Meet Venie – my new BFF

I am SO excited. I’m finally ready to start my bedroom make-over, after putting it off for months and months and months. The project is fairly big — I’ll be building a closet with the help of Yvonne Patton of Total Confidence, then installing new flooring, doors, lighting and a ceiling fan, as well as painting and decorating. One thing holding me back was confusion over co-ordinating all the décor and design elements. Such a puzzle - so many misteps that I could make!

Fortunately, I have found the solution — I’m going to be working with a “Project Guide” from Rona. In a nutshell, this is a personalized service that lets you work one-on-one with a Rona staffer who has experience in all aspects of reno and design. Basically, it’s like having your own project manager. One major difference is, of course, that the service is FREE. Hello, people, could this be the city’s best-kept design secret?

This week, I met my project guide, Venie, at the Rona Stockyards location (great store, btw). I’m already crazy about her. She started by looking at my plans, and pointing out where I’d missed important measurements (in a  nice way, of course.) Then we walked the floor, looking at the paint, lighting, flooring and door departments. I’ve already got a couple of great tips from Venie, including advice on which aspects of a  job you can save on by doing yourself. She talked me out of trying to install a hardwood floor, telling me that it would probably take me three to five times longer than a professional and that you can end up wasting money by making mistakes with the cutting (how does she know that arithmetic is not my strong point?)

To avoid the longest blog entry ever, I’ll stop here for now. Look for the “before” picture of the room here next week, frequent blogs over the summer and a big reveal in the New in Homes section of the Toronto Star later this summer or early fall. In the meantime, look for frequent blogs on the project, tips from Venie, and — as soon as my Twitter account is up and running — many tweets. Oooh – can you tell I’m excited?!!