Country Decor Blog

Phew! What a long weekend at the Interior Design show… But what a lot of fun (and inspiration) as well! The show was packed with visitors all weekend long, and I showed up early Saturday morning to photograph our space with phenom photographer Donna Griffith. We arrived at 6 a.m. to an echoing space devoid of visitors. the Interior Design Show usually has packed aisleways so it was a great opportunity to check everything out while no one was there. However, Donna quickly got down to work, unpacking her two cartloads of photography equipment. Though there were tons of great booths at the show (retailer Hollace Cluny’s elegant but diminutive booth being one of my favourite) (p.s. the elegant wooden folding screen featured in our booth is available through Hollace Cluny), the one thing that absolutely differentiated

Our fab booth from the outside!

the Style at Home/Canadian Home and Country/Canadian Gardening booth was our use of vivid colour from Beautitone paints. Our selected colours were chosen to match the equally awesome photographic wallpaper from the innovative Montreal company Wallyouneedislove. The intense aqua used in Style at Home magazine’s area was Beautitone 3Q3-6 while the shamrock green colour that was used in the Canadian Home & Country/Canadian Gardening area was (the perfect kelly green - very Audrey Hepburn!) was Beautitone 3L3-8. We are very thankful to awesome stylist Malcolm Patterson who decorated our innovative space. In the darkness of February, it is great to work with someone who appreciates the beauty of colour! I don’t want to get into too much more detail about this space - Donna Griffith’s beautiful photos will be seen in an upcoming issue of Canadian Home & Country magazine!

Okay, okay. I know I just wrote this past weekend about how delightful it is in the cold of winter, but I lied! Today’s unbelievably low temperature has caused my toes to freeze and my blood pressure to rise! What I normally do when I’m chilled to the bone is to either hop into my clawfoot tub (it’s by Kohler and I LOVE it) or remind myself of some recent warm weather travels. I recently travelled to the Puerto Vallarta region of Mexico and stayed at some pretty exceptional hotels. My favourite (from both a location and a decor perspective) was called Cafe des Artistes hotel. The view overlooking the Pacific Ocean was spectacular, and the decor (and decor ideas) were even more inspiring. Forget about the balmy temperatures, the decor was enough (okay maybe with the infinity pool as well)

We have two weeks before the Interior Design Show to go! If you can imagine, we have been working frantically to get organized to get our booth space organized - for the third year in a row, we’re working with our sister publications, Canadian Gardening and Style at Home, to put together an inspiring decor space for attendees to enjoy. It’s a great opportunity for us to meet readers (and for new readers to find all three magazines!) I’m including a sneak peek of the motif I’m using to represent Canadian Gardening and Canadian Home & Country…. This image is our decor inspiration (hint, the photograph is actually wallpaper!) (our other hint is that we will be using a fabulous settee upholstered in natural linen. The Interior Design Show runs February 5 - 9, at the Direct Energy Centre, Exhibition Place, Toronto. If you don’t get a chance to come to the show, I promise to post images of the finished booth after the show happens! If you have any fun “shamrock” ideas, please send them to me! (nothing about leprechauns will be considered!!!)