3 ways to tap the potential of White furniture

By Sophie Drouin - 9 May 2012 - No comments on this post

Very popular at one time, it was snubbed for a few years and recently it made a huge comeback, I’m talking about White furniture of course. It has several qualities: it lightens the small rooms and makes them appear larger; it brings a touch of femininity or romance in a bedroom; and finally, it is easy to fit with items from a different collection or company.

It is possible to find White furniture in different styles, but most of the time it is found in country or very contemporary and when comes time to decorate, the possibilities are endless. The best way to approach a new décor is to first find the fabrics that you like, as paint and deco accessories are available in multiple colors and will be easy to coordinate with selected fabrics. However, you must be aware that all wall colors do not have the same effects. Let’s see some examples to highlight White furniture.

3 options with White furniture

For a classic, clean and relaxing look, shades of taupe or sand are well suited, they are soft to look at, timeless and you can give them a little sparkle with the accessories.

For a bold and chic statement, you can opt for deep tones.

10 Teen Room Makeover Ideas

By Alain Juneau - 11 January 2012 - Show comment

With a simple change of bedding and accessories and new, vibrant colours, you can easily transform your teenager’s room without changing the furniture. Even better, you will not have to find all the ideas yourself because teens generally have very specific tastes. They know what they do and do not like. Keep an open mind and do not be surprised if you are asked for a tangerine or purple room – bright colours are often well liked by teenagers.

Teen Room

Start by choosing a theme and build the decor around that theme. Does your teen like sports? Choosing new hues will be easy, as you will only have to match the colours of their favourite team.
Putting stuff away is a teen’s weak spot, so the next step consists in evaluating storage needs. Make the task easy by installing several shelves on the walls, in an armoire or in the room’s closet. Then, add containers or baskets.
A laundry bag on a hook or a simple laundry basket on the floor has a bigger chance to be filled than a hamper with a cover your teenager has to open.
Hang magnetic or cork boards for photos, notes, the school calendar, etc.

Design tools

By Alain Juneau - 1 December 2011 - No comments on this post

My girlfriend and I have been making some major changes in our home lately: we added a living room, built a new room for our eldest child in the basement, and redesigned my daughter’s existing room.

Just like with any family project, we all want to let our individual tastes and needs be known: compromising is a must. For example, in our new living room, my girlfriend would like to have an office space, my daughter would like an arts and crafts table, and I would like to have nice big armchairs for when we have friends over. So we were faced with a dilemma about how best to use our new space: how do we get the look we want, plus make sure we buy the furniture that will meet all of our needs perfectly, without overloading the space? We used a few tricks that I thought you might find interesting.

Scrapbook your ideas

Collect all of the magazine clippings, pictures of furniture and decorations, and samples of the paint and materials you intend to use in your new design. Just as in a scrapbook of your most memorable vacations, glue all of these items onto a large cardboard sheet.

The headboard: a design focal point

By Annie Lavigne - 25 November 2011 - No comments on this post

The first thing you notice upon entering a bedroom is usually the headboard. Your eyes are naturally drawn to this piece of furniture. A room devoid of a focal point feels bland—it lacks oomph. Here are a few tips to help you choose a headboard that fits your style:

Making the right buy

When buying your furniture, select a headboard made of a different material that immediately attracts attention, like metal. You can also opt for a headboard with embellishments, such as wooden bedposts on each end.

South Shore – Temple Collection (719)

Put your creativity to work

The beauty of creating your own headboard is that you can own something really original and one-of-a-kind. You can use recycled pieces, such as old doors or shutters, or paint your current headboard in an exotic colour, like sunset red, while leaving the rest of the furniture in natural colours.

South Shore – Montana Collection (792)

Add accessories? Why not!

If you end up choosing a simple yet elegant headboard, but are still missing a certain something, use paintings, picture frames or even shelves to create a focal point right above your bed. A meaningful sentence or inspiring quote printed on imitation parchment, set in a frame as wide as your headboard, will add height and interest.

Decorating a baby bedroom: is it going to be a boy or a girl?

By Caroline White - 18 November 2011 - No comments on this post

If you’re still unsure if your unborn child will be a boy or a girl, decorating his or her bedroom is not easy. Many parents prefer their baby’s gender to be a surprise, which can make decorating the baby bedroom a nightmare. Here are a few tips for creating a unisex decor that is calm and gentle—perfect for your little treasure, regardless of the gender:

A unisex baby bedroom

The starting point for every decorating project is to choose a theme. Some themes tend to be more unisex, such as farm animals, insects, the zoo, the circus . . . set your imagination free!
Find a comforter that fits the theme you’ve chosen. To make decorating easier, it’s better to choose a comforter with a variety of colours and different patterns that will go well with the other objects in the bedroom. A variety of colours will give you great flexibility when it comes to choosing the colour of the walls.
For the walls, choose one or two neutral colours such as light green, lavender blue, cream, beige or yellow. If you’d like you can add some contrast by painting one wall in a deeper colour, like milk-chocolate brown or darker beige.