2010 Colour of the Year

We were delighted when Pantone recently announced that their forecasted 2010 colour of the year is Turquoise (Pantone 15-5519 TCX). At Sealy Design we've been using teals and turquoises as decor accents for some time now. Last year I used turquoise and lime green accents in our bungalow showroom. This year I used these same accents in the living room I designed for IKEA's nationwide “Any Space Can Be Beautiful” contest, which will be aired on CityLine on Jan 21st, 2010. This begs the question: where do trends actually start? A good designer will anticipate or even drive a trend before it has saturated the marketplace, ensuring that our work - and your home - always looks fresh and up-to-date.

Happy New Year

From our team to all of you - Happy New Year!

A Tip for New Home Buyers

If you have purchased a home from a builder and are waiting for it to be completed, it’s a great idea to go to the site a couple of times and take some photographs for future reference. Once the structure is framed, take some photo’s showing where the electrical, plumbing, venting and structural beams and columns are placed throughout the house and then you’ll have a record of where everything is located. This will be a great reference for any changes you might want to make at a later date, when all the inner workings of your home are hidden behind drywall.

National Home Show

One of the best features of the National Home Show in February will be the Eurodale Dream Home presented by CityLine and the Toronto Star. I’ve been chosen as one of the CityLine Designers working on the interiors of this incredible new home. I’ve included a few renderings so you can get a preview of what this modular home will look like from the outside. I’ve been inspired by the latest trends in fashion – watch here for updates as my design ideas come to fruition!

Eva’s Nursery

Sealy Designer Eva Healy is expecting her first baby in the next few weeks. We were so charmed by the way that Eva decorated her nursery, that I asked her to share her ideas with you.


Convinced I was having a girl, I had visions of a girly, flirty nursery complete with frills and accents of pink throughout. Much to my surprise and my husband’s shocked pleasure, the ultrasound revealed that a little boy was on the way!

I knew right away that I didn’t want to do the “typical” boy’s room with baby blue walls and the popular car or train theme. I scoured magazines and websites for inspiration and finally stumbled on a Benjamin Moore colour concept that I could visualize in a nursery. Since about 80% to 90% of the baby’s first months are spent sleeping or lying on their backs, I really wanted to make the ceiling a point of interest (not to mention that I wanted to accentuate the vaulted ceiling and height in the room). I used Benjamin Moore’s new Natura paint in 2146-40 Pale Avocado on the ceiling and OC-39 Timid White on the walls in a flat finish. I then painted thick 18” stripes of the same OC-39 Timid White, in a semi-gloss finish on the horizontal. Because of the sheen on the paint, the semi-gloss colour looks quite a bit lighter in the daytime and more subtle at night, creating quite an interesting effect. The room is also quite large so I hung a large oversized bubble light fixture hung on the vaulted ceiling to light up the whole room and add interest.

Next, I contacted a great lady named Ruth Wright of Nannycakes Designs
(nannycakesdesign.blogspot.com) and met with her to choose some fresh and baby friendly fabrics for the bedding and drapery in the room. I wanted the nursery to be somewhat gender neutral, but also wanted to make it funky. I showed her an image of a great mobile I had found on Etsy.com(www.etsy.com), and our colour scheme was born.

Our main fabric, a cute polka dot consisting of blue, green and yellow dots in varying sizes would serve as the bumper pads and romans, and all other fabrics would either complement or contrast. I really wanted there to be a pop of colour in the room so we added the large orange bows and a band of orange in the bedskirt as well. A patchwork quilt of all fabrics used in the room (as well as a few other complementary solids and stripes) pull the scheme together. A simple sheer with an smaller embroidered dot finishes off the windows.

To finish off the room, I found a great tree mural with a whimsical monkey hanging off the branch and overlooking the crib.

Eva