Daniela Pluviati Home Staging

Happy Friday!

Laminate flooring is a great choice for all the running around, eating and playing that happens in our basement. Toys have been dropped, popcorn has been spilled and Nerf Gun bullets have been blasted on our laminate floors. Our basement floors have to withstand an enormous amount of action!

Laminate flooring is manufactured but looks like wood.

I love looking at all the different colours, but thickness and whether it is click-lock are very important considerations.

There is a huge selection of laminate flooring to choose from in Ottawa. Buying cheaper laminate is not always better. North American Laminate Flooring Association (NALFA) is a label you should look at when buying laminate flooring. Products with this designation basically mean that they go through super stringent tests and meet or exceed formaldehyde emissions testing. These are the safest laminates to buy. The label CARB2 on a laminate box means that the product is manufactured anywhere (China) and has passed inspection for compliance with formaldehyde use.

Barwood Flooring in Ottawa sells NALFA designated laminates. We have bought from Barwood Flooring in the past and were pleased with their product.

Before Installation

• Make sure the floor is clean and dust free
• If you are replacing an existing floor remove the shoe moulding
• Lay a vapour barrier down
• Put under padding down if your laminate does not have it on the backside

During Installing

According to Scott “line it up and get it straight.”

See you Monday!

Happy Wednesday!

Cultured stone can enhance any room with its beautiful texture and superb colours.

Scott installed cultured stone in our basement.This particular colour and stone has been popular at the big box stores here in Ottawa.We bought ours at Home Depot on sale. It really does make the basement look so much cozier. We finally decided on how we would use our basement and encased two jack posts that were in the middle of our basement with a fireplace. This allowed us to have separate spaces. One for play, tv watching and one space for our air hockey table. I think it compliments the basement colours and adds some depth to the room. We also have cultured stone upstairs. It has a completely different look giving our white walls some texture.  The price difference as well as the quality can be quite a lot different when comparing stone. A few places that we know sell beautiful cultured stone are Merkley Supply and The Fireplace Center in Ottawa. Other less expensive places to buy are Home Depot and Lowe’s.

What to know before you buy:

• Interlocking stone is harder to install if the pieces are not uniform.
• Rectangular stone is easier to install.
• Spending more on a better quality stone can save on time and installation.
• Most manufacturers recommend thin set with a wire mesh but SikaBond construction adhesive can be used instead. It is a glue that still remains flexible when cured.

Install

• Leveling is critical as you build your layers. The first row needs to be leveled.
• Layout your pieces so you have a plan before you start applying adhesive/thin set.
• Take your time…….you do not want anything looking wonky!
• Only do 4 to 5 rows at a time. You need time for adhesive to set.

Happy Monday!

You have seen them in magazines, designers love them, design books and magazines feature them. There have been discussions about them and their origins date back many many years ago. I am talking about painted white walls. An example would be Benjamin Moore Baby’s Breath.

My dining room and family room are painted Benjamin Moore Baby’s Breath. I love it! Baby’s Breath is on the wall in my dining room but transcends and includes the ceiling as well. My eat in kitchen, dining room, and family room are open to each other and the wall colour spills cohesively from one room to another while complementing the kitchen wall colour. In the summer I love how it is a neutral backdrop to all the foliage, colour and greenery that filters in from the outdoors. The many pops of colour seem to make their way in through the large dining room windows. In the winter it is also an extension of the outdoors. I love how the twinkling lights indoor during Christmas makes it all seem like a winter wonderland with all the snow outside. It does not seem clinical or cold but rather really serene. Lastly, with work, family, running around and everything else in between I feel that I can “breathe” with this wall colour when I come home.

For our dining room makeover the “popcorn” ceiling was professionally scraped ( we had the entire first floor ceiling scraped) We painted BM Babys Breath right to and including the ceiling. The little bit of crown moulding around the room was also painted the same colour. I felt the crown moulding did not add any real significance to the room so we painted it as well.

What we learned

Having all the ceilings professionally sprayed on the first floor not only saved us a lot of time but the job when done looked amazing. In the past we have “rolled” the ceiling paint onto the ceiling, sometimes we have found you can see slight roller marks. Not with the ceilings we have now. They look sooo smooth!

Where to Buy

Ceiling Lamp – Lamps Plus
Curtains –Ballard Designs
Table Lamp – Crate and Barrel
Art – Homesense

Have a wonderful day and see you Wednesday!

Happy Friday!

Here is the before picture of our bedroom.

Aqua, turquoise, sea foam, robin’s egg blue are some of my favourite colours. They are fresh and happy colours. The colours remind me of the beach…….. when I am looking outside at the snow here in Ottawa. Wythe Blue from Benjamin Moore is one of those happy colours. I have it in our bedroom on one wall. It is a green/blue paint colour but has some grey undertones to it. It is an amazing colour with both natural light and rooms that have little or no natural light at all.

For our bedroom makeover we painted, added new curtains, a new light fixture, some artwork. We removed the carpet (it was pink!) had new site finished floors installed. I chose a brown-grey stain for the floors.

Have a wonderful weekend. See you Monday!

Where to Buy

Curtains – Ikea

Rug – Homesense

Lamps – Homesense

Artwork – Myself

Throw Pillows – Homesense

Lighting – Lamps Plus

Happy Wednesday!

Today I will be writing about how we remodeled our kitchen on a budget, but before I do that here are the before pictures of our kitchen when we first purchased our home.

This is how we remodeled our kitchen with an affordable budget.

White is still my favorite choice for kitchen cabinet colour. It is timeless and fresh looking and can look great with many styles. Painting the ceiling can really transform a room. I chose BM Harbour Haze at 50% strength. This paint colour on the ceiling makes the kitchen so much brighter, especially during our long winter months.

Many of my kitchen inspirations usually involve some form of open shelving. It makes the kitchen feel open and airy while still being functional.

What We Remodeled

• Kitchen cupboards professionally painted (we painted the gables ourselves)
  • Paint Colour – Pratt and Lambert – Silver Lining
• Painted the Walls
  • Paint Colour – Dulux – Pelican
• Replaced all the knobs (Lowes)
• Installed new light fixture above the kitchen table (Marchand Electric)
• Replaced the light fixture above the sink (Restoration Hardware)
• Added pot lights (Costco)
• Replaced countertops (Lowes)
• Scott tiled the kitchen backsplash (Costco)
• Added open shelving (West Elm)
• Added a range hood (Kitchenhoods.ca)

Finally in addition to all of the renovations I staged the kitchen!