Top Shelf Design

Picking a kitchen palette in the showroom is one thing ☝️ Living with it in your actual home is another.

The same cabinet colour can read crisp and bright in one home, and flat or cold in another. The difference almost always comes down to light.
⛰️North-facing kitchens lean cool, so warmer tones (think aged oak, warm linen, soft greige) keep the space from feeling chilly.
🏖️South and west-facing kitchens get more warmth from the sun, so they can carry cooler whites and greys without feeling sterile.

💡A simple tip before you commit: tape your top finish samples to the wall and look at them at three different times of day. Morning, midday, and early evening. The right palette will feel good in all three.

Design Top Shelf Design | Photography Paul Grdina Photography

Sometimes the smallest decision in a renovation makes the biggest impact 🤯
In this project, the homeowners came to us wanting a refresh that didn't require gutting the whole space. The layout was working. The bones were good. What the home needed was personality, the kind that makes you smile every time you walk in.

So we made one bold move ☝️ A single deeply saturated colour, used confidently in a space that needed an anchor. No timid accent wall. No "we'll see how it goes." Just a committed choice that gave the entire room a reason to feel like itself.

The rest of the design? Quieter. Warm woods, soft textures, lighting that flatters the new tone. Everything else gets to play a supporting role when one element is doing the heavy lifting.
This is the part of renovating we love.

You don't always need a bigger budget or a longer timeline. Sometimes you just need one brave decision, made in the right place, to transform how a home feels. ✨
Design Top Shelf Design | Photography Paul Grdina Photography

For years, the dream was sleek, white, and minimal. Magazine-perfect. Easy to keep clean. And while there's nothing wrong with a calm, simple space, a lot of homeowners are realizing that "minimal" sometimes ended up feeling a little anonymous. Like the home could belong to anyone 💖 What people want now is a home that feels like theirs.

Architectural details that have personality. Mixed materials. Warmer paint colours. A vintage piece next to something brand new. A kitchen that doesn't look like every other kitchen on the block. Storage solutions that work for the way this family actually lives, not how a showroom thinks they should.

Here's a shift we're noticing in almost every renovation conversation lately: clients aren't asking for "modern" anymore. They're asking for character...

The good news is that character doesn't require a bigger budget.
It requires better questions early in the process.
💬What do you love?
💬What do you keep?
💬What do you want this home to feel like in ten years?

When we ask the right things at the start, the renovation tells YOUR story, not someone else's. And that's a home worth coming back to every single day.

Rendering to Reality… Built just as it was designed… just as you dreamed it! 🏡✨

with .gunn_

💡Quick myth to bust: Wood Tones Must Match.

For years, the rule was that everything wooden in a room should be the same finish. Floors, cabinets, dining table, bookshelves, all in lockstep. The result was often a space that felt flat, like everything was trying a little too hard to coordinate.

A much friendlier modern approach (and honestly, more forgiving for real homes). Mixing wood tones is in. Done well, it adds depth, warmth, and a collected feel that single-tone rooms just can't pull off.

A few simple ground rules to keep it looking intentional rather than accidental:
⚡Pick a dominant wood tone, usually your floor, and let everything else play a supporting role.
⚡Aim for variety in shade, not chaos. A light oak floor pairs beautifully with a medium walnut table and a darker accent piece.
⚡Pay attention to undertones. Warm woods with warm woods, cool with cool.
⚡Give each wood piece a little breathing room with a non-wood material in between, like a stone counter, a rug, or upholstery.
⚡The best part? You can keep meaningful pieces you love, even if your new floors are a different shade. It was never the problem.