I recently dropped in to see a new lighting shop called Dark, located just south of the Lakeshore on Carlaw Avenue.  I was given the full tour by owner Mo Nahar who was incredibly friendly and knowledgeable.

If you’re looking for modern lighting that takes budget into consideration you must make this a definite stop on your shopping list.

They are distributors for Corbett, Troy, Habbardton Forge and several other lighting design/manufacturers.

Their showroom features some beautiful lighting fixtures from wall sconces to large and small ceiling fixtures, pendant lighting and task lighting. 

Let us know if you plan a visit to Dark Tools. We would be happy to introduce you and pass along any Designers Discount.

Happy Shopping.

DESIGN FIND ~ LED LIGHTING:

LED lighting has come a long way over the past 12 months.  Applications of strip lighting and SMD LED puck lights are endless.  Some of the advantages of LED lighting are their operational life, white LED lamps will have a 100,000 hours estimate life.  This is 11 years of continuous operation.  The average life of an incandescent bulb is approximately 5000 hours.  Another significant factor of us in large office buildings is the cost of maintenance to replace bulbs can be enormous. 

The key strength of LED lighting is reduced poser consumption.  When designed properly an LED circuit will approach 80% efficiency, which means 80% of the electrical energy is converted to light energy.  The remaining 20% is lost as heat energy.  Compare that with incandescent  bulbs which operates at about a 20% efficiency (80% of the electrical energy is lost as heat).

As the cost of LED lighting comes down along with the flexibility of usage, colour tone and brightness flexibility, LED lighting is an exciting trend that is here to stay.

Erin also spoke about the designers rule about not using more than three colours, you can use different shades of each colour but keep in mind rules can be broken. 

Global Style is certainly on trend and I’ll bet many of you already bring this into your décor now.  Don’t be afraid to add a little extra punch – start with a wild pillow. Have fun and ‘Live your life by design’.

Peter

 

 

 

 

AllSet Interiors:

We absolutely love shopping for tiles. Dramatic changes over the past 10 years has increased the options for tiles incredibly. You can shop for ceramic tiles, stone tiles, porcelain tiles, glass tiles, stainless steel tiles, copper tiles, mosaics and patterned tiles and they all come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Allset Tiles is a small boutique shop located at 201 King Street East (www.allsetinteriors.com). Owner,  Maria Magaletta runs the shop along with her son.  Maria is always there to help put together incredible tile combinations for any project you have in mind.   If you’re looking for something different go and visit Maria and tell her BedfordBrooks sent you.

Other favourite tile shops include

Anitca Tiles  www.antica.ca  30 Bermondsey Rd

Cercan Tile  www.cercantile.com  320 Davenport Rd.

Ciot Tile www.ciot.com  1020 Lawrence Ave. West

Stone Tile  www.stone-tile.com   1451 Castlefield Ave.

DESIGN FIND OF THE WEEK: MosaicWorks:

Canadian designer Karen Johnston puts a new twist on the ancient are of mosaics with monochromatic pieces that sparkle with tile, rhinestones and beads. We recently contacted Karen and commissioned 2 large vanity mirrors for our clients from her Shag series.  These mirrors will definitely add a touch of glam to this ensuite bathroom.   We’ll be sure to post photo’s after the installation. 

Be sure to have a look at her portfolio – www.mosaicworks.ca    

Where are we shopping this week?     

Our first shop is macFab Fabrics (755 Queen Street East) and macFab Home (734 Queen Street East)

macFABfabrics

Dale Sonier, owner of MacFAB moved from his very successful Queen St. West location to his new digs on Queen St. just east of Broadview.  Dale, along with his staff (Becks, she’s who we love to deal with when we are shopping there – say hello for us and tell them BedfordBrooks sent you J)are such a great pleasure to work with, full of energy and incredible service. When it comes to fabrics they bring the latest in design and colour.  The macFab workshop offers quality workmanship producing beautiful drapery, headboards, slip covers etc.

 macFABhome

Dale recently took on a beautiful retail shop right across the street from macFABfabrics and named it macFABhome! This is an absolutely must see shop.  A unique mix of new and vintage furniture pieces, accessories and fabrics.  They showcase European fabrics, wool rugs, and everything vintage. If you’re looking for that one of a kind stand out piece stop by and have a talk with Dale or one of his friendly staff.  If what you’re looking for isn’t in their shop he will create it for you. I’ll let you in on a little secret – They have a full shipment of vintage furniture coming in from Paris very soon that they will reupholster and reshape into to functional art forms.

Peter

Much of our travels include fantastic invitations to friend’s vacations homes.  One of my very best friends Maria and Glen Jenkins have an absolutely spectacular ‘farm house’ in Prince Edward County.  About 8 years ago Maria and her daughter Carolyn went on a scouting mission to find the perfect summer home.   They found it! 

Just minutes to downtown Picton, the property is surrounded by farm fields and has two fabulous old barns and a smallish house that the previous couple had added two small extensions onto.

Maria is one of the most talented and industrious people I know.  In no time the farm house was transformed and filled with unbelievable treasures.  I’m not sure if I would call Maria a collector only because that term seems too narrow in her case, however, she does collect beautiful objects.  Many she finds at antique shops, auctions, yard sales and good will.  Maria also has some beautiful pieces from supporting local Toronto and Picton artists not to mention treasures from around the world from her travels.

After settling in for a few years she felt she wanted to make some vast changes to the farm house and the property. The main renovations took just over a year.  Keeping most of the existing farm house she extended the house out and up!  Every angle and every detail was incredibly well thought out.  Every room has incredible views.

Maria was very hands on throughout the renovation/design process.  She sourced out material and was sure to have them on site, stayed on top of quality control, she lifted and dragged, dug holes and pretty much painted the entire interior herself

- Glen helped

When the farm house was ready to put back together, each room was carefully thought out and beautifully furnished.  I would call the style ‘Clean Country, Comfortable and Functionally Eclectic.’

Maria has been taking an upholstery course for a few years now so some of her pieces are truly hers, she’s made her own drapery, pillows, painted furniture, framed art work and hung lights.  If that wasn’t enough her gardens, and she has many, are absolutely beautiful.  Each one well thought out for their views from inside the farm house and outside as you walk the property. 

I have taken many, many photo’s at the farm house, each time I tell myself I’m going to ‘blog’ about each inspiration – even her pantry, you should see it. She has decorated it beautifully and if you happen to forget to close the pantry door behind you, it won’t matter – it’s just another corner of treasures to entertain the eye.

Maria and Glen are amazing hosts.  Glen will beat me at a round of golf then we’re back for a walk around the farm with drinks in hand, where Maria is usually preparing a fabulous dinner with fresh local ingrediants – yet another one of Maria’s talents. 

And the cherry on top of this cake is a perfect night’s sleep in our fabulous guest room on the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept.  She insists that you choose a pillow that you’re most comfortable with.  You lay down on sheets that have been hand ironed, who irons sheets anymore?

I could do a series of blogs on the farm house.  I just may.

Maria and Glen offer their home for rent for vacationers who want to experience the county in style, have a look at some of the photos and amenities on line. See you in the County!

http://www.countyholidayhomes.com/county-white/

How do we start the design process:

When I’m commissioned for a new design project, it usually begins by presenting a story board of sorts to the potential client and although not set in stone, this is a basic idea of what I think the overall design will look like.
The potential client will look through our portfolio, our references and past experiences.  Then the call or email will come in hopefully saying that we are hired!  Fantastic!

 I confidently meet with the client to discuss the project further – budget, schedule – and all the while in the back of my mind I’m thinking, here’s my secret;  I have no idea what I’m going to do, not a clue.
My confidence comes from knowing with out a doubt that I will find ‘a take off’.
A take off for me is an inspiration, a starting point.
Whether it’s a corporate client; an office space, reception area, boardroom or a residential project; kitchen, bathroom, it doesn’t matter – there is always a ‘take off’ point.
Let’s look at an example:
A client has a large empty dinning room, a blank canvas. First direction will be to determine style, is it contemporary, traditional, transitional, goth?
Next, the list: large dinning table, chairs, carpet, side board, lamps and accessories, wall paper, paint colour and drapery and of course the layout.
Now that we know the style, it’s time to turn to the inspiration to take off from. The client may have dinner ware that they like to use that has a pattern or specific style to it, or maybe they have a favourite art piece. Now we have the tools to create the design – the hunt is on.
I like to start from the ground up, the carpet.  Once the carpet is chosen then we can pull colours from that for wall paper, drapery fabric, upholstery fabric and paint colours, even accessories and art work.  Armed with some clear photos of the carpet, the fun part begins, let’s start shopping.

Here are a couple of things to remember. Make sure you ask the store about their return policy. Don’t be afraid to take things out on spec. You’d be surprised by how sometimes things that look great at the shop may not work in the space when you get them home. 7
Have fun with it!  Remember if you need any help, be sure to visit our ‘Tips & Advice’ section on our web site and let’s see what we can come up with together!

Peter Brooks | Live Your Life By Design

This time however I was fortunate enough to have been introduced to Michel Dauda of Dauda Photography, www.dauda.com. Michel is a renowned fashion and studio photographer. Amazing, he and his crew were incredible. The amount of great energy and talent he brought to the shoot not to mention the amount of physical hard work it took to make each shot. It was such a treat to watch someone do what they do best and do it very well.

Our day started off at the project site at 10:00 am, Valentines day and finished early evening. A short introduction to Tech Wyse; Owner DJ Kennedy runs and operates TechWyse, www.techwyse.com, which creates incredible web sites but more than that TechWyse Internet Marketing has been doing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) since the beginning, creating the means to increase web traffic to your site through several search engines – Google, Yahoo and MSN along with sophisticated reporting and tacking tools.

It’s been an absolute pleasure working with DJ and his staff particularly, Brittany Huggins over the past 10 months. D.J. purchased this raw space (Mike Brown, Re/Max Hallmark Realty Ltd. Buyer agent) and hired BedfordBrooks to design his new office. We’ve created a 2nd floor mezzanine which includes a sexy lounge/kitchen – custom funiture, lighting, a main floor boardroom where we custom created a large conference table.

The photo shots are now in post production – I can’t wait to see them up and showcased on our new website.
On our way home, exhausted, we stopped at Spiaggia Trattoria in the Beach and had a beautiful
candlelit dinner.

Hope everyone had a Happy Valentines Day!

Peter

“Live your Life by Design.”

bedford1One of the things I came away with was how can I bring some country vacation home with me. Wouldn’t it be nice to come home every day and have a little bit of that sense of being on a care free vacation.

The easiest way to transform your home from season to season or mood to mood is through colour. Ask yourself, how a certain colour makes you feel. For instance the colour Turquoise a mix of blue and green: supportive and protective, heals the spirit, soothing and increases contentment. This in between colour represents water.

bedford21White on white, nothing is more timeless, serene and restful. Imagine the light that comes through a white curtain as the morning sun rises. I’m often called in for colour consultations. I love whites and grey tones. Keep in mind there are many, many whites; Benjamin Moore:  Cloud White, Simply white, Ballet white and Designer White.  Sico Paint: Soft White, White Artichoke, Pale Birch, Pea blossom.   I always look for one corner or wall to add an accent colour.  This makes it so easy to repaint one small wall and change the entire mood or season.  Throw pillows, drapes, accessories these can also be affordable mood changers.