There are several myths about hiring an interior designer or interior decorator. One of these is that “It’s too expensive”. Another is “A designer will try to force a style on me that I won’t like”. In fact, the opposite is true. A designer can save you time and money in the long run by managing your budget as well as the work of other professionals, possibly saving you from hiring inexperienced or unscrupulous tradespeople. With a wide range of resources at their disposal, interior designers can frequently obtain products you can't find on your own, and that are often of a higher quality than you may have been able to find on your own. We, at Mulberry Interiors, are also willing and able to help you make the best of possessions that you may already own. Our focus on the magic of colour has helped us blend differing styles of possessions by linking them with colour. Sometimes, styles are so very disparate that replacement is really the best solution. In these cases, we specify an action plan over time to gradually replace useful but jarring items.

                 The input of the homeowner is crucial to any project. We truly enjoy an exchange of ideas, and believe that often the best results are projects where the client can see their participation in the ideas used in their own home. The best way to ensure that your project is what you want is clear communication with the designer or decorator. Discussion between client and designer will bring out issues such as problems that currently prevent you from using your space as you would prefer. Discuss which heirlooms, artwork and other favourite pieces you want to keep. Be clear which pieces that you could live without, are willing to change or move to another area of your home.

                Sometimes, after watching television décor show, clients may have an unrealistic idea of what quality pieces actually cost. Have you noticed that the budgets presented for these shows do not include compensation for the designer or for the tradespeople? In the real world, these people do not work for free. Remember the old adage: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” This should not prevent you from having a wish list with a few extravagant things as well as practical, quality items. Some niceties may be easier and less costly than you may think. Compare the cost of a sofa to the current cost of a car. Car prices have steadily increased over the past twenty years. Sofa prices sometimes seem to have not progressed as far. How much quality material is there likely to be in a $600 sofa? Not likely much. Be prepared to pay for quality. There is a mid range as well as a high end for quality investment pieces. We truly live in a golden age of choice.

The low maintenance aspect of brick and the fact that it withstands fire has made it the most common choice for facing fireplace surrounds. Your fireplace may be simply a few rows of bricks or it may be a large and commanding structure. As well as on the fireplace, you may have areas of brick elsewhere in your home, depending on the style and era of you home. This may or may not be a feature that you enjoy. If you crave a contemporary style but instead have a large and overpoweringly rustic area of brick brooding darkly over your room, you may not be too happy about it. However unhappy you are with the brick, you may also be intimidated by the mess and expense required to remove the brick.

                The mineral composition of the brick results in a material which ranges in colour from buff and yellow to salmon pink, dark brown-red, as well as various shades of grey. Various coatings such as sand or limestone added during firing affect colour and texture also. The decision to be made is whether to make the brick a feature or whether to downplay it. This is where a colour consultation with an interior designer or interior decorator can be of great use. This professional can make ugly brick look beautiful by choosing the appropriate wall colour to bring out the best in the brick.

The fireplace can then become a high contrast feature if desired, or blend into the room a little more, as desired. You may be very surprised what colour can do. This method may save you from an unnecessary project and a great deal of mess and expense. You can, of course, paint the brick, but often the brick can be made to look more interesting than a simple painted version of it. Often a boring looking brick is merely subtly coloured, waiting for better surroundings.

Home decorating in Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington, Milton, Georgetown, Caledon, Etobicoke or west Toronto all have a thread of common fact that run through the homes in these areas. We all desire an environment where we can spend relaxing down time in a quiet retreat from the pressures of our hectic daily lives. It has been said that a dwelling is soulless without  one warm, comfy chair. In the typical family room, the average family relaxes on cushioned sofas or overstuffed armchairs. The standard seating plan of one sofa and two matching or complementary armchairs with a coffe table in the middle is not necessarily the best way to achieve the intimacy or comfort that every family member needs. Our mobile society has a wide variety of new and specialized needs.  The electronic entertainment devices that we now have require new ways to design interiors. Families with very young children require more casual and cosy areas for reading bedtime stories, playing games, or watching videos. Families with teenagers may want to allow their children to entertain several of their friends at one time. We can design the rooms of the home to accommodate formal design for the adults as well as more casual areas for the younger members of the family.

                For instance, home decorating in Mississauga, oakville, or Burlington may not necessarily be the same as home decorating in Etobicoke. During an interior design consultation, your Mulberry Interiors design consultant can start by considering how your family actually uses the room. The furniture sourcing and space planning decisions will follow those needs. It is often not the size of the family that matters, it’s what you choose to do with the space that you have. Many furniture pieces now manufactured are intended to do double duty. There are furniture pieces that will work in any space, whether large or small.

                Whether your home is large or small, we still want our furniture space planning to encourage conversation and not block traffic. The focal point of a fireplace or entertainment centre is a common element in a large or small home. Sectional sofas can find a home in both types of dwelling. Whether you purchase vintage, new, traditional, or modern, the construction and materials should be high quality. Your interior designer can assist you in obtaining pieces that are good value and appropriate for your room and you specific needs. Unless good structure and real value are built into your furniture sourcing, you will not be happy with your pieces. Unless the furniture is strong and well made the furniture won’t wear well. Sturdy construction is vital for furniture that is used daily. The frame should be hardwood, such as birch, maple or ash as opposed to pine, poplar or fir. Particleboard is prone to splitting and chipping and is used in lower quality furniture, hence the lower price. Wood joints should be mortise and tenon or dovetail. These joints are much stronger thanbutted and screwed joints or glued joints. A frame that is stapled togetheror which fits together pooly is a sign of poor quality construction.

                The furniture piece should not feel light or flinsy. Sofas and loveseats should not sag in the middle. Sagging indicates insufficient bracing and support. Sagging will only increase over time and the sofa may even break at that point. These poorly constructed pieces are often difficult to get in and out of for people with impaired movement. The coils in the seat and/or back of the piece act like the box spring of a mattress. They give the piece firmness and stability and determine how long the furniture piece will stand up to daily use. The greatest stability is offered by steel coil springs that are hand-tied where they meet the adjoining coils.

Furnishings turn rooms into a comfortable home. Proper care will also keep your furnishings looking good while they add enjoyment to your home. Although families with young children and houses pets often have extra work to maintain upholstered furnishings in particular, prudent care is worth the effort.

It is also worthwhile to note that it may be fairly simple to avoid some types of damage to upholstered furniture. To reduce fabric fading, for instance, avoid letting full sun shine on textiles. Control the light with shades, blinds, or custom draperies.

                The subject of professional interior design is an enormous topic which can only be touched on here. Home decorating is extremely personal whether you live in Toronto or the surrounding suburbs.

The features that make a quality sofa are mostly found inside. You can compare the suspension system of a sofa to that of a car seat. The Cadillac of suspension systems has traditionally been the eight-way-hand-tied web and coil system. Some great sofas still used this system of eight metal coils attached to each other and then to the frame with two metal ties. No longer is this the only option for a quality suspension system. Mercedes introduces an “S” system in their seating and sofa manufacturers followed their lead. The latest is Ferrari’s webbing system. Any of these high end systems will give you durability and longevity. Some good manufacturers use an adaptation of the old web and coil.

Look for a kiln-dried hardwood frame in a quality sofa. Kiln drying can prevent warping and cracking. Some sofas are made with new pine and plywood, and they won't last as long as hardwood. The back legs should be part of the frame, as they are integral to its strength. If you can wiggle the arm of a sofa, it is not strong enough. The joinery is what holds the pieces of the frame together. Double dowels ensure the frame is perfectly square; corner blocks, triangular pieces of wood affixed to each right angle, prevent the piece from twisting out of shape.

                The cushions and upholstery are also important. A good sofa will have high-resiliency foam. . High-resiliency foam returns to its normal shape when subjected to pressure and doesn't disintegrate over time. It can make hundreds of dollars of difference in the price of a sofa. You can't tell the difference by sitting on the sofa, but after a year or so, you'll start to sink in the sofa if the cushions are breaking down.

                Choosing the fabric is the fun part. Durability as well as beauty are key factors in deciding on a fabric. If you choose quality in all aspects of your furniture, you will enjoy the use of the piece for many years. Enlist the services of an interior designer or interior decorator to help you make wise choices in all these key points of when purchasing a sofa. Professional help can be invaluable.

When you buy a classic furniture piece you are making an investment in your home. But to retain the furniture's beauty and value, it needs continuous care. Looking after your furniture will not only keep these pieces looking great today, but also see them through wear and tear over the years. The pieces might even become family heirlooms someday. Upholstered pieces should be vacuumed regularly. They should be professionally cleaned before they become excessively soiled. Sun protection is a must for prolonging the life of your furniture. Window treatments are not merely decoration. They protect the investment you have made in your furnishings.

When you first move into a new home, often you are faced with a sea of beige to start with. A point of inspiration is required to achieve the home of your dreams. Your home decorator can be of great assistance to start your design plans on the right foot. Whether your interior design project is in Oakville, Mississauga, Burlington, Milton, Georgetown, Etobicoke, or western Toronto, The design consultants at Mulberry Interiors can assist you to achieve a masterful interior design plan. Furniture sourcing, flooring sourcing and custom draperies are some of the first jobs at hand. One important element of a room will be used to inspire a flow to the rest of the home. Continuity of a theme lends elegance and cohesion.

                Window coverings are necessary to control light for comfort and privacy, as well as to protect furnishings. Custom window coverings can be the crowning glory of a room. When we enter a room, our eyes are often drawn to the windows. The way that windows are dressed or neglected, as the case may be, make an immediate impact. There is a huge range of choice for drapes and shades. Window coverings are expensive but excellent value as they have such great impact on the total picture. Custom window coverings create drama and focus in a room, significantly contributing to the style and mood that is achieved in the room. Draperies soften the hard lines of windows, as well as providing privacy, protecting furnishings, and providing light control. Draperies can also conceal features such as pipes and electrical outlets. Custom draperies are lined and often interlined. A top quality lining can greatly improve the way a drape hangs on the window. Floor length draperies, being large, make a strong colour statement in the room. Window shades come in an astounding array of forms and colours nowadays. They may be a simple, flat surface, or more three dimensional as in ruched styles, such as the Austrian and festoon shades. Shades can also be slatted, pleated or cellular in many fabrics, colours, and materials. Several types contribute significantly to preventing heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer. Drapery valances and headings, though purely decorative, lend a more formal, finished look. They can also serve to hide basic, utilitarian drapery hardware. They come in many forms, from very simple to extremely elaborate. Custom drapery valances can be a simple, soft accent at the top of a drapery treatment. They can also be in the form of a rigid, shaped upholstered piece.

The tones present in the furniture, flooring, and window coverings start to establish the colour scheme. Area carpets add a further level of interest to the theme being created. Once the main elements of furniture, flooring, and custom draperies have been decided, we can likely proceed to the paint colour consultation. The walls are the largest surface in the room so are an extremely important element in the design. We can also choose to wallpaper one wall or all four walls. These choices are ideally made after the furniture sourcing, flooring sourcing and custom window draperies are established. The colour relationships among the rooms of your home determine whether the net result of the décor scheme feels harmoniously flowing or jagged and jarring. Colours in adjoining spaces should relate to each other in order to create a pleasing flow. Those of us who love colour are still able to indulge our choices by using a unifying thread of key colour which runs from room to room. We may make use of a recurring theme in furniture sourcing, custom window treatments and interesting accessories. Architectural features such as trim work, baseboards, door and window frames and ceiling mouldings don’t necessarily have to be white, but they should be the same throughout the home. You can also achieve a wide range of effects using a limited colour palette in varying intensities. Open floor plans maximize a feeling of space without increasing square footage. This does not mean that you must have the whole space only one colour. There is usually an architectural break at which point we can consider a colour change.

We live in a Golden Age of choice. The down side of this is that we all accumulate more than we need to live happily in our homes which are, naturally, a finite size. This leaves us stressed out in a cyclone of guilt and chaos, unable to find basic items readily. Our culture demands that we dash around, over-scheduling ourselves, fearful that we will miss something. If you are never at home other than to eat quickly on the fly between events, or to collapse, exhausted into bed, how can we possibly keep on top of clutter and chaos?

                We are bombarded with printed matter that may or may not be useful. Once we are overwhelmed we may even stop opening mail of certain types. The problem occurs when that mail is kept just in case it is useful. Streamlining our habits can really contain the chaos. Immediate recycling of unwanted material upon first handling can be a huge stress reliever. You may find that a hanging file in a decorative box is a great help. Create sections for bill paying, school papers, receipts, coupons, restaurant reviews and the like. They will be just as accessible without being so unattractive using this method.

                Our in-tray is another clutter collector that causes us to put off dealing with printed matter. The advent of email has greatly increased the mountain of paper surrounding us. The average person uses around 250 pounds of paper per year. Papers in the in tray needed immediate attention are jumbled in with things that are low priority. Make a habit of sorting each piece as soon as you get it. Get rid of as much as possible on the first handling.

Impulse purchases stored behind closed doors are another clutter hot spot. Once the closet door is closed you have a case of “Out of sight; out of mind.” It can become overwhelming and hard to deal with. Remove everything from the closet and take a good hard look at what you’ve got. You may find gifts that you had forgotten you had purchased in advance. Dedicate a drawer to gifts purchased in advance. Once it is full, do not make any more gift purchase until current stock is depleted. Lack of light in a closet is often the reason that we have over- accumulated. Without removing all the objects from the closet into the light, we cannot see what we already have.

You may decide to institute a few easy to follow house rules such as “Nothing left on the dining table overnight.” Dining tables are often a catch-all space instead of the showpiece that they are meant to be. Remove seasonal items from the front closet. Customize a seasonal box for every member of the family. Swap items in and out seasonally. When the box is full, you have too much stuff. Donate the excess.

Having too many kitchen items can actually decrease our efficiency in the kitchen. Maintain a “one-in-one-out” rule. We can’t save time if our drawers won’t even open.

                Your interior decorator or interior designer can assist you with advice on de-cluttering and moving on to aspects of home décor that have more zing. You and you alone can make the decision to dispose of the excess.

Your comfort level in a room can be the result of the effect of, in general, the use of lighter, paler, or less intense colors which will enlarge the apparent space or the use of darker or more intense colors will shrink it. The impact of color on space is also a question of mood. Color affects your mood, which in turn affects your perception of a space and your comfort level in it. The advice that usually follows this statement is to paint the walls a cool color if you want a room to seem larger; if you want it to feel smaller, bathe the walls with a warm hue. Unfortunately, it isn't that simple.

                The use of red hues in certain rooms can backfire and make the occupant irritable, raise blood pressure and heart rate. It can stimulate appetite in a dining room, as can orange, but in the form of crimson or pure orange, these colours in the wrong intensity can be hard to live with. Used in a pleasing shade, these colours can provide the homeowner with a very pleasing and dramatic room which can be enjoyed for several years. The assistance of an interior designer well versed in the ways of colour can be indispensable. The correct choice of shade can make the room appear rich, muted, and elegant. These hot colours used instead as accents can be very pleasing.

Orange can be very useful in its more muted forms of terra-cotta, salmon, coral, and shrimp. These shades in a bedroom or bathroom flatter light skin tones. A pleasing shade of orange used in a living room or family room can imbue the room with warmth and energy. Orange tones may feel unpleasantly hot in a room which has inadequate window coverings.

Yellow is a happy colour but used in the wrong intensity can be inelegant and harsh. It's perfect for kitchens, dining rooms, and bathrooms, where happy color is energizing and uplifting. In halls, entries, and small spaces, yellow can feel expansive and welcoming. These hot colours can be tricky to get just right. A colour consultation with an interior decorator or interior designer can keep you from resorting to timid beige or white.

Green is known to be the most restful colour. With the refreshing nature of blue and the cheerfulness of yellow, green is suited to almost any room in the house. In a kitchen, a sage or medium green cools things down; in a family room or living room, it encourages unwinding but has enough warmth to promote comfort and togetherness. In a bedroom, it's relaxing and pleasant. The wrong shade of any of these will produce an effect which may be dreary or even tacky.

                Blue is considered relaxing, calm and serene because it brings down blood pressure, and heart rate, and slows breathing. Too pale a tone can appear juvenile rather than elegant. In poor light many shades of blue, especially light ones, can appear chilly.

                Purple can be surprisingly sophisticated, especially in its darker hues (eggplant, for example). It can impart a feeling of luxury as well as creativity. Lilac and lavender have a similar effect to blue, restful and serene, but without the feeling of chilliness.

Technical advances in blinds and related products have been nothing short of amazing. Aside from the basic Venetians and verticals, which now come in exciting new colours and materials, we also have access to cellular shades, Roman blinds, and shadings which are a combination of fabric vanes held together by sheer fabric on each side. Cellular shades have an insulating air pocket and in some brands and fabrics the R value can be very effective in preventing heat loss. Many blinds now have top-down-bottom-up operation. Consult your interior designer or interior decorator when considering blinds or other window coverings. Function is the factor to consider first when choosing any window covering. Window coverings should be adjustable. Strong summer rays need filtering, but scarce winter sun needs welcoming. Sunlight needs to be filtered using fabric or shades in order to keep light levels comfortable. Bamboo blinds, lightweight linen and adjustable wooden shutters, all accompanied by side draperies that shut out more light if necessary, are all easily adapted choices.

The opulent, swagged draperies loaded with trims and tassels are a thing of the past. We have moved away from excess toward a cleaner look. That is not to say that window treatments have lost their glamour. Far from it.

                We are now using exquisite gossamer sheers, subtly iridescent, inter-woven with surprising accent materials, or are printed or embossed. Harsh textures and frills are a thing of the past. We now see sheers in dramatic colours such as silver, cocoa or smoke, and we use these in combination with each other.

                Velvet is back in a big way and the trend continues. The way that velvet catches and reflects light in its folds is part of the charm and elegance that draws us to velvet. The wide range of colours that velvet comes in is another of its great characteristics.

                 We are now pleating drapes in a more relaxed manner, allowing the treatment to fall in softer folds, achieving a less prim, stiff look. Simple treatments using grommets are very popular, as well. Drapes look elegant puddle on the floor. Another variation is a slight puddling or “break”, in the same way that well-tailored trousers break over a shoe.

                 We are using fabrics in “fun” patterns, these days. A touch of whimsy, such as a sheer with feather accents, or a pattern of zebra stripes let a modern touch while remaining sophisticated. Drapery hardware is no longer the staid rod and finial of bygone days. Wood, metal, glass, ceramic and even natural stone are now available.

Trims are hot again, but in a new, more natural, more organic way. Natural textures, flat braids, and a bit of sparkle add a finishing touch to a treatment that is akin to wearing jewellery with a well-cut dress. We are able to add balance to a simple design, retaining opulence and glamour.

Furniture arrangement is a key element of interior design and space planning. Tiny though a room may be, the furniture pieces can often be arranged to optimize conversational comfort. Dramatic colour can often be used in a tiny space to good effect. Touches of neutral colour, lighter colours, architectural mouldings, piping details add elegance and class to even a small room. Symmetrical placement of furniture, lighting and accessories lends a clean, contemporary ambience. Diagonal arrangements, by contrast, add a new look of softness and a spacious feel. Furniture pieces which are able to do double duty make the best use of small living areas.Arranging seating away from the wall helps to make a large room more cosy. The addition of a time-worn and cherished family piece of furniture such as an old trunk or cabinet inject personality into space planning. Artifacts gathered on holiday can be displayed creatively to add texture and depth to a room. Furniture made from dark woods looks stunning and add richness to serene neutrals. Sedate elements combined with dramatic elements make a house a home.