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 well—what can go on the curb, what has to be taken to the dump, what other options are there for things that we don’t want but aren’t worn out? This post is a resource guide for what goes where in Waterloo Region, with information and links about how to dispose of unusual items, as well as our favourite donation-accepting charities. Have we missed anything?…

Depersonalizing 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. Sometimes staging advice articles will announce that you must neutralize your home in order to sell it. Spray it white! Remove all traces of your personality! Sound awful? I certainly think so. The difference between depersonalizing and neutralizing Imagine your favourite public spaces. Are they neutral? I suspect not. One of my favourite public spaces is the Central branch of the Kitchener Public Library, particularly…

  How 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,” and it’s one of the best ways to tell the story that your home is a well-maintained one. Buyers have to decide if they will make an offer after a very short inspection of your home, so everything you do to communicate the care you’ve put into it will help make that decision easier. When you…

How 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” pile or recycling Put things on desks and countertops away, assuming they have a spot to be View the remaining stuff and decide whether to keep it or toss it With the stuff I’m keeping, pile it neatly in a “figure out where this goes” pile, or stick it in a box/closet/otherwise out-of-sight-out-of-mind sort of place Call it good enough until it’s time…

When 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. How are they rated for noise? Kitchen appliances in particular can add a lot of noise to the home. Fridges, fans, and dishwashers can be particularly noisy, and when you’re choosing any of these, it’s good to think about how their noise affects people both in and outside of the kitchen. Appliances are rated either by decibels or sones, which are both measures of sound. Usually fans are measured in sones, and other…

In 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 Vogel’s a great example. They were a working class couple in New York who bought art pieces that brought them joy. Thousands of them! Over their lifetime, they collected one of the most important art collections of the 20th century, all crammed into their tiny 450 square foot apartment. It was anything but minimalist. But it was their life’s passion. Obviously, this kind of collecting is…

When some people hear “art collection” they think of Picasso, Emily Carr, Degas, or maybe a huge pink sculpture of a balloon animal. But an art collection can be whatever you want it to be. You CAN spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on it, but you certainly don’t have to. My uncle’s favourite art piece is an owl done by my cousin, aged five, and he has over the years had many offers from people who wanted to buy it. If a piece speaks to you, if you like it, there is no limit to what can be considered…

Do 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. These are the starting points of good layout. But sometimes you set up a great flow and focal point, but people just seem to want to be somewhere else. When this happens, we look at the next level up in room layouts: protection and prospect. Creating Comfort in Room Layouts We all have moments where we feel uncomfortable in a particular…

Each 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 the colour of the year actually is: from Pantone, it’s Greenery, a bright but natural green that brings to mind sunshine filtered through lush leaves. This colour is Pantone’s interpretation of global colour trends, and it has far-reaching impact, affecting everything from weddings to wallpaper to web design (and also things that don’t begin with “w,” like golf!). This means that if you want to…

An 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 project where we were designing a fictional medical clinic. It was beautiful inspiring architecture, and I was very motivated to do a good job. Just a couple weeks in, however, I was struck down with a bad cold. I had completed the colour scheme only a few days prior and thought that while I couldn’t do much, I could…

If you have all the info from Budget Right the First Time part 1, the great news is that the bulk of your budgeting is done! If not, don’t worry! These two blogs break down the parts of the budget in lots of detail. Your process might look a little different, and some of the steps might actually happen together. Our goal here is to give you an overview of all the parts of the project that affect its cost. If you don’t consult an expert to get a ballpark figure, you should still do some research into average project costs before…

According to Chatelaine, most Canadians underestimate their kitchen renovation budgets. Obviously, this can be a serious problem. How can you avoid it? Don’t start with the budget! Always start with ANALYSIS No matter how much money you have to spend, analysis is the place to start. It will help you figure out your need-to-haves, nice-to-haves, and want-to-haves. This will help guide the many major and minor decisions that you make throughout your renovation. Here are the four steps to get you started: What problems are you solving? If you’re thinking of investing in a home renovation, chances are it’s not just to make things prettier.…

Painting is an inexpensive and effective way to change a space, whether it’s for yourself or when staging a home for sale. To get the best results, make sure you don’t make these common mistakes! Mistake 1: skipping proper prep How good your project looks and how well it lasts depends on proper prep. We recommend prepping the day before you paint. That way, if problems come up you have time to fix them, or get back to the paint store if needed. Make sure surfaces are dust free Patch any holes (see our tip on smooth nail fills) Prime patches Ensure you have enough paint, of…

I 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!

October 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 it’s a chance to connect with so many people who love art. I’m reminded that we really do have a vibrant art and design community here in KW. So, I thought I’d celebrate that with a quick round up of some of the many awesome art, design, and DIY inspired things there are to do in Waterloo Region. I’m…

A quick trick for smooth nail-fills The 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 smooth and gorgeous when you’re done. To illustrate these steps, I’m using a personal redecorating project I did last summer. We had a large picture wall collage (also called a gallery wall) against a vibrant colour, but with the addition of some new furniture and the changing use of the space as a place…

The 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 order to assist with my ADHD and at the same time meet our whole family’s needs in relation to my work space. So she’s going to take over the next few sections to explain it!

Hi! 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 have lots of experience with the more casual side of design. I also own a century home in Kitchener, which means I have a lot of experience with plaster wall, lack of insulation, crumbling DIY renos from the 1950s and more. As well as being a homeowner, I am also an anthropologist. Now, this might…

If 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 to find ways to make the process of getting ready for the holidays part of the enjoyment. And this time of year, shopping is a major component of getting ready: at our house stockings are huge, and under-the-tree presents are important too. To make that shopping experience as enjoyable as possible, I love to avoid the mall and…

Most 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 to keep but which don’t seem to fit together. Both Lenore and Carmen have things we have inherited from parents and grandparents, in-laws and grand-in-laws. And there’s been plenty of Kijiji finds and a general willingness to say “sure, I’ll take that off your hands!” When people come into my (Lenore’s) apartment they often ask how I came up…