Tag Archives: trends

They are known as green terrariums, but their more elegant name is glass gardens. They are absolutely beautiful. Apart from being extremely decorative, they also permit you to admire the wonders of nature every day inside your very home.

The idea is to grow plants under a glass container from a substrate: soil, sand or gravel. The most ambitious people will choose a micro garden, a soothing landscape or even a real miniature forest.

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While some floral creations are as modest as Japanese culture arrangements, like bonsai trees, others are more extravagant. They are full of shapes and colours.

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In addition to those traditional wallpaper patterns that were popular in the 70s, more impressive ones from digital printing technologies have made their appearance. The good old tacky wallpaper is faced with so much competition now. Fantasy abounds. Choosing your wallpaper has become a pleasing dilemma. There are so many colours, textures, and patterns to choose from. Wallpaper is no longer just a decorative accessory. It has become artwork.

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Over the past few years, new digital printing technologies have challenged artists to create spectacular patterns. Wallpaper has regained its popularity with unique, highly customized designs. Not only can you find flowers from the Victorian era, but you can also find numbers, letters, equations, math problems, houses, cats, Legos, fractions, beach accessories, TVs and just about anything you can imagine.[……]

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The title might surprise you, but it’s the truth. Just a touch of black can make any spring colour, like yellow and green, pop in a room thanks to the magic of contrast. See how.

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Even a hint of black can improve the look of any room by providing more depth to the dominating colour. Orange, yellow and pink are all the more vivid when paired with black.

Others will say, on the contrary, that a touch of black will tone down any overbearing colour. It helps to soothe plenty of bold colours that can be irritating over time. It’s a fact. Black will mellow down any colour proclaiming to be overpowering.

This trace of black can be a trim molding halfway up the wall or a crown molding, a door, an entire staircase or parts of it, the woodwork, a curtain, the upholstery fabric, the ceiling beams, the den, a lampshade, a wrought-iron structure, a strip of wallpaper or a screen.[……]

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From the 60s to the 80s, everyone was rushing to install wall to wall carpeting. Decorative, warm, comfortable, sometimes soft, they had everything. Synthetic fibres proliferated on Quebec floors.

Faced with the accelerated degradation of the environment, ecologists pushed carpets out of our houses. There are many reasons. Carpets cause a great deal of pollution, from manufacturing to use. Carpets are not biodegradable, don’t last long, can barely be recycled, contain numerous toxic chemicals and are made of petroleum products.

Health professional have added their grain of salt with a concrete argument: carpets can be dangerous for your health. They attract everything that floats in the air: dust, chemical residues, mites, humidity and even outdoor waste that sticks to soles. They also contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and sometimes turn into germ nests. That was the end for carpets. We see less and less.

Hardliners have tried to group rugs with enemies of the environment, but in vain. Today, certain rugs are made entirely of recyclable materials.[……]

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Blue is the colour of peace. Its enthusiasts defend it strongly. There’s no comparison in their eyes. Yellow? Too pale, lacks punch. White? Blank, oblivious and completely flat. Green. Makes you feel sick or depressed. And as they say, what is purer and beautiful than a May sky?

For them blue is the colour of love, but a peaceful love. Red? Too intense, too aggressive, too invasive. Blue is long peaceful happiness. It is also the most widely used colour in Quebec households, a title that is likely rivalled by white on occasion.

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Blue is hitting hard again this year. We see its aqua vintage hue everywhere: large surfaces, furniture, rugs, bedding, curtains, dishes, place mats, cushions, storage boxes, shelves. It’s a bluish-grey that reflects gentleness. We saw a place where it covered the floors and walls, doors, and window frames. Everything was shaded in blue from one end to another.[……]

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What do you think of the look of these cabinets? The pairing of two tones gives a modern, minimalist look to the kitchen. Here, white is paired with a dark wood-tone, but wood cabinets next to black are stunning too. Melamine with stainless steel also creates a big impact.

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Did you notice the many drawers in the lower cabinets? The European trend toward horizontal lines is increasingly popular in Quebec. There are more drawers for storage, whether as cabinets or inside a pantry. This increases storage and provides access to the drawer’s contents at a single glance. No more looking for a plastic container lid in a low cabinet. Your back and your knees will thank you!  [……]

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