Christmas Tour of my House

I love decorating for Christmas, I think winter weather is so tolerable until December because of all the sparkly lights!  This first photo is my dining room (without any art yet).  What I love about the paint colour (BM Natural Linen) is that it really doesn’t change from day to evening (there are so many colours that really look bad in the evening). It’s the perfect backdrop to my sunflower yellow and raspberry colour scheme, I love it!

I have 3 dining chairs with polka dot backs and 3 with stripes to mix it up so I don’t get bored! 

This is my entry with some paper whites, an angel and glittery ornament. (I haven’t painted it yet, it’s the old colour still).


Here’s my tree, in the new year I will have an upholstered chair and ottoman made for this corner so for now it’s the Barcelona filling in (it usually sits where the tree is anyway).

Love my raspberry feather wreath!

 

 

And some wrapped presents.

Another view of my living room (custom toss cushions yet to come, these are placeholders).

A view of my dining room (from the stairs). I am still looking for a dining table and sideboard.

See the yellow around the closet doors on the right? That was the colour of my entire living/dining room for about 24 hours until the sofa came (way too much).  We kept this piece just because you can see a part of the wall when you walk in the front door (I would never specify something like that, it has to be a happy accident :).

Photos by Maria Killam

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me for on-line or in-person decorating and colour.

Related posts:

My Living Room Drapery; Before & After

Inspiration and my Tiffany Blue Office

Painting is so Emotional (My living room from yellow to linen)

New to this Blog? Click here ; Subscribe to my free Monthly Newsletter; Become a True Colour Expert

Art from High Point

On the last full day I spent at High Point on Monday, I went to a few one-of-a-kind including antique stores with Lauren from Pure Style Home and her husband Dave. When we arrived at one little hole-in-the-wall antique store, Dave actually escorted us to the door from the parking lot (so sweet) because of the shady neighborhood we were in.

I bought this sweet little banged up piece (which got even more banged up on the way home—I dropped it twice) of a boy and his rabbit. For now it’s propped up in my guest room.

I love this whimsical little end table but I thought it should be a colour so I painted it to go with the Maxwell Fabric I found for the drapery in this room (below) Pattern: Hibiscus Colour: #240 Avocado (more photos coming soon). I have always loved the overscale painted flower print. The room is BM Pale Sea Mist 2147-40.

Above photos by Maria Killam

This post is also a link party to continue from last weeks, Cheap yet Happy Wall Art Post! My favourite link was from Erika at Bluelabel Bungalow. She painted stripes in her boys room. Hmmm. . . I just realized there’s a trend here as last week I posted about a striped room as well.

Click here to see the rest of the this nautical inspired room! And please post a link below if you have an inspired (and inexpensive) art project on your blog and next week I might post your idea! If you are an artist, please include a post from your blog which lists the price (this is about affordable after all) and link back to this post so everyone’s inspired ideas get read!

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If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me for on-line or in-person decorating and colour.

Related posts:

Cheap yet Happy Wall Art

Should your Art Coordinate with your Home?

New to this Blog? Click here ; Subscribe to my Monthly Newsletter; Become a True Colour Expert

My Living Room Drapery; Before & After

Credit

It’s our Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend and we are having a big dinner tonight even though my dining chairs are still in the shop waiting for fabric to arrive. And it’s why there are no pictures past the sofa because that’s my empty dining room behind it!

Here is the living room before the drapes.

They are a chevron textured fabric from Robert Allen, Pattern: Archibong, Color: Alabaster and they match the linen colour on the walls. Since it will be a wall of drapery thet we have to look at when you pull the drapes closed I didn’t want any wild patterns or colours, my sunflower yellow sofa is colourful enough!

Even though I chose a colour to match the walls the texture looks so awesome and retro I love it! I’m always amazed when drapes go up how they change the feeling in a room. They immediately make a space feel finished, warm and cozy. Here are some hydrangeas I picked from outside. And our TV is up. I love the look of wireless. If you have to have a TV in the living room (because you don’t have a great room) wireless is a must! (Someone asked if the TV was too high, it's not, but the entertainment unit is unusually low, 19")

Since my sofa table (below) from Chintz & Co. arrived, I always have fresh flowers in this vase because it’s the focal point of the room, it’s the first thing you see when you walk into the room.

I still haven’t really committed to raspberry as an accent colour, these are just pillow covers from IKEA for $10 each. I’m waiting till I find a piece of art that totally inspires me. See that wall right beside the TV (below) I need something big right there. I’m still in love with the Bobbie Burgers art idea but it’s $12,000 so it’s not exactly in my budget at the moment.

Happy Thanksgiving!

If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me for on-line or in-person decorating and colour.

Related posts:

Why you Should be Nice to your Suppliers (my dining chairs and before photo of the TV console)

Painting is so Emotional (this living room was yellow first)

How to choose Colour for the Master Bedroom (mine)

New to this Blog? Click here ; Subscribe to my Monthly Newsletter; Become a True Colour Expert

Inspiration and my Benjamin Moore Tiffany Blue Office

Turquoise office photos by Maria Killam

Sometimes I get direct inspiration for a project from reading design magazines, blogs or even movie sets. Everyone knows the Something’s Gotta Give set that is the most copied white kitchen! For my home office, inspiration came from Meryl Streep’s office in the Devil Wears Prada. I love all the haphazardly hung frames and that they don't match. What unifies this look are the white mats.

My Lido office chairs finally arrived, I ordered them directly from Costco for $250 thanks to a tip from a reader. I’ve linked to them but suddenly I can’t find them on their site – maybe they are sold out?

Here’s the empty room

Here it is being painted, you can really see the pinky beige.

The colour is 626 Caribbean Breeze by Benjamin Moore. I had the yellow, turquoise and white linen from a display at the Spring Home Show so I sent them to my workroom to get sewn into these panels. I love the colour in this room, I get happy just walking into my office in the morning. The empty desk is a good space for sourcing fabrics for clients from my wall of books (below) and an assistant which I will need very soon.

Here is the room with only the drapes and furniture installed (below):

The desks are Jonas from IKEA. I wanted the one with the built in drawers but the white was discontinued so I had to get this style so I didn’t install the pull-out which obviously would get in the way of drawers. I had the black drawers already so I just re-used them. I chose this desk to hide the cords. Most of the desks at IKEA are so open you see everything. The shelving is Lack. I only had panels made for one side (as you can see) because there is very little wall left on the right and the drapery covers up the wall on the left. Since the bookshelves come almost to the window I decided it was okay to leave it asymmetrical.

Love my little organizer. The happy lamp is from Homesense.

And my faux flowers, I just love them.

Love this watercolor, a giveaway I won at Bright Bold & Beautiful by Laura Trevey, she is so talented!

This was one of the first living rooms I decorated for a client many years ago. When I first started designing I thought the coolest thing about designer fabrics was the pattern mixing part of it. I have changed my opinion since then to include less pattern and more colour blocking and drama.

A client sent me this card a few years ago. It’s a bit hard to see but she crossed off th in Martha and inserted i instead for my name. I loved it so much I framed it.

This photo of orange daises I received from Victoria and Kelly over at Design Ties! It looks terrific sitting on top of the bookshelves!

My water station.

This little oil painting I bought in Paris when I was there a few years ago. My sister found me this tape dispenser.

My fan decks (in the closet behind me) from paint companies all over the Country for my on-line consultations and I finally have a Dulux deck for international if you are in Australia or London (for example) and need a consultation. I’m doing an average of about 5 per week and they work really well, email me for more information. Remember I can also decorate your house from top to bottom if you are local, in addition to colour :).

My invisible assistant :)

I just found a blog party at Centsational Girl that my office coincidentally fits right in. Check it out here, so many fun offices to see.

If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me for on-line or in-person decorating and colour.
Related posts:
How to Create an Ethereal Colour Scheme
Sneak Peek of my Entry
Painting is so Emotional
New to this Blog? Click here ; Subscribe to my free Monthly Newsletter; Become a True Colour Expert

Sneak Peek of my Entry

This is the cabinet I recently found from HomeSense for my entry. Isn’t it fabulous? Because there are two drawers they neglected to insert a knob in the middle. I might change them all out and insert new ones because it looks like they are missing at the moment.

Photos not otherwise credited by Maria Killam

It immediately reminded me of this Dorothy Drapery Dresser. I first saw it in Kelly Wearstler’s office (when she worked from home) which is why I bought it.

Source

My Beach bag is always sitting here these days since our complex has a pool right beside the Capilano River (below). There are 60 townhouses and barely anyone uses the pool. There’s another one for the kids as well. On rainy days we go back and forth from the sauna (I’m a Finn) and the pool, it’s great!

The framed print I bought years ago (not from HomeSense) I love the happy kids in the rain. I just had it reframed and re-matted. It was an 80’s pickled pink frame with a pale blue mat. Can you believe I forgot to take a before picture? A big blogging no no! The lamp is from HomeSense. I’m going to change the lampshade to one like this from Ralph Lauren.

This is our winding staircase. Keep in mind I haven’t painted this space yet (it has high ceilings and my painter is busy on exterior these days) so this is still the existing pinky beige. I desperately need a little area rug for this space, the broadloom is way to light and gets dirty fast, I have been looking since I moved in, I might have to break down and find one online!

See the niche at the top? I decided on a boxwood ball instead of sticks in a vase which I think is kinda 80’s (maybe). Pussy willows would be okay but I can’t get them this time of year.

I will probably paint the urn, it was from Homesense too (well I am in Vancouver, it’s a limited accessory shopping situation here).

This is the winding sidewalk going to the pool. The rest of the photos of where I live are on my Facebook Fan page.

Have a great weekend everyone!

If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me for on-line or in-person decorating and colour.

Related posts:

Stunning Front Entry

Are you Decorating from Scratch?

Decorating with a Colour Expert

New to this Blog? Click here ; Subscribe to my free Monthly Newsletter; Become a True Colour Expert