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Considering hiring an Interior Designer?
Read this first.
Hiring an Interior Designer is one of the most personal decisions you can make. Whether you’re building, remodelling, or redecorating, your designer will be working closely with you on creating the most intimate spaces in your life for months, or even years.
You may even be considering whether hiring a designer is the right decision for you at all.
While I can’t answer the question for you, I’ve been on the other end of clients desperately trying to fix mistakes they’ve made in hiring the wrong designer or going it alone. So I hope that these considerations will be useful in helping you make your own personal decision.
Latest video
The Contemporary Coastal
Do you want to see how we transformed this cozy cottage into a beautiful contemporary coastal retreat? In this video, Heather walks you through our design presentation where you’ll see before + afters of the Design Plan.
the cd interior design library
Because reading is fundamental…
We’re an open book when it comes to sharing our tips, tricks, mistakes, and how-to’s here inside the CD Library. We understand that not everyone is inside our service zone (Windsor to Chatham and surrounding areas), so sharing what we know in order to help you select the best Interior Designer for your project or learn more so that you can try your hand at DIY is the purpose of these educational posts.
If you’re simply here for some fun Before + Afters, skip down to the Reveal or All Posts section instead! We try to post new projects at least monthly.
Design Principles
Considering Hiring an Interior Designer? Read This First.
Hiring an Interior Designer is one of the most personal decisions you can make. Whether you're building, remodelling, or redecorating, your designer will be working closely with you on creating the most intimate spaces in your life for months, or even years. You may...
Where To Begin When Building a House
Building a home is one of the most exciting and rewarding things that we can do. It can also be the most stressful and financially painful. If you're lucky, you'll only build one or two homes in a lifetime. So it stands to reason that, as a homeowner you'll never...
How To Create a Home Environment that Improves Mental Health
According to the centre for addiction and mental health (source: CAMH): In any given year, 1 in 5 Canadians experiences a mental illness or addiction problem. By the time Canadians reach 40 years of age, 1 in 2 have—or have had—a mental illness. So look beside you. ...
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Project Planning
5 Expensive Mistakes to Avoid When Buying a Sofa
Your sofa will likely the one of the most expensive -- and most well-used -- piece of furniture that you buy for your home. It's someplace that you'll sit with your family or friends for hours at a time, so it needs to be comfortable! But it also needs to be...
Mistakes To Avoid When Building a House
Building a home can be one of the most rewarding yet frustrating processes. I can't tell you the number of times I've been called in towards the end of a build because the homeowner is exhausted, frustrated, way over budget, and feels paralyzed from making another...
How To Budget Your Redecorating or Renovation Project
Budget. It's the least sexy part of a renovation or redecorating project... One of the first questions I ask my interior decorating + design clients is "What's your project budget?" The most common reply is..."I don't know.... $1,500 maybe? $5,000? I have no clue...
How to Communicate Your Design Style to Your Builder, Architect and Interior Designer
Every time I ask someone what their style is, they respond with some phrase that includes the word modern. "I like modern with clean lines" roughly translates to "I have no clue what my style is, I just want it to look new". "My style is modern farmhouse" roughly...
Before + Afters
Project Grandma’s Got A Brand New Bag
INTERIOR DESIGN PROJECT: Project Name: Grandma's Got A Brand New Bag Scope: Kitchen + Bathroom Design Location: Chatham, Ontario Details: Growing Family with a toddler and another on the way! THE CHALLENGE: This lovely mid-century home...
Project I Want To See The Lake
INTERIOR DESIGN PROJECT: Project Name: I Want To See The Lake! Designer: Laura Varela Scope: Interior Design, Cabinetry Design and Full Outfitting Location: Stoney Point, Ontario Details: Busy professional couple who own multiple business. ...
Project Glam Is My Favourite Colour
INTERIOR DESIGN PROJECT: Project Name: Glam Is My Favourite Colour Scope: Full Home Remodel and Outfitting Location: Chatham, Ontario Details: Entrepreneurial family with two young kids THE CHALLENGE: These clients were moving from a large...
READ
Our Latest Interior Design Projects in Windsor and Chatham and helpful guides.
The Transitional Lakeside Hangout
Sunroom BeforeThis will forever be one of my favourite spaces and couples. The clients came to us after having a previous experience with an interior designer that wasn't so great. Unfortunately, this isn't the only time that we've come into a relationship with...
Creepy Basement Turned Modern Family Hangout
Do you want to see how we transformed a creepy, old basement that was made of concrete block into a super stunning basement with a laundry room, a playroom, a games and hangout space, and a living area? As we recorded this, the project is under construction, and the...
Art Deco Kids Room
Hey there! I'm going to walk you through another project reveal! Now, this is a condo design that we were working on in Toronto. This one went through a number of iterations because the client changed their mind and design direction, so it was really fun to see all of...
The Modern Monochromatic Main Floor
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings. TRANSCRIPT Let's talk about...
Colourful Basement for the Kids AND Adults
The kids had taken over and it was time to reclaim this basement space for the entire family again! Watch the video and scroll through the photos below to see the colourful and functional transformation that we created for this super fun family. TRANSCRIPT Do you want...
The Cozy Retro Cabin Bathroom
Do you want to see how I designed this family bathroom? Let's dive in right into it. We defined this design as the cozy retro cabin. That was kind of the direction for this house. You can see that we have some of the chocolate wood trim. That was staying. It was all...
Solving a Challenging Corner Fireplace
Let me show you how I designed this space into something that felt traditional, felt cozy, felt a little bit artsy, and help to balance out this big behemoth of a fireplace with this super tall mantle. Let's dive right into it! Let's look, first, at the colour scheme...
Farmhouse to Updated Traditional (and a LOT more space for this big family!)
Transformation time! Let's talk about transitioning this living room, which is kind of a farmhouse style living room, into a more modern, traditional dream. I am so excited to show you this one, because I think a lot of you guys have a very, very similar style home,...
His And Hers: The “Preppy World Traveller” Warm Modern Living Room
This past year it's been really difficult to get any project completed with pandemic delays putting a wrench in what seems like everything. Finally, with some of the restrictions having been relaxed we've been able to get products and have a few living room installs...
The Colourful & Classy Family Room
It's been a long while since I've shared on the blog! I'm almost fully recovered from my spinal injury and back surgery. Right after I was cleared to go back to work, we entered a lockdown and that's been life for the past 6 weeks. So, now that lockdown is lifted...
Considering Hiring an Interior Designer? Read This First.
Hiring an Interior Designer is one of the most personal decisions you can make. Whether you're building, remodelling, or redecorating, your designer will be working closely with you on creating the most intimate spaces in your life for months, or even years. You may...
Fixing A Dated Looking Entryway And Staircase
Charlene reached out to me on Facebook needing help with colour and styling in her entryway. This is a newer build home in a cookie-cutter neighbourhood with lots of builder's beige. She has recently painted out the banister in a contrasting dark and white but was...
Raised Ranch Living Room Before And After: The “Mom Cave”
The client on this project definitely makes the list for top favourite clients of all time. She came to us because her and her husband had just purchased a new raised ranch style home just a few blocks away from their current home in the same style. It's a bit...
One Room Challenge-The Double Parlour Low Budget Makeover Reveal
Today is the day that all of us One Room Challenge Guest Participants get to reveal our completed spaces. I'm so excited to finally show you the completed double parlour. I think it's simply amazing what a stunning transformation we were able to create on such a low...
Our Top Modern Bedroom Furniture Picks
Where do you relax in your home?For most, it's in the bedroom. The bedroom is such a personal place. It's a room of rest and relaxation.When you go on vacation, often a hotel room has just a bedroom and bathroom! It's truly all we need to maximize our chill when...
ORC Week 7: Styling Our Chatham Double Parlour
We got the photos back from our double parlour and I'm SO excited to share the full room views with you next week for the One Room Challenge reveals! It's been a long and challenging process with suppliers shut down and extremely slow shipping I wasn't sure we could...
10 Best Paint Colours For Your Living Room Accent Wall
Paint colours are always on the top of the list of questions that I get as an interior designer. Every time I visit a client in Chatham or Windsor we get to talking about paint and often the topic of accent walls come up: Are they a good idea? Sure. As long as it's...
The 7 Best Kitchen Cabinetry Colours That Will Remain Timeless
It's not a secret that kitchen renovations can be a huge investment. Our cabinetry partner in Chatham, Ontario says the average cost of cabinetry ranges from $15,000-$50,000 depending on the size of the kitchen and the bells and whistles you put in. That's not...
How To Layout A Long Narrow Living Room: An Interior Designer’s Perspective
We are just a couple weeks away from the One Room Challenge reveals! Last week we had the photo shoot with our photographer and I've seen a couple sneak peeks. I just can't WAIT to share the final reveal of this project with you all. While we're waiting on photos, I...
How To Get Your Curtains Just Right
I'm getting just SO excited to reveal this room to you guys because it's officially complete on our end, however the One Room Challenge is still going on for a few more weeks (this is week 5 of 8) so I can't show you everything just yet. This week we got the curtains...
Interior Decorating in Our Parlour: 4 Steps to Getting Your Lighting Just Right
As you might know, we've been participating as a guest in the One Room Challenge. The challenge is getting one room done within a 6-week period (this time has been extended to 8 weeks due to the current climate and shipping delays). We're on week 4 and so far we've...
An Interior Designer’s Home: Wallpapering the Double Parlour of our Chatham Victorian
We've lived in our 120-year-old Victorian home in Chatham for 2 years now and other than painting the doors and putting up a fence for the dogs, we haven't really done much else. As an interior designer I think this is normal... it's like the old saying the cobbler's...
Paint Colour Rationale in our Chatham Victorian by Interior Designer: ORC Week 2
This is my first time doing the One Room Challenge. In case you don't know what that is, the One Room Challenge is where Interior Designers choose one room in their own home to transform over 8 weeks. The "challenge", as any designer can tell you, is getting it...
Casa Prestanski Parlour: One Room Challenge Week 1
Well, it's my first time participating as a Guest in the One Room Challenge, and I'm just filled with so many emotions. I'm nervous to open up my home to you. I'm excited to finally get a large room in our home done after two years of living here. And I'm feeling a...