S1 E6 - Design & Decor – Two Visions, One Passion

[00:00:10.530] - Frédérique

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Between Bricks and Binders. Today, Ronaldo has the chance to speak with Margaux and Aurore from Montreal Home Design Studio. And he talks about the differences between design and decorator, as we did in a previous show, but this time it's within the same organization. So it's very interesting to see how they work together in their business and how they make everything happen. So let's listen to it.

[00:00:38.350] - Ronaldo

So hi, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Between Bricks and Binders. I'm Ronaldo, your host for today. And we have the pleasure of having Margaux and Aurora from Montreal Home Design Studio. So usually I take the time to actually introduce my guests but today I would kind of like to let you do it because I do believe that Montreal Home Design Studio has a particular beginning. So I'll let you take over.

[00:01:11.160] - Margaux

So hi, I'm Margaux from Montreal Home Design. But initially, I had my company, which was Maison H. And so I was specialized in home staging and decoration. Well, we say interior design, but yeah, specifically, decoration and relooking. And I met Aurora. And so I'll let Aurora present herself.

[00:01:37.020] - Aurore

Yes. So hi, my name is Aurora. It's very hard for me to say it in English, but anyway. I'm French, and I had I did my studies in engineering. So I worked like 15 years in engineering before I came to Canada. And I created my own interior design company just to work on plans and because I like to rethink spaces and add a little bit of creativity into my daily work. Because as an engineer, this was a part that I was missing. And somehow, one day, I had a client that was asking for this interior design and some decoration, and we were able to work together with Margaux, and it went so well that we pursued and we created Montréal Home Design together. So she dropped Maison H, I dropped A.Design to became something together that combines design and decoration.

[00:02:39.660] - Ronaldo

Nice. That's amazing. And how does one get into either design or decoration? I always ask myself, is it something that I could train and become good at, or I need to be born with the eye of the nice things or nice-looking things?

[00:03:00.160] - Margaux

So yes, I believe that you have to have something flowing in your blood that represents design and your interest for that. Afterwards, well, obviously, studies help. There are techniques, so that you learn. Techniques also, I imagine for Aurora, I'm going to say Aurore because it's not very natural for me, but to make plans, design plans and stuff. And for me, on the relooking and home staging, you have the focusing, the way of putting furniture, the colors of paints, all that you can learn, but you have a base in yourself. And I like to give this figure, which is only 2% of people have the capability of imagining how to furnish, and I don't know how to say, aménage, rethink space. And so it's very little.

[00:03:57.350] - Ronaldo

All right. Well, it's good to hear that figure. It actually helps me understand that I'm not outside of the norm. I'm part of the 98, which keeps me in the normal space, but it also tells me I can't go into design. It's a good thing you guys are there, right? And people can call you for that. I wanted to see, how did your clientele change between when you had your personal businesses versus when you actually had the combined business?

[00:04:28.000] - Aurore

Well, we went into much more variety just because sometimes we have clients calling us to say: Okay, I want to renovate my space because I feel it doesn't have the functionality I need, or I need to make it bigger or I also have an extension, or I need to review how my rooms are separated. And sometimes it's just not about renovating, it's about how you've furnished your space. Maybe you have a sofa that is too big, maybe you have the way you put things together that doesn't make it functional and how the energy circulates doesn't fit you. So this is where the decoration, we say: Okay, you contacted us for renovation, but somehow we could help with just decoration. So this is how we combine our forces, our different skills, to be able to help the customer in a right way without having him spend too much also and have the value of our service. So it's not just having us as a cost, but truly as an investment.

[00:05:42.680] - Ronaldo

Okay. And because now we're speaking of the clientele itself, right? One thing that I really find fascinating is with your services, you're able to bring the client to actually modify their space to match their lifestyle versus them modifying their lifestyle to match their living spaces, right? How do you actually change not change that mindset, but how is it received by the clients when they actually realize that that can happen?

[00:06:23.980] - Margaux

No, well, the thing is that, in fact, today we see a lot of interiors that are very gray, white, beige, and so not much personality. People tend to think that it's going to be easier to sell it and stuff. So what we do is that we help the clients know where to invest. So when we come, we'll see usually, it's going to be the kitchen, the bathroom. These spaces can be kept quite neutral, but you can also add anyways a bit of color or whatever that won't bother, but in a little specific element. And then the rest of the space can just be customized accordingly to the personality of the client because anyways, painting a wall, it can be painted back in white, and we actually do that in home staging also. We sometimes add paint places that don't fit. So I mean, it's not an issue. And so you can really customize for yourself, and then it won't be an issue to sell afterwards. So maybe you'd like to add.

[00:07:37.060] - Aurore

Well, I just want to say, you can be tired of always adapting yourself to being outside and exterior. So if your home can reflect yourself and be for yourself, it's better, right? It's better for your energy, it's better for having your nest, I would say, your refuge where you can go and fit. When you come home and you say: I'm at home. You know? You have this feeling, you don't have it elsewhere. I mean, you have to create it at your place, and you don't have to think about what would going to happen if I resell in two, three years. I mean, you can have definitely a space that is adapted to yourself.

[00:08:22.990] - Ronaldo

Adapted to, yeah. That's the one part that I really find fascinating. But how do you actually get to the point where you come up with the final design and you're confident that that's the one for your client? How is that process between the moment that they actually contact you and the moment that you deliver that design to them?

[00:08:49.380] - Aurore

So the first thing we do is that we schedule a consultation visit. So we come at the place. This is very important to see the feeling of the place, the light that you have in it, what you already have in it, how the people are living. And then we also ask a lot of questions. So we have also a questionnaire that we send, but sometimes we have clients that doesn't have time to just fill in a big questionnaire. So it doesn't matter. We are going to ask those questions during the consultation visit where we ask them: Okay, how many people live in this house? Do you have kids? Do you have animals? Do you like to receive a lot? Do you like cooking? Do you like... What is the feeling of the house? What do you want it to feel? What is your personality? Do you do some sports a lot? Are you really active? Do you want it to be calm? Or do you like colors or wallpapers? And what kind of wallpapers? What color do you don't like at all? And why? Are you irritant today somehow? What we could remove, adapt or...

[00:09:57.230] - Ronaldo

It feels like a psychology test. It is.

[00:10:00.080] - Aurore

It's truly psychology. It's truly psychology. And after that, once we have all of those information, of course, we can help the person build a budget and help them understand what would be the best for their budget also. And after this consultation visit, we give them a big report where we have inspirations based on what we talk per space for every space of the house and the budget that we estimated for the work. And after that, we can move forward into mood board, selection of products, artisans. So really the people that are going to create the space also, you have some specialists that we will contact for the wood, for the paintings, for the glasses and everything. So it's really very complete. And you have, of course, 3D that we can show you.

[00:11:00.710] - Ronaldo

So they'll be able to visualize.

[00:11:02.510] - Aurore

Visualize and say yes and no. A project well-built cost you less if you do changes before it happens, then when you are already building and they say, I don't like anymore. This we want to avoid because the cost is very high when you change during the construction.

[00:11:22.500] - Ronaldo

You have the contractors waiting. You have that.

[00:11:24.910] - Aurore

And this is mostly the process my engineer skills also to really well think the process before.

[00:11:31.830] - Margaux

It's kind like, I don't know how you say it in english "entonoir" . You go from this and then after, when you reach the step of beginning the real works, well, that's where the magic happens, but where all the ideas come to life. But usually, normally with each step, it's unlikely that the client doesn't like the design. Because he validated each step.

[00:12:01.500] - Ronaldo

Each step. So, yeah, it's kind of... Okay. Yeah, it helps with the planning. And where does your special touch come into play? So if I'm asking the question of, what am I getting if I go to Montreal Home Design Studio that I don't get elsewhere?

[00:12:20.190] - Aurore

I like this question.

[00:12:22.330] - Margaux

I'd say, well, first of all, our european influences? Because I'm a French-Italian, Aurore is French and Polish, and we live here. So we have all this mix of culture that can combine into design. And we have to say that in Europe, there are beautiful designs happening. That's where all the trends come from. So that's where we also get our inspiration. So there's going to be this part, but also, well, like we said, for my part, it would be, well, if you come towards us, you're going to come for something a bit more, well, original, let's say. So you're going to seek for color, you're going to seek for a design that hasn't been seen yet, let's say.

[00:13:09.380] - Aurore

To have a house that doesn't look like your neighbor. To have your own space to mix and match ancient and modern, to have some culture, to have some charm with the layering of the lights, with the mirrors, with the art selection, with the paintings, with the colors, we like to paint ceilings, we like

to go deep into the design. And also to rethink the spaces, I would say, because of our european background we lived into a thousand square feet where you had four rooms, two bathrooms, one living room, one kitchen, and everything fitted and fits very well, and no one think it's too small. So somehow we are able to fit almost everything in every space.

[00:14:04.490] - Ronaldo

And it's true, like if we haven't been to Europe, small spaces, small cars, small roads, but nobody's complaining. Here in Montreal, they've added cycling tracks, and everybody was like: What are you doing to our roads? I'm like, have you been to France? I try to see their two-way streets. So I I would trust you with spaces, to tell you the truth.

[00:14:32.600] - Aurore

Sometimes it's less overwhelming to have something that you can manage at your size.

[00:14:40.240] - Margaux

We're good at that. That's something too big.

[00:14:42.560] - Ronaldo

We're good at Tetris.

[00:14:45.100] - Margaux

Exactly

[00:14:45.920] - Ronaldo

And when it comes to the construction part of things, the design, but the coordination with the other specialists, how does that usually go? Because you were mentioning in France, you were an engineer. Here, you probably need to deal with engineers or architects or the contractors themselves. How does that cooperation go?

[00:15:11.960] - Aurore

It goes very well because we have specialists that we believe in and we have worked with before. There are some constructors and some entrepreneurs that we don't... contractors that we don't work with anymore because we had some surprise and we had people that were not into the details that we were looking for. But now we have truly a great team and everyone has his specialty, and we don't interfere. We are a team globally into a work for a client, the goal for everyone is have a client happy.

[00:15:45.850] - Margaux

Yeah, I'd say that what's very important for us is a transparent communication amongst the whole team, including the clients. So when the communication is transparent, then usually things go well plus the whole work we've done before we start the renovations.

[00:16:08.640] - Ronaldo

Amazing. I would have a ton of other questions for you, but we have to keep it short today. I know you have other...

[00:16:19.740] - Aurore

Appointments.

[00:16:20.750] - Ronaldo

Other appointments. So yes, once again, it was Ronaldo from Bricks & Binders. We were happy to have Margaux, and I'll also say Aurore, from Montreal Home Design Studios. They can find you guys on

[00:16:39.510] - Aurore

Yeah, on Instagram, you have Montréal Home Design Studio on Instagram and

montrealhomedesign.com for our website to see our portfolio.

[00:16:47.760] - Frédérique

So I hope you guys enjoyed this special episode on Montreal Home Design Studio, where you got to hear Margaux and Aurore speak about their business and how they work together to make things happen. I hope you guys enjoyed it. So make sure you like and follow and share with your friends.