Small Space, Big Joy: Designing a Halifax Home for a Growing Family
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We hired Deborah to design a new kitchen and main floor renovation of our house. She made wonderful suggestions with respect to the layout furniture, lighting and finishes of our home and it has completely changed how we use our space. I’m someone who knows what I like when I see it, but I have difficulty articulating my exact style preferences. I appreciated Deborah’s ability to quickly tailor her recommendations to my tastes. I cannot recommend her more highly. – Patrick M
How to Shape Your Home for Easy Living
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After reviewing Deborah’s on-line portfolio of work, we liked what she’d done with other home in our area. Her process was inclusive and informal, and she was able to gently and assuredly guide us through the design process, which I must admit was outside our normal comfort zone. While our reno encompassed both floors of our main living space, the majority of the work was in our kitchen are entry areas. Deborah helped us select flooring (glue down luxury vinyl plank), which we love, and helped us design a new kitchen space. I think the most challenging and bravest step was choosing to stain our stairs a beautiful shade of blue, which matched our island cabinetry. While skeptical at first (it was very non-traditional!), once we saw the end result, fell in love with it. Without Deborah’s expertise, guidance, depth of design knowledge, and her proven connections to expert contractors, we would never have been able to complete the renovation ourselves, and certainly would never have achieved the same end result! – Janice and Jeff
robie street, halifax
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Deborah has helped us with a few design projects over the past couple of years. From helping us remodel our existing kitchen to picking out the perfect paint colours and wallpaper for our fireplace. Before we hired Deborah, we were overwhelmed with all the choices and didn’t know where to start. She was able to make it all feel so easy!
From the very beginning, we were always kept up to date with the design process and timeline. We are so happy with every decision made. Deborah is such a pleasure to work with. She really listened carefully and understood what our vision was while being personable and genuine. She was able to translate our ideas and budget into a realistic plan. We would not hesitate to work with Deborah again. We could not have accomplished this without her help. Looking forward to our next project together! – Dawn and Aaron
mill village, pared back design
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The contribution that Deborah Nicholson made to my new home build was invaluable. She impressed me with her responsiveness, insights, creativity, and thoughtfulness. She knew how to tease out the information needed to get to understand my personal style and taste, in order to provide options and suggestions for me to choose from. From room design to colour (interior and exterior), to lighting, to selection and placement of furniture, Deborah’s expertise and guidance helped me design and create the home of my dreams. She also was very attuned to making recommendations to fit my budget, and was transparent in the pricing of her services – no surprises for my budget which is also appreciated! I highly recommend her to all my friends and acquaintances who are interested in design support. Bravo! – Karen P
century home meets modern family life
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“After settling in and adding to our family, we decided a few areas weren’t working for us. We independently mulled over how to redesign the kitchen, pantry, back entry and small bath but finally decided we needed a pro. In walked Deborah and she perfectly captured the space we were looking for in her proposed design. It was very important to us to merge the century old features of our home with the new and Deborah certainly honoured that in her design suggestions.” – Jen and Mike
life is better at the lake
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For many years I have tried to be a self decorator. I spent a lot of time and money picking out the wrong things that did not work in my house – resulting in frustration and wasted effort and resources. Finally I saw the light and reached out to Deborah who offered wise advice and guidance. She is wonderful to work with, very responsive and has a great sense of humor. The result of my experience with her is that I have been able to finally enjoy my home and love how it looks! – Holly L
a hygge kitchen
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“Light and Space – A perfect blend! We had benefited from Deborah’s lighting and design expertise in the past, and when we contacted her for our 8′ x 10′ kitchen and main floor redesign, it was a happy reunion. In late 2020 we embarked together on an extensive project that was fluid in ideas but that solidified and took wonderful shape over time.
There was good communication between all parties at every phase of the project and our input was always welcome. Deborah matched us with great tradespeople and as the renovation progressed, she cheerfully handled any alterations that we asked for or that our tradespeople needed to make. There were some delays in materials due to the pandemic, but our renovation was completed just before Christmas 2021. The big test was the holiday season and family. There was plenty of room for everyone! Thank you Deborah!” – Margaret B
like a cashmere sweater
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“We moved into an apartment after living in houses for the past 35 years. We sold most of our furnishings and wanted to start fresh. After doing some research with other interior decorators, we enjoyed a super friendly and helpful initial phone interview with Deborah and hired her to help put our vision of a comfy yet sophisticated living room together.
Despite Covid and Christmas, the design came together quickly. Deborah honoured our budget and made the experience pleasant and painless. She was even able to source a seamstress to remake some custom drapery at a really great price. We trusted her experience and are so happy with how our new home turned out. Deborah was always approachable, accessible, and full of terrific ideas. We would highly recommend Deborah to anyone needing interior decorating … she is simply GREAT!!!” – Susan Janega-Baird and Danny Baird
uplifting interiors for the new normal
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“Although I was a little nervous about Deborah’s choice of wall treatment for my master bedroom suite, I reminded myself that on each of our three previous projects together, Deborah’s wildly creative ideas always made me very happy and very much at home.
Every detail in my home works so well together. I love being enveloped by sumptuous green as I relax in my den and, as I look through the French doors to the living room at my Farrow&Ball Arsenic walls, I can’t imagine a more perfect place to be.
With a large scale botanical wallpaper, Deborah brought the dated Tuscan kitchen into the 21st century. All the rooms in the house are large with high ceilings so it always felt difficult to relax and settle in. Deborah assured me that our bold colour and pattern choices would turn that too-big feeling into a cozy comfy home. And it worked!
Deborah has a way of gently moving me past my indecision. She inspires confidence to really make a home your home. Thank goodness! Otherwise, I would still be looking at empty beige rooms!” — L. Jones
making a traditional home relevant for a young family
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“Deborah provided the guidance and confidence we needed to execute a cohesive update to our home. It was a truly collaborative experience, with the end product serving our young family well, while incorporating some much-needed style. We feel like our house is now our home, and would happily work with Deborah again.” – Kendra and Matt
lunenburg air b&b
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“Our suite was spacious and spotless. Lovely designed bathrooms and beds almost too good to get out of in the mornings. The house is well laid out for multiple guests but retains its heritage character.”
“Beautiful contemporary decorated and well designed accommodation with very unique and thoughtful touches that make it so special and create a wonderful atmosphere.”
“Suite 5 at the Kinley House was amazing! The entire suite was updated with modern touches and the hosts provided all the amenities one would hope for. I love the kitchenettes and all the tools that came with them and the bathrooms are spacious, bright and modern. Beds were big and comfy as well!”
– B&B guests
rejuvenation
My recent home renovation that Deborah orchestrated has been a huge project, and I could not be happier with the end result. I have been extremely fortunate to have partnered with a professional that demonstrates all the skills ie design and product knowledge, use of technology and organization in presenting her ideas and the execution of tasks. Her communication with schedules and costs was clear, timely and accountable. She provides a very hands-on level of service- no job, or detail is too insignificant and she takes every measure to be efficient and cost-effective with her time. Her patience, and ongoing support to me personally and as my representative to the trades throughout this journey has been invaluable. Deborah has created a home of my dreams!
– Megan Wade
three projects in
I have worked with Deborah on three different projects thus far – from seemingly simple paint choices to updating paint and light fixtures to demolition and remodel. Thru it all Deborah has remained calm, cool and collected; dealing with contractors and suppliers with the utmost professionalism. Not only could I not have done it without her, I would even be willing to do it again.
– L. Jones
family home in pereau – new build: full interior/exterior design
Deborah took our project on with great enthusiasm and was truly up for the challenge. We engaged Deborah with preliminary plans in hand with the hope that she would challenge us from the “status quo”. Deborah was able to make suggestions regarding interior room placement and sizes, siding selections, window placements, and sizes, etc. From there she moved onto the finer interior details, trim selections, flooring, and wall tiles, paint colors, fixture selections, lighting, furniture, etc. The list of items and the number of tasks seemed endless at times, but Deborah was up to the challenge and presented us with options within the appropriate timelines for each stage of our project, and most definitely challenged our status quo to enable us to design a home that is everything we could have dreamt of and then some!
– Heather and Alan Melvin
definitely NOT a clown house
Deborah is amazing with colour! We hired her to help with our 200 year old cottage that we’re reviving. She was able to take my crazy ideas and turn them into something cohesive that flows from one room to the other (Not the clown house I likely would have designed myself.)
Her process is impressive as she moves through the house and creates a palette that we love but could never have figured out ourselves.
– Lynn Henderson
a house therapist
I am so pleased with my design and color selection experience with Deborah. She is so perky and effervescent in her love of design. I like her sense of style! And so professional. I describe her as a house therapist, who listened with care and attentiveness to all of my house woes and wishes. Her suggestions reflected her astuteness to my concerns. I feel like I am going out on a bit of limb with some of the anticipated changes to my home. Deborah instills a sense of confidence and support with my wish to be a bit more adventurous. I will let you know how it all goes…
If you are looking for a professional, skillful collaborator on your project, I would highly recommend Deborah, and her website interface makes it all so easy and doable. I had easy communications between our consultations, and the website interface made it easy to share photos, color schemes, style themes with ease. She also sourced many of the items that would have taken me weeks to find.
– Cheendana M.
luckily for us…
Deborah, working with you has been such a pleasure. My husband and I had a very general idea of what we wanted for a finished product but had absolutely no idea of the first steps to take to make that vision come to life. Luckily for us, we found you! Having never worked with an interior decorator before, we had no idea what to expect for services. You provided more than we ever could have anticipated, and we’re so pleased with the results.
– Michele and Ken Rerrie
litchfield on the lake
The whole look is what I was after dear Deborah!! Very calming, open, light and spacious. You are spot on!
– Catherine Vaughan
air bnb
In one short meeting, Deborah was able to give us some very helpful, affordable, suggestions about lighting, colour & “hiding” some unmovable objects we had to contend with. She is deeply knowledgeable about available products, and technical details. I can not recommend her highly enough. She uses her keen eye for style to create practical & beautiful realities. Thank you Deborah.
– Dawn Higgins
beauty and flow
After almost 10 years of business in Wolfville, Jane’s Again was in need of a facelift! After so many years of working in the shop, I was finding it difficult to envision the possibilities. Not so for Deborah! She brought beauty and flow to a very small space all the while considering every aspect we needed to keep to allow for the daily functioning of the shop. Our new simple & bright space is just what we asked for and we couldn’t be happier! Thank you Deborah!
– Jani MacDonald, Owner of Jane’s Again, Wolfville
a happy place
Deborah is a delight to work with, she listens well and stays calm no matter what. Her diplomacy when dealing with trades and suppliers is awesome to see. While we are only about halfway through our demolition & renovation, I know that the end result will be the home I envisioned. I can’t imagine doing this without her! Thank you Deborah for all your patience and hard work!
– Lorraine Jones
lily’s river paradise
We purchased a lovely house in the Valley and moved from southern Ontario five months ago, knowing there was a lot of work in front of us to make it into our dream home. Deborah has been with us all the way, guiding us in everything from paint selection to furniture selection to lighting. She is extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic, but at the same time respectful of our needs and preferences. Deborah is expert at many different facets of decorating, but we are particularly awed at her colour sense and her instinctive grasp of what we really want, even when we haven’t quite recognized it yet ourselves. Deborah is a master at using her time efficiently, and we were impressed at the amount of work she did for us in what amounted to a small number of hours. We highly recommend Deborah for projects both large and small.
– Anne & Bob
canning art studio & gallery
Deborah is a pleasure to work with. Her expertise of lighting and colour was essential to creating a great result for my new studio and gallery. I highly recommend hiring Deborah Nicholson for your next project.
– Ron Hayes
so nice, we’ll stay
I have had the great pleasure to work with Deborah Nicholson over the years. Deborah was very inspirational when we were listing our home for sale. She re-designed our living space to show it in the best possible light and we consulted with her on paint colours, lighting, and creatively getting the word out to appeal to a wide audience. Deborah is a keen listener, intuitive and so much fun to work with, putting you at ease every step of the way.
– Patty M.
add in, or leave out?
I can’t say enough about the excellent results and very reasonable cost. The work with the furniture, designs, colors and carpets was terrific. Then the look created with the prints and paintings we had to work with far exceeded my expectation. This work was carried out so seemingly effortless and with such reassuring confidence. I was amazed.
– Danny & Shirley Smith
lighting with panache
Deborah Nicholson helped me with the entire lighting plan in our new home. She listened attentively to my needs and preferences and supplied us with great suggestions including a floor plan and electrical diagram. She was great to work with, very accommodating and did not try to change my style and/or preferences. I would recommend her to anyone building a new home or renovating.
– Gabrielle Doucette
scientist’s creative zone
We have had the good fortune of working with Deborah Nicholson. We are newcomers to Nova Scotia and purchased a house that required numerous renovations, from changing lighting fixtures to reworking floors, bathroom sinks and toilets, interior design/decoration, remodelling the fireplace and even creating a workspace that includes a sophisticated desk for use with multiple computers and monitors. Deborah displayed ingenuity, efficiency, an incredible creative prowess and communication skills that made our transition to our new home painless and resulted in a living environment that catered to our needs at an affordable price. Because of her excellent work, professionalism, meticulous attention to details and care, we highly recommend her services in all of the aforementioned capacities.
– Jeanne & Philip
art installation
Deborah, although we only had the opportunity to work for one day together, I learned a lot from the experience and enjoyed it immensely. As you will recall, I had a number of paintings and mirrors (over 60) that I wanted hung in my newly purchased condo. I so badly needed the input of a professional interior decorator to assist me – and you were perfect for the job! You were particularly good at bringing a number of art works together in a collage which was both very interesting and balanced. Your eye for colour and design is amazing – you helped to make every room come alive.
Thank you for your helping to make my condo a home. I have definitely recommended you to friends and will continue to do so.
– Carmel Myles
