This summary describes a mother-daughter duo, Michelle and Taylor Maue, who recently opened a home furnishing and design business called Studio 428 Design & Décor in Kitchener. Their passion for interior design comes from Michelle's family, who have owned a paint and decor business called Heer's Paint & Décor for 60 years. Both Michelle and Taylor spent much of their childhood involved in the family business and learning about home decorating. They opened Studio 428 to focus specifically on interior design. While they have different personal tastes, their complementary skills and views help make their new business a success by appealing to various customer preferences.

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120 GRAND MARCH | APRIL 2015 MARCH | APRIL 2015 GRAND 121
New store,
By Deirdre Healey
It’s qu ite poss ible Michelle Heer Maue and her
daughter Taylor Maue’s love of interior design is
rooted in their DNA.
The mother-daughter duo recently opened a
Kitchener home-furnishing and design business,
Studio 428 Design & Décor, but they are no strangers
to home decorating.
In fact, they come from a family of décor enthusiasts
starting with Michelle’s grandfather, Clarence Heer,
who established Heer’s Paint & Décor 60 years ago.
Today, the business, owned by Michelle’s father
Robert, has grown to four stores — two in Kitchener,
one in Waterloo and one in Guelph. Studio 428,
the most recent addition, opened in November next
door to the family’s flagship store on Gage Avenue in
Kitchener.
“It has always been my goal to open up a design and
décor store,” says Michelle, who stepped into the role
as general manager of Heer’s Paint & Décor last year.
“It’s what I have always been passionate about. It’s
also the aspect of the business that Taylor really loves
so we decided to make the new store a partnership.”
Michelle, and later Taylor, grew up surrounded
by the world of high quality paint and wallpaper.
Michelle spent many childhood days at the original
store on Belmont Street in Kitchener. >>
F E A T U R EF
Robert Heer, owner of Heer’s
Paint & Décor, stops by Studio 428
Design & Décor, which is run by
his daughter Michelle Heer Maue
and granddaughter Taylor Maue.
Michelle is also the company’s
general manager.
Photography • Tomasz Adamski
Heer family marks
60 years in décor business
with new retail venture
and expanded role
for fourth generation

2. 122 GRAND MARCH | APRIL 2015 MARCH | APRIL 2015 GRAND 123
>> As a baby, she posed for store advertise-
ments decked out in overalls and holding
a paint roller in her hand. As a child, she
learned to tint paint, and by the time she
was a teenager, she was working part time
helping customers pick out wallpaper.
“I grew up in the store,” says Michelle.
“I loved it. It was difficult for me when
we closed that store down a few years ago
because it held a lot of memories.”
Taylor also has many childhood memories
of the original store.
“I used to bring her with me to the store in
the mornings before she started kindergar-
ten in the afternoon,” says Michelle.
While her mother was working, Taylor
would build houses out of the empty boxes,
run lemonade stands at the store’s front
entrance and help behind the counter.
“Taylor was just five when she started
tinting paint,” says Michelle. “We would
put her up on a stool and she would figure
it out.”
Taylor also worked part time in the
family business during her teenaged years
and when she wasn’t at the store helping
customers with decorating their rooms, she
was at home decorating her own.
“I have redone my bedroom seven times
in the last 10 years,” says Taylor. “I would
repaint it, get new bedding and do a
complete makeover. I grew up around
home decorating so I just became accus-
tomed to doing it.”
Given their shared innate passion for
interior design, it’s not surprising the
mother and daughter have continued to
follow similar paths with the recent opening
of Studio 428 Design & Décor.
“Inherently you become what you are
surrounded by,” says Michelle. “But when
it comes to interior design, I think you
also have to have a natural ability to pull
things together. You can teach someone the
fundamentals, but being able to visualize
what will work together is not something
that can be learned.”
This could be true. Michelle’s 23-year-old
son also spent a lot of time at the store
while growing up, but he found his calling
as a plumber and gas fitter.
•••
Michelle’s grandfather, Clarence Heer,
had worked at various hardware stores
before setting up his own business. One of
his motivations was a desire to share his
knowledge and skills around painting.
He enjoyed teaching people so much that
in the early years, after putting in 10 hours
at the store, he would visit customers at
their homes so he could show them how to
apply the paint.
It wasn’t long before his son Robert began
showing the same interest in home decorat-
ing. Robert began working with his father at
the Belmont Street store when he was just
13 and eventually took over in the 1970s.
During that time, the pair also established
a facility on Gage Avenue dedicated to
commercial and industrial clients as well
as contractors plus another retail store on
Edinburgh Road in Guelph. In the 1990s,
they opened a second Kitchener store on
Victoria Street and a store in Waterloo on
King Street North.
Since the family’s first store opened in
1955, the business has expanded beyond
paint to include wallpaper, custom blinds
and drapery as well as an interior design
service.
“My father was a maverick in terms of his
business choices,” says Michelle. “He and
my grandfather together managed to build
the business to what it is today.”
Clarence died in 1999.
Although Michelle has now taken over
much of the management of the business
from her 73-year-old father, he is still
heavily involved in the decision-making.
“He comes in about once a week, talks to
customers and keeps track of the numbers
to make sure the business is thriving.”
Just like her father, Michelle has been
working in the family business since she
was 13. During that time, she has worked
with her younger sister and her brother-in-
law, who eventually both left the business
for other careers.
Michelle says working with family can be
challenging at times because it blurs the
lines between your personal and profes-
sional life.
“When you work in a family business,
the work never stops. My father will still
often try to ask me questions about the
business when we are not at work. If I
ignore him, then he knows it’s not a good
time. With him, work never shuts off.
With me, it never shuts off in my head,
but I try to keep it out of family gather-
ings. I think there is a time and a place.”
Working with non-family employees also
has its pressures.
“In our case, we have staff members who
have been with us for 30 and 40 years,”
Michelle says. “They have grown up with
me and now I am their boss. It’s important
to me that I don’t look like I’m favoured
because I’m family so I generally try to
work longer hours than everyone else.”
•••
Despite Michelle’s early involvement in
the business, she never envisioned herself
pursuing a career in home decorating.
“I had no desire to go into the family
business. During my last couple years
of high school, I had planned to go into
law, but at the last minute I changed my
mind.”
When she graduated from high school
her heart, or perhaps her genetics, pulled
her back to the family business. Initially,
she enrolled in an interior design course,
but found she wasn’t learning anything
new from what she had already acquired
from years of working at the store so she
switched to a fine arts degree at Wilfrid
Laurier University.
“My father always said we had to get
an education. We weren’t allowed to
come into the family business without a
university degree or college diploma. I
think it was good my father made sure we
didn’t just walk into the business without
any knowledge or experience. We had to
work for it.”
Like mother like daughter, a similar >>
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3. 124 GRAND MARCH | APRIL 2015
>> scenario played out when it came time
for Taylor to choose a career path.
“I was like my mother,” Taylor says. “At
first I didn’t want to be a part of the family
business.”
Unsure of what she wanted to do, Taylor
decided to enrol in a business program
at Mohawk College. However, when the
opportunity arose to join her mother
in opening a store dedicated to interior
design, it was too good for her to pass up.
“I always knew that if I was going to
get into interior design, I wanted it to be
exclusively interior design and not tinting
paint and fitting in design calls here and
there,” Taylor says.
When the commercial space next to
the Gage Avenue store became vacant
last summer, Michelle knew this was her
chance to branch out. Taylor was immedi-
ately on board and even wrote the business
plan. Within four months, Studio 428
Design & Décor was up and running.
“I was shocked when she said she wanted
to be a part of the business,” says Michelle.
“I never thought she would want to work
alongside me. I’m very proud of the choice
only because I know there is a great deal of
talent within this young lady.”
Currently, Taylor is in the final year of
her college program. She plans to split her
time between classes and working at the
store on weekends until she graduates and
can be there full time.
•••
The 2,500-sq.-ft. store/design studio is
filled with everything you could imagine
for a home. Michelle and Taylor strive to
ensure the products reflect the latest trends
in home décor, and most of the inventory
is made in North America.
“Our focus is on inspiring the customer
to want to decorate in a way that they can
have the look they want without a huge
cost,” says Michelle. “We want to keep the
price point within the realm of the average
customer. And if a customer can’t find
something here, then we will go look for
it. The selection we have in the store is just a
smattering of what we have access to.”
Although the two women have plenty in
common, their business views and taste
in home décor can be quite different.
Michelle enjoys a comfortable and
welcoming look when it comes to her
home furnishings while Taylor is drawn to
the current vintage look.
“I think our difference in opinion makes
for a good business,” says Taylor. “It makes
us think outside the box and challenge
each other. I have learned a lot from my
mother and my grandfather about interior
design because we think so differently.”
•••
Not only has the Heer family managed
to pass down the business to a fourth
generation, but it has also continued its
commitment to the community.
For 29 years, Robert and then Michelle
handled the design and decorating of the
Kitchener- Conestoga Rotary Dream Home.
It has been a huge task that takes five
months to complete, from selecting the
house design to outfitting the home with
furniture, says Michelle. However, it’s also
has been a unique experience because
the interior designer gets to work with a
blank slate.
“It’s like building a house from the
ground up in five months. It’s a decora-
tor’s dream because you never get to work
with that type of venue. The goal is to
show what’s new and do it in a way that
highlights everything from the building
to the fixtures, cabinetry and flooring.
Ultimately the house has to show well so
they sell lots of tickets.”
Now, as Heer’s moves into the future and
Taylor takes on more responsibility, with
her experience and her bloodline, she’s
definitely qualified for the task.
“I know Taylor will do a great job,” says
Michelle. “Having her involved in the
family business has made my dad so happy.
The business is like his baby and now he
knows it’s going to continue.”
Decorating tips from Studio 428
1Define the entranceway by using a
colour or pattern. This area should
introduce your lifestyle and taste. It is a
space that welcomes family and friends to
your personality.
2Highlight interesting architectural
details with a contrasting or accent
colour. You create interest by highlighting
these details both inside and outside of the
home, making the eye want to search
for more.
3Space affects how we perceive colour.
Keep proportion and scale in mind when
making colour selections. Colour can also
make a room feel intimate or open.
4Make a small room or a room with a
low ceiling feel larger by minimizing the
colour contrast between the walls and ceil-
ing. Ceilings are truly a blank canvas for your
creative expression so don’t be afraid to use
colour or even a patterned wallpaper to cre-
ate interest and draw attention to the ceiling.
5Colour, pattern and texture are the
building blocks of any decorating
scheme. Always use these elements to
create the style, mood and feel you want for
each area of your home. Patterns with colour
and movement bring new life to a room and
create the personality.
6Repetition of colour, pattern and tex-
ture is the key to good design. None of
these three elements can stand alone.
7Nothing adds personality to a space
like a distinctive wall covering. It can
envelop the room in a unique way and bring
together all the building blocks required to
create the mood.
8T hrow pillows are an effective way to
update any interior. They can quickly
add colour, pattern, texture and personality
with little effort. Remember to keep in mind
differing sizes as well as the proportions of
any patterns.
9Area rugs can be used to tie the room
together. They can either subtly anchor
the entire scheme or become the focal point
if highly patterned or colourful. If the rug has
a strong pattern, keep the furnishings quiet
in pattern and colour, and let the rug “do
the talking.”