a well lived life...: November 2011

Quotes...

The best decisions are always made at the last minute. Just know when the last minute is.
Holly Hunt

Be faithful to your own taste because nothing you really like is ever out of style.
Billy Baldwin

All rooms ought to look as if they were lived in, and to have so to say, a friendly welcome ready for the incomer.
William Morris

... to ensure a successful mix, I treat cushions, trimming, lampshades and other accessories as the shoes and handbags of the home. The right shoes can really make an outfit - and equally, if you have the wrong shoes, you can feel old-fashioned in the smartest of suits.
Nina Campbell

Each item in a collection has its own story, its own memory - the search, the day you bought it, who you were with, the vacation, etc.; a collection provides a special satisfaction and sense of achievement.
Tricia Guild

Good design has to tell a story. It has to stop people, and it has to make them wonder. Good design is a conversation.
Zahid Sardar

Inspired by the Yabu Pushelberg interiors of the newly opened "The Room" of The Bay, I started to think about some of my favourite white paint colours. Anyone who has ever picked up a paint fan deck knows that not all whites are created equal. There is a full spectrum of whites - some are warm, some cool, others tint beige, pink, yellow or blue. The Benjamin Moore OC palette has more than 140 colours all considered "off-white".

The one thing that all whites have in common is a need for natural light. If you paint a darker room all white, it will tend to look a bit grey in the shadows. This isn't a bad thing, if you like grey like I do, and you might even consider pairing white with grey in the same room - such as white cabinets and grey walls or carrera marble.

My favourite Benjamin Moore whites are Cloud White - great overall warm easy to live with white. Simply White - a bright clean white without too much grey. Decorator White - classic and popular white with designers, looks great with greys and blacks. Super White - revered by many American designers as the perfect white. Although it is not part of the Canadian Benjamin Moore colour line up, the formula is available and can be mixed at any Ben Moore dealer.

My favourite Benjamin Moore greys are Kendall Charcoal & Overcoat - both great for mill work and walls, Days End - one of my favourites for interior doors, Revere Pewter - beautiful for kitchen cabinetry and Chelsea Grey - great mid tone colour.

Regardless of your personal design aesthetic, the perfect white will work in any environment - modern, traditional or anything in between.