THE BLOG
Where have we been?
DesignIf you are a fan of our blog, you may have noticed a long absence. Carmen, who does the blogging, has been dealing with a hard-to-diagnose back/leg issue that has had her out of commission. Lenore has been busy with exciting projects tha...
Budget Right the First Time, part 2
DesignPlanning a reno? Make sure that you have your total budget and project budget categories all figured out with our two-part guide....
Budget Right the First Time
DesignGetting the renovation budget right the first time will save lots of headaches down the road. Learn where to start in Part 1 of the Lenore Brooks Design budgeting series....
Yarn Storage Roundup: Top 3 DIY Solutions
Design, The Structured SpaceIf your stash is getting out of control, check out our top three yarn organization solutions with a design-analysis guide to help you find the best solution for YOU!...
Avoid These 3 Painting Mistakes!
DesignAvoid common painting errors so that your projects looks great and lasts well! #painting #tips #DIY...
2019 Ikea Catalog: Our top picks
Design, ShoppingThe Ikea catalog is here. Check out our impressions and our top 6 picks from this year's offerings....
A Nomadic Office
Design, The Structured SpaceThe next phase of my ADHD-friendly office redesign is to create a “nomadic office.” Once it’s fully functional, I think it’s going to rival my standing desk as a work-flow game changer! Lenore developed the concept of a Nomadic Office in...
At the Beach!
DesignI hope you are having a wonderful summer! We are currently enjoying a little down time, but check back soon for some major updates to the home office project, and a cool Ikea hack!...
Spray Paint Indoors
DesignCan you use spray paint indoors? This might not seem like a common homeowner question, but it comes up more often than you would think! You might associate “spray paint” with graffiti, but a surprising number of homeowners find themselve...
Reviving Wood: how to use teak oil
DesignBefore replacing worn-looking teak furniture, give refinishing it a try! Refinishing teak is easy and satisfying. Teak was a popular wood in the late 20th century and was used for everything from furniture to cabinetry to decking. Sadly ...
Our No. 1 Tip to Repel Wasps
DIYWasps are usually an outdoor problem, of course, but it’s summer! A time when interiors and exteriors are far more open to one another. Perhaps surprisingly, wasps are actually a beneficial insect. They eat virtually all pest insects and...
How’s YOUR summer going?
DesignI’ll be honest with you (Carmen here)… my summer has been a bit hectic! We found out that the improperly installed patio door had spent years leaking water onto the joists that held it up and those joists were no more… for about 6-8 inch...
3 Reasons Why Designers Want Final Say
DesignMany design contracts have a clause that says the designer must have approval of all samples, or that the client is not to shop on their own for the project. If you have a designer who assures you that they want to listen to you and embr...
Comfortable Layouts
DesignDo you have a favourite spot in your house? A least favourite spot? Perhaps your guests tend to gravitate to one area, maybe despite your efforts to create a gathering zone somewhere else. In our last post, we talked about focus and flow...
10 Tips for Great Furniture Layout
DesignHave you ever felt frustrated with a room and found it hard to get the furniture in the right place? There’s a bit of an art to furniture layout, but we’ve got some basic tips to get you started. Two of the most important things in a roo...
Zones and Open Layouts
Room LayoutZones are the starting place for layout design. They are areas where a particular activity or set of activities happen. We’ve talked before about zones in kitchens. Today, we’ll look at how we created several zones in an open-concept fam...
How to create good temporary clothes storage
DesignIn many bedrooms, clothes make up a huge percentage of the clutter. One way to tame that clutter is to create a space where you can put clothes that aren’t quite dirty enough for laundry but aren’t quite clean enough to put away. We’ve ...
4 Ways To Go from Mismatch to Mix-and-Match
Decorating, How To, Room LayoutMost people do not buy all their furniture and decor at one time. We acquire things at different stages of our lives: leaving home, moving in with new people, having children. These periods of our lives can leave us with things we want t...
The Surprising Benefit of a Standing Desk for ADHD
The Structured SpaceI expected a standing desk to be helpful for my back; what I didn’t expect was that it would be even more helpful for my ADHD! In order to explain, let me talk for a moment about the ADHD mind, and how distractibility and impulsivity bot...
Colour Us Sick
DecoratingAn unpleasant head cold sweeps its way through our families here at Lenore Brooks Design. As our ability to get things done slows, I am reminded of college when I often had to work through an illness. I remember particularly a large solo...
Curated Collections
ArtIn our post about decluttering, I mentioned that the Konmari method is often mistaken for minimalism, but it is actually a method for creating a highly curated collection of personal property. What’s the difference? Well, we find the Vog...
To Plan Out Your Room, Start With Analysis
DIY, How To, Room LayoutMake the best use of your space so that you can enjoy it by analyzing how you use it first. This post contains tips for planning your room layouts around your life. While designing a room according to how you use it may seem like a very ...
The Whys and Hows of Permits
Design, DIYWhether you’re doing a project yourself or hiring a contractor, getting the correct permits is an important step. As a designer, Lenore has worked mainly with professionals who wouldn’t think of doing work without the necessary permits. ...
How to Keep the Good Mess and Control the Clutter | ADHD strategies
The Structured SpaceClutter is a real and persistent problem for people with ADHD, adults and children alike. There are strategies that help, but figuring out which ones work for us and finding the motivation to start can both be difficult. To make it worse...
Professional or DIY Cabinet Painting | What You Need to Know
Design, PaintingHave you ever wondered whether its worth the effort to paint your kitchen cabinets? Well, not all painting is created equal. Read on to learn about painting and lacquering cabinetry, with tips to help you plan a beautiful and affordable ...
Spring and the Urge to Declutter
How ToAs the spring days brighten, natural light streams into our spaces, showing us anew what has been cast in shadow all winter. With that can come a renewed awareness: dust bunnies everywhere! Things out of place! Why are there sixteen loos...
Four Tips for Designing with Home Appliances
Design, How ToWhen choosing appliances, there are a lot of things to consider. Whatever the budget and features you’re looking for, here are a few additional things to add to that list. 1. How are they rated for noise? Kitchen appliances in particular...
Office Design Update
The Structured SpaceCreating a supportive environment is not a quick fix, so as much as I want to do a big reveal of the new office, it’s still a work in progress. Today I’ll share what we’ve changed and how we’re going forward, because working in stages is...
Repair or Replace? Kitchen Edition
KitchensWhen you move into a new home with an ugly kitchen, it’s easy to feel like tearing it out and rebuilding from scratch. But we recommend living with a kitchen for up to a year before making any major changes. Why? Because problems of styl...
The Language of Lighting
DesignLighting can get really technical, really quickly. This post will get you started on the basics of residential lighting, so you’ll be ready to talk to a designer, electrician, or lighting retailer about your project. Colour Temperature (...
Planning for Lighting
DesignIt may not be the first thing that comes to mind when decorating or renovating, but lighting design can make or break a project. Lighting affects how well we can use our space, and how we feel in it. So this week we decided to talk to ou...
The Structured Space
The Structured SpaceIf you are diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, one of the first pieces of advice you’re going to come across is to create a structured environment. But a lot of the practical how-tos on doing so are aimed at kids. There’s plenty of advice a...
Should resale value determine your design?
DesignConventional wisdom tells us to consider the resale value of your renovations. This can mean anything from painting in neutral colours to adding an addition you don’t want… but is it good advice? We think not! Reasons to Renovate On this...
5 Reasons to Hire a Designer for Small Projects
DesignDo you really need a designer for your small project? Ultimately, the decision is up to you. But here are 5 things you might not have thought of to help you figure out if hiring a designer is right for your small project. Benefits to sma...
Three First Steps for Every Home Reno
DesignIf you’re like me (Carmen here), you probably start dreaming of your home renovation by flipping through the IKEA catalog, your favourite design magazines, or searching Pinterest. And who could blame us? Beautiful finishes are what make ...
The Three Seasons of Renovation
Design, DIYWhether you are considering a large scale project with contractors, DIY projects, or just some regular home maintenance, the phases of your projects can be more suited to one time of year than another. Understand these seasons can help y...
How to paint a wall
How To, Staging, DIY, Painting, TechniquesIn my role as a colour consultant, I get a lot of questions about the best painting techniques. As an avid DIY painter of my own home, I do have several tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years. Perhaps the most surprising thing to mo...
A fresh face at LBD
The Structured SpaceHi! This is a post to introduce myself, Carmen Nave, to you. Lenore is my sister, and I’m joining her as a partner in Lenore Brooks Design. Who I am Obviously, like Lenore, I grew up in a DIY loving family that moved a lot, so I also hav...
Refreshing Your Decorating for Spring
Decorating, Waterloo RegionSpring is always a good time to update and refresh décor. After the cozy dark winter months, I’m ready for fresh spring air and sunlight, and I get full on spring fever. 2017’s colour of the year is “greenery” and its perfect ...
Creating a personal art collection
ArtHave you ever wondered how people create an art collection? Wanted one of your own? Check out our easy steps to get started!...
Colours of the Year
Decorating, DesignEach year, companies like Pantone, Benjamin Moore and Dulux start rolling out their colour of the year with accompanying palettes. How should you incorporate these into your designs? Colour trends in paint and beyond Let’s look at what...
What a show! IDS 2017
DesignAfter attending this year’s Interior Design Show in Toronto, I have come away with a bag full of specifications and a head full of ideas. From new innovative products to prototypes yet to be launched in the market, it’s a fun way to st...
A quick trick for smooth nail-fills
Decorating, How To, StagingThe most common repairs that walls need before repainting is the fixing of small holes made by pictures or shelves. Whether you’re redecorating or staging, there are some easy DIY steps you can take to make sure that your wall looks smoo...
A design lover’s guide to shopping in uptown
Holidays, Shopping, Waterloo RegionIf you live in Kitchener-Waterloo in 2016, you’re probably already celebrating that KING STREET IS OPEN IN UPTOWN WATERLOO!!! Sorry for the all caps, but I’m just that excited! If you read my last blog post on Hygge, you know that I try ...
Hygge and holiday decorating
Decorating, HolidaysHygge is a Danish word that is taking the world by storm. It is a philosophy of living that is being written about in books and even taught in some universities. It is pronounced Hoo-ga (just imagine the Swedish chef saying “hug”) ...
Picture-perfect inspiration
Decorating, HolidaysAs November draws to a close and winter weather starts creeping in with the subtlety of a sledge hammer, my thoughts inevitably turn towards holiday decorating. I love creating a warm and cosy atmosphere in my home, but in this post, I w...
Why your designer asks “why”
DesignDuring initial planning meetings, there is an inevitable moment when you say you like something and your designer turns to you and asks “why?” Sometimes this can feel like a challenge or a judgement, but it’s not! For a designer, the rea...
How to Prepare for a Design Consultation
DesignInterior design scope and costs can vary a lot. Before hiring a designer, you will have a meeting to discuss the project and get a quote. There are three essential questions you should be prepared to answer in order too make the most of ...
An October Design Round Up
Art, Design, Waterloo RegionOctober has been a big month for me. I’ve been working on multiple design projects, creating new products for the K-W Central Art Walk, and of course, getting my social media presence going. I love participating in the Art Walk, because ...
Staging and missing pieces
How To, StagingA lot of staging articles focus on how to reduce your stuff. But even if you’re selling an occupied home, it is possible to have the opposite problem: not enough stuff. Staging is about telling a story, which requires the right balance...
Fundamentals of Staging, Part 3
How To, StagingDepersonalizing Once you’ve decluttered and deep cleaned, the final piece of the puzzle is to depersonalize. While the first two are relatively straight forward, I’ve found a lot of bad advice out there on the subject of depersonalizing....
Fundamentals of Staging, Part 2
How To, StagingHow To Deep Clean One of the first pieces of advice that you’ll get when you’re selling a home is to clean it. But the sort of cleaning you do to sell needs to go a little farther than your regular housework. I call this “deep cleaning,”...
Fundamentals of Staging, Part 1
How To, StagingHow to Declutter I don’t know about you, but when I’m decluttering my house as part of my general housecleaning, this is usually how it goes: Sort the stacks of papers that seem to accumulate everywhere and put them in a “to file...
Getting rid of stuff in Waterloo Region
Staging, Waterloo Region***Updated for 2018! Clients often want to know what to do with old furniture, appliances, or electronics that they need to clear out. When decluttering (or renovating!), sometimes we have to get rid of old paint or cleaning supplies as ...
What is staging?
StagingThe other day, I told a new acquaintance I was a home stager and heard a horror story: their friend had hired a stager who insisted that they buy new furniture for every room! I don’t know about you, but moving is stressful enough with...