Help Us to Feed the Need in Durham Region -- Drop off Non-Perishable Food Items at the Monarch Showroom

We hope you'll join the Monarch Kitchen & Bath Centre team as we get into the holiday spirit this year with our annual food drive aimed at helping families in need throughout Durham Region.  

Please help us gather nonperishable food items for donation to Feed the Need in Durham, a non-profit, charitable organization that serves as a conduit to its 40+ member agencies located in neighbourhoods across the Region. 

Feed the Need in Durham delivers food to emergency food providers such as food banks, soup kitchens, community service centres, shelters, drop-in centres and breakfast feed programs.

The Spirit of Giving
Support the families in your community by dropping off these much-needed nonperishable food items at Monarch's Pickering showroom by December 19th:

• Kraft Dinner
• pasta sauce
• canned vegetables
• pork and beans
• cranberry sauce
• canned ravioli
• canned tuna and salmon
• mayonnaise,  relish, ketchup, mustard
• small juice boxes 
• stuffing and gravy mix

 Our showroom is located at 1020 Brock Rd., Unit 6, Pickering.

For more information, please call our office at 905-686-2001.

Urban Effects -- Reasonably Priced Quality Cabinetry -- Made in Canada

Recently, a few members of Monarch’s design team hopped aboard an early morning flight to Winnipeg so they could spend the day with the crew at Urban Effects. Urban Effects is a division of Norcraft, now the fifth-largest kitchen and bathroom cabinet manufacturer in North America. This fall, Norcraft announced its first major expansion in 10 years: the doubling of its Winnipeg plant to more than 130,000 square feet. The expansion will be completed by mid-2015. 

First stop for designers Melissa Foley and Amanda Willson-Suppa was a tour of a new-home build. “The home was very large and the homeowners were having Urban Effects cabinetry installed throughout,” says Amanda. “From lockers in the mudroom entrance and kitchen, to all four bathrooms…even the bar! It was truly gorgeous.”

Melissa and Amanda returned to Urban Effects’ expanding manufacturing facility and showroom where they learned that the upcoming expansion will allow Urban Effects to move their shipping department on site. It will allow them to add even more of the most up-to-date manufacturing to their repertoire.

“One of the most interesting things I learned while I was there is that although we refer to one of the materials used for doors as MDF, Urban Effects only uses HDF – high-density fiber board -- for their painted cabinet doors,” says Amanda. “HDF is a superior product to MDF, allowing for stronger doors and a cleaner finish.”

Cabinetry is certainly one of the biggest expenses in a kitchen renovation. If you're looking for ways to stay within your design budget without sacrificing quality, drop by the Monarch showroom and allow one of our designers to show you the wide range of products Urban Effects has to offer.

How is Your Custom Countertop Made? Monarch Designer Jackie Chambers Live Tweets from Latitute Countertops

A few weeks ago, Monarch's design team toured Latitude Countertops' Toronto manufacturing facility and designer Jackie Chambers took her Twitter followers on the tour along with her. In case you missed it, below are the highlights from day.

A favorite granite of designer Jackie Chambers is Bianco Antico.

 CNC machines ensure your countertops are cut with precision! 

A perfectly mitered edge is important with countertops, and having the right tools is a necessary part of the process. With less quality tools your mitered edges can chip and be very rough.

The kitchen template is laid out directly on your slab, this not only reduces waste, but it also ensures that the best looking parts of the stone are used.

Solid surface slabs are HEAVY! Machines can help lift the pieces into place ensuring that the staff remain safe. 

All of the slabs are tagged on site at the quarry. This way, our manufacturer knows where it has come from, what series it is, and can ensure that all of the slabs used for your kitchen design will come from the same cut.

Our countertop fabricator has a high standard for the quality of their countertops, ensuring that an edge is book matched for the closest match possible. This creates a seam that becomes less visible.

Latitude now offers a 25-year sealer for all granite counter tops. This allows the granite to become virtually stain proof and similar in quality to quartz. This eliminates the need to seal your countertops every six months. In fact, Latitude is even able to seal the granite already in your home in just a few hours.

Toronto Kitchen Design: Choose Monarch Kitchen & Bath Centre for a Renovation That's On Time and On Budget

Kitchen and Laundry Room Renovation

October 28th, 2014
Bruce and Pam from Toronto write:

We LOVE everything about our new kitchen and laundry room, and all of the other main floor renovations Monarch did for us. Everyone who visits is equally impressed with the quality, and even more amazed when we tell them that Monarch delivered the entire project on time and on budget! When finally we decided to renovate much of our main floor early this year, we considered several alternatives: Everyone from a single contractor who would bring in the trades as needed, to designer-contractor

partnerships, to turnkey companies. After meeting with Kevin in Monarch's beautiful showroom, and visiting one of their recent projects just around the corner from us, we felt confident Monarch was our best choice. Now that the project is done, we're convinced we made a great decision! From design to project completion, everyone on their team was great to work with. We especially appreciated the care their installers took to keep our home as tidy as possible during the project. It's never fun to live in a construction site, but they made it as painless as possible for us. We also found their showroom to be incredibly convenient. With Kevin's expert guidance...and patience...we were able to make all of our decisions about tile, cabinet material, colours, fixtures, etc., without having to drive all over the city! That was a major time saver for us. We are very thankful we chose Monarch and have already referred the company to several friends who are thinking about similar renovations. In fact, we'd recommend Monarch to Anyone!

To read all of Monarch's reviews on HomeStars, click here.