SoFA presents: Cobi Ladner " Building a Brand from the Inside Out"

Many decorators and designers attended the recent presentation at SoFA on Building a Brand by Cobi Ladner.  Cobi Ladner is one of Canada’s leading decorating and lifestyle authorities. 

Since 2008 Cobi has enjoyed her conversation with design professionals and homeowners through her popular website cobistyle.com. As a successful entrepreneur, Cobi turned her thoughts and ideas into a full- concept home decor product line, based on the bold notion that a home should be as unique as its owners, and put a smile on their face when they walk in the door. 

Now an emerging national brand, cobistyle is expressed in many product categories ranging from furniture, fabric and drapery to accessories, lighting and soon-to-be bedding and bath. In three short years, Cobi’s collection of beautiful ideas’ has found a home in over a thousand stores across Canada, and she is thrilled about engaging her peers with this new and exciting, very personal vision, called none other than, cobistyle.

Join us in the Canadel showroom to learn how Cobi built her brand from the inside out.

Cobi left the magazine to pursue her passion of 'fun, colourful and affordable' home furnishings which include everything from furniture, fabric, drapery, lighting, pillows, accessories, throws, teapots and soon to come bedding.

Cobi's name also stands for " 'creation of beautiful ideas'  which she completely believes in, has embraced colour and her presentation dealt with creating your own brand as she has.  One must build their brand.  How people decorate their individual homes is what your home says about you.

Cobi talked about other famous brands and how they identify a distinct product or person.  As decorators and designers we need to be building our brands.  It should reflect your own personality and a feeling we create.   We need to be individual and promote our personal style. 

Below are a few photos of Cobi's style 

It's A Steal Consignment Showroom in Oakville

It is intended to be a source for the decorating community for lifestyle transitions, staging and replacement pieces.  Items that sell include nightstands, upholstered pieces, buffets (but no hutches) and bedroom furniture.  What doesn’t sell is dining room sets, hutches and headboards.  The agreed-on price is valid for 60 days and is reduced at intervals to 30% and 10%. The listed price cannot be negotiated.  Sales are split 50%-50%.  If an item does not sell, it can be picked up by the owner or sold for charity.  Kathleen noted that charities generally prefer money to goods.  More information and a copy of the agreement can be found on www.itsastealfurniture.com.

Furniture and decor finds are displayed in stylish vignettes created by design partner, Kathleen Steele. We help customers see the look and get the look they want for their home.  Want to sell something? Great!  Send us a picture of your couch, loveseat, chair, dresser, night stand, dining room suite, kitchenette, settee, lamp, rug, artwork, cushions... the list goes on and on. Our fabulous Design Partner, Kathleen Steele will take a peek at your treasures and be in touch with you. If technology isn't your best buddy, just give us a call and we'll figure something out together. It's a Steal Furniture Consignment and Decor Finds is the real deal when buying and selling the consignment way.

Whittington & Co Speaker Series

Last week many in the design world attended a lecture on The Psychology of Furniture for Designers hosted at Whittington & Co.with Gordon Peteran a professor at Ontario College of Art and Design and an award winning artist and scholar. Aside from the presentation we enjoyed a light lunch and had the opportunity to browse the showroom.  Tony Belbeck & Dan William, furniture designers at Whittington also joined in the conversation about designing and making exceptional furniture.

Below are some photos of their latest pieces .....

Sheridan College Interior Decorating Awards

Monday night Sheridan College hosted their annual Interior Decorating Awards Event.  As in the past, CDECA provides a one year complimentary membership to the winning student.  This award is awarded to the student who has shown outstanding performance and contribution to the Interior Decorating and Design Industry.  This year Ina (Rosie) Roh was the recipient.  Congratulations to Rosie!   

 

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.

Design Event At Toute Suite in Mississauga

Yesterday was not such a great day with all the rain we experienced but last evening turned into a great night.  The rain ceased and the fun began with a Spring Open House Event at Toute Suite Custom Decor.  Many of the public and Designers/Decorators were seen enjoying the  incredible hors d'oeuvres from Rocos Plum Tomato Catering & Restaurants which can be found on Islington Ave and The Queensway;  while viewing the great Canadian Made furnishings as well.  Toute Suite has everything including beautiful ready made drapery from Faab.   To top that off Jane Lockhart, well known and extremely talented designer was on hand to present some spring design tips and her new line Jane by Jane Lockhart which will be available at Toute Suite. 

Some of the Design Tips shared were that we will be seeing a lot of colour and pattern.  She talked about graphics, geometric, and the all time favourite stripes.  You will also see a lot of furniture with the nail head treatment, contrast piping, tufting and once again yellow metal is showing up as in brass and copper.  As for colour there is an abundance with Pantonne's Colour of the Year being Emerald Green leading the way. We also see mirrored case goods which really help to expand a space.

One can start small with the accessories to add colour to our neutral larger pieces.  White will always be popular and when you add colour and pattern it really gives it some impact.  Below I share some of the photos from last night and you will see I selected mostly grey and light neutral pieces, which I am personally fond of, but there is a myriad of colourful and patterned fabrics available to have smaller custom pieces created to work with your neutrals. If you are ready to go full out any of the pieces below and in the showroom can definitely be fabricated in a bright and colourful pattern!

As we had a chance to network, check out the newest in home decor and of course eat very well, we were also treated to live music from Angelica Ganea who has the voice of an angel.  Check her out on you tube as well.  www.youtube.com/AngelicaGanea

Wow, I would say that Toute Suite really knows how to host a party!!  Thanks to Vish and staff

Lots of Nail head trim and tufting as seen below....

 

The colour we are hearing about will be seen in accessories for many people but if you are not afraid of  colour here is one of Jane's chairs in a lovely pattern with some colour...

CDECA Annual General Meeting & Awards Presentation

April brings us to our CDECA Annual General Meeting and Awards Presentation.   Once again, we met at the Sunnybrook Estates for a day of networking, learning, celebrating and a lovely lunch.  The guest speaker this year was Robin Siegerman who spoke on "Renovation Bootcamp" and offered some good ideas for designers and decorators working on large projects.  We ended our celebrating the winners of our annual Decorating Contest.  Congratulations to the winners!  Check for them on our CDECA Website

Spring Blossoms were our table decor and offered as prizes to attendees.  Created by some members of the GTA West Window Committee;  Dorota Amirmansour; Jasmina Coffa, Debra Schaff Clark; 

Karen Stephens & Jeannette Wisby