An evening at Bergsma's Paint & Decor in Milton

Last evening many CDECA GTA West Chapter Decorators attended our monthly event at Bergsma's Paint and Decor in Milton.  Wow... what a fantastic showroom and the seminar was great as well.  Jeff Bergsma who knows this business inside/out gave us the scoop about the newest in C2 Paint which will be of interest to all of us undertaking paint projects.  C2 has the best pigments of all paint and they use anywhere from 5 - 8 different pigments in varying amounts to create incredible saturated paint colours.  This paint has a built in primer which speeds up the labour time, thus lessens the cost.  One of the interesting details about C2 paint is that they do not use black colorant, since it absorbs rather than reflects light.  By using many different colorants to create their colours they are able to produce luxurious and pure colour.  Currently they have 496 colours in their palette, and will be rolling out 56 new colours within the next month.  Of course this paint qualifies for LEED credits and has 0 VOC.

Of particular interest is the newest collection they have introduced - their Cabinet & Trim paint which can also be used on Floors.  The technology is amazing in that it provides an 'oil' like finish and silky hand, however is water based.

The second part of our evening was spent learning everything new in the lighting business which is changing for the better every day.  Phillip Todoroff, a Lighting Representative, Designer and Educator shared the latest in LED technology and the most up to date in bulb innovations from Phillips.

We enjoyed lovely refreshments compliments of Bergsmas and toured their great showroom.  This is a must visit location!  Thanks to all for providing us with a fabulous and educational evening.

Top Trends from Highpoint Market, by Jamie Alexander

High Point Market is the largest home furnishings industry trade show in the world, bringing more than 85,000 people to High Point every six months. Serious retail home furnishings buyers can be found in High Point twice a year because if you can't find it in High Point, it probably doesn't exist.  I wasn't able to attend the recent show, however was lucky enough to attend a local seminar at SOFA, www.visitsofa.com presented by well known Interior Designer, Furniture Designer & Retailer, Educator and Presenter, Jamie Alexander, www.jamiealexander.com

Jamie's topic was quite multi faceted touching on how we, as decorators and designers can improve our connections with U.S. furniture makers and getting the products to Canada with some great tips on working with the sales reps; ways to save on shipping; how many custom items are now being stocked and available immediately with shorter lead times and so much more great information.  He also shared that many manufacturers are now listening to what Designers & Decorators ask for and we have become a driving force, inspiring furniture makers.

Jamie spoke about the connection between fashion and furniture and which came first.  It's still up for debate but what isn't is the great information he shared with us on the latest trends coming out of the Highpoint Market, www.highpointmarket.org .  To enhance his talk were the great photos and his wonderful sense of humour.   He is a really fun guy!!

Here are some of the 'trends' -

•Mixing finishes - metals the golds and silvers.  

•Duller finishes - brushed

•Crinkled finishes

 •Rounder lines

 •Layering

 •Accessorizing Walls with items other than Art

 •Clocks - big both on walls and tabletop.  A wall of many clocks is a current trend

 •Vintage - reclaimed but not necessarily greyed - they are doing a reclaimed look

•'Fashionista' style with curved legs, seats and 'details'

 •Lots of patterns and colour

 •Wings on upholstered Headboards

•Lots of tufting on upholstered pieces and in places like the sides of the arms, not just the backs

 •Rolled arms are much smaller

 •Mixing different styled dining chairs but keeping the same finish and fabric for interest

•COLOUR  - very big   Blue, Orange, Purple, Neutral and so on.......

IIDEX - Internatinal Interior Design Exhibition.....

It was a busy week for us, as we also had IIDEX this past week.  Of course CDECA had a booth at the show and received many interested visitors.   I cruised the show with a colleague and we discovered many great products and took many photos to share.  Unfortunately, I deleted all of mine in error.  Not doing so great on the photography scale this week.  No worries... my good friend and colleague, our President of the local GTA West Chapter, Audrey took some with her phone and saved the day.  Here are a few of the many interesting things we saw.....

Now for some interesting products....

                                                                                             

Beautiful Carpet Squares from jj invision 

Great products from Surface Innovations - flexible slate and other materials.

 Interesting wall treatment from textur 3d

 Interesting lighting - can be used individually or have several together

 My favourite was this great display fy Palazzetti for a nice organized office.  I want this!