Imagine being able to design and decorate your house from scratch, with complete freedom to choose every single detail to create the home of your dreams. Sounds amazing, doesn’t it?

But as these clients discovered, the number of decisions that need to be made when building your dream home can quickly become overwhelming. Time to call in a pro!

After losing their home and possessions in a devastating house fire, this family was ready for a fresh start. They were excited about the prospect of a brand new house, but wanted to make sure that it felt like home when it was done.

One of the most important considerations when designing a new home is to ensure everything works together. The colour scheme should flow from room to room without being boring – often easier said than done.

This beautiful custom home was designed to take advantage of stunning water views and I was inspired by the outdoors when pulling together the colours and finishes. The palette of soft grey, soothing blue, and sunny yellow carries throughout the open concept space.

When tackling a whole home design, I recommend starting with the flooring and cabinetry selections. These are big ticket items that are more difficult to change later, so you want to get them right.

For this project, we selected a beautiful wood-look vinyl plank flooring in a mid-toned brown finish that provided a warm, neutral foundation for the rest of the design. My clients wanted the same flooring to be used throughout the entire house, bathrooms included, so vinyl was the perfect low-maintenance choice.

This dream kitchen features a ton of storage – which equals a lot of cabinets. I combined deep grey-blue base cabinets on the back wall with crisp white uppers and incorporated rustic wood trim on the islands and range hood. Using two different colours on the cabinetry helped define the zones in this large kitchen and created a focal point around the stove.

A large island is at the top of the wish list for many of my clients, and here we had the space for two! One holds the sink and provides lots of space for food preparation and washing dishes. The other serves as a casual family gathering spot with four comfortable stools chosen from our exclusive LIVV Home Collection.

The finishing touch in the kitchen is the stunning grey and white backsplash. I chose this eye-catching patterned tile to make a statement in the design.

In the master suite, I continued with the same calming palette and repeated the blue and yellow accents that I used in the home’s common areas. The end result is a warm and welcoming retreat for my clients that feels connected to the rest of the house.

Tackling a major design project is exciting, but takes a lot of planning, coordination, and decisions. An experienced design professional can take a lot of the pressure off and make the entire process stress-free.

Here’s what my clients had to say about their experience:

I’m not sure what we would have done without Natalie’s organization, design plans and all the leg work she did to help our new dream house feel like “our home” again. Our favourite part was how easy Natalie made it. She took the time to get to know our style and how we planned on using each space. Then she selected pieces that will grow with our family. I would not hesitate to recommend her to our friends and family.

Amanda Godin – Petawawa