and my course gives them the tools and the confidence to start their business but obviously results vary from individual to individual because to be in this industry you fundamentally have to have to be born with the gift of creativity and good taste. 

It sounds like you have that from your background and my course will be exactly what you need.

So there you have it! The course attracts and benefits professionals, newbies, enthusiasts and home owners alike and all are welcome. As Gina said, we all bond through our love of colour and Interior Design, and everyone comes out with new knowledge, connections and confidence.

Register here.

Related posts:

What it Looks like to Be in a Private Forum

How to Re-Design a Bathroom that’s too Big

Anyone Can Pick a Paint Colour; It takes an Expert to Choose a Neutral