The one that almost got away

The week has just run away with me, and where are we? Thursday? Sheesh... It has been bananas with propping for shoots, deadlines for a few different projects and puppy pre-school for Spot. Our car is crammed full of props including a bunch of bathroom mirrors, a sink and other random bits and pieces, all of which have to be returned before the end of the week. Anyone have a magic wand handy?

I can identify with anyone who descibes herself as a magpie, which is one of the reasons I wanted to share fashion designer Alice Temperley's very eclectic looking studio space. I have a feeling it doesn't always look as beautifully styled as this, lol, but can totally imagine her working away on a collection here. That bombastic rug is one of Temperley's designs too; Ophelia from The Rug Company. For even more inspiration, check out the We Like section of her website, which includes a cool video tour of Portobello Road Market (one of my most favourite places in London). [Image: Rachael Smith. Via the Guardain]

Slightly north of Acapulco

Last week a very nice bloke showed up at my door with a van full of very cool chairs. He'd been asked to stop by by a friend of mine who thought I'd really like his stuff, and yep, I have to say that friend is totally on the ball. The bloke in question is Paul of Innit Design, who has just started to import the Acapulco Chair into Canada from Mexico. Originally designed by a French tourist in the 1940's - so the story goes - since then it has managed to find a spot in both chilled out beach resorts and the chic neighbourhoods of Mexico City. And, apart from being really rather swish, I'm happy to report that the chair is eminently comfortable, looks brill both indoors and out, and is even available in a super fun kid-sized version.

Tune into CityLine on Citytv this coming Monday to see the chairs in an ultra-colourful vignette I pulled together. Or, if you fancy giving one a try, pop into Hollace Cluny, Urban Mode and Ella & Elliot (for the kid's version). You can also click here to see Innit's full list of stores.

 

Thieving from family

I've had a boffo couple of days, bombing around town in a truck filled with Thonet chairs, cafe tables, wedding bouquets, picnic blankets, apples and coffee cups for a shoot with Michael Alberstat, as well as shooting the reveal on a fantabulous (if I say so myself) condo makeover for CityLine. It has definitely been busy.

In the meantime, a few thousand miles away, my sister has been hanging out in Paris. It's work for her, but she still gets to head out to all the stylish places, including Merci, which she thinks is definitely worth a visit. This lovely must-see store has four floors, one for fashion and three for home (yay, I love it when home trumps fashion!), including a rather smashing courtyard with a dinky red Fiat, a cafe, bookstore and florist. Take a boo below at the shots to get a taste of the place. Yup, whenever I'm next in Paris (sadly, not anytime soon) I'll definitely be stopping in. Oh, and check out my sister's blog for Blink London - her fashion reporting service - here.

     

Meeting strangers

The other day I discovered Natalie Walton's blog, Daily Imprint, while I was digging deeper into the background of Lonny Magazine (btw, Michelle Adams sent me a v. kind note about my post!). Natalie is the deputy editor of Real Living; a fab Australian interiors mag which, if you ever get your sticky mitts on a copy, I'm sure you'll realize why everyone always oohs and ahhs over it.

Anyhoo, Natalie interviews creative types for her blog on a regular basis and includes shots like the ones below, which were too de-lovely not to share. They're the work of talented stylist Ruth Welsby, a Brit who now makes her home in sunny Melbourne. I love Ruth's colour palettes and the random - yet carefully thought out - mix of objects, art and furniture. That first shot is so calm and cool I could happily move in without changing a thing. To read Natalie's interview with Ruth click here, and be sure to check in on Daily Imprint often!

  

A fashionable seat

Rick Owens. Rick Owens. Rick Owens. If you don't know who he is, the NY Times - for one - thinks him influential enough to dedicate this Profile In Style to the man and his passions. He's actually a Paris-based American fashion designer (here's his website; his look definitely on the darker side), who also designs limited edition furniture with a sculptural Neo Gothic vibe. His influences range from Modern design icons like Eileen Grey, and artists like Brancusi, to the skate parks of his native California. Cool? Definitely. Brutal? Yep. The kind of thing you'd like in your house? Well, I think I could find a spot, but how about the rest of you?

If you're in the UK over the next while you'll be able to see more of Owen's work at the London gallery of Sebastian + Barquet.

  

Say hello to Lonny

Okay, how about we dub this Good News Wednesday? Back in July, Michelle Adams (ex-Domino Mag staffer and now queen of printed organic fabrics at Rubie Green) and her mate, photographer Patrick Cline announced they'd be starting Lonny Magazine, an online decor mag, this Fall. Well, a taste of the mag has surfaced, including a lovely mission statement that just has me drooling in anticipation; take a boo at the lovely snaps below and let me know what you think. Make sure you check out MA Belle - Michelle Adams' great blog - and for more on Patrick Cline click here for a quick interview with him. And, if you fancy, you can become a fan of Lonny on Facebook here.

 

Monday is Tuesday

Ahhh, the bite of a long weekend. Tons of time to hang with friends and wander about in a warm-weather daze, and then bam; Tuesday hits and we're all pointing our noses back at the grindstone. Blurgh, is all I can say to that.

Saw these while noodling through one of the many design sites I check out, and, well, my jaw dropped. Is it the black, the beautifully styled shots, or is it the fact that they look tufted? No matter, they're darned delicious. I have quite the thing for tufting and managed to score a tufted white ceramic stool the other day for the bathroom (from HomeSense) so, when I saw these, I couldn't resist posting them. Rex Ceramiche Artistiche is the company behind the tiles. They're called Capitonné - which is actually the technical term for button tufting - and come in 14 colours including both a matte and glossy finish. Yum.

 

A snap in the laundry

I am a magpie at heart, and honestly can spy cool bits and bobs at twenty paces. My antique dealer granny, Lena, is probably to blame, since she dragged me along to jumble sales as a kid. She would bribe our way to the front of the line so we could head in and scour the tables before the hoi-polloi had a chance. Ah, childhood memories, lol.

Last night I spied that cool Snap tin below at a friend's house, high on a shelf in their front hall. Up until that point it held their dog Trav's cookies, and now it's sitting pretty on a shelf in our laundry room. Honestly, I offered to pay, but in the end I think we swapped it for tomatoes picked from our garden. So, thanks Michael, Jen and Trav! Those cool Number Mason Jars to the left are these fresh finds from Pottery Barn, while that rather odd carved teak bull I snagged ages ago at a Value Village. Oh, and don't worry about Trav; his cookies are now housed rather smartly in a vintage Peanuts lunch box.

This, now that

These chairs last showed up on the blog here. And now, after refinishing the frames at Beresford's, and re-upholstered by Mieda Design in a lovely grey wool I scored at Kobe Fabric's outlet store, this is the result. We have a mis-matched set of 8 all together, set around a reclaimed scaffolding plank dining table that we built ourselves. That vintage lamp was a great find too - A good mate (hello Morgan) grabbed it at Rogue Gallery for me and then kindly passed it on. The wall colour is a stunning dark grey - Ralph Lauren Paint's Palais Royal - which you can pick up at Home Depot. It's nice to see what a lick of paint and a bit of fabric can do, no?

Cottage envy

Just a quick one, since I'm just plain green with design envy after checking out John and Juli of Kitka Design's cottage reno. I don't have a cottage, and the last time Meg Crossley, myself and Donna Griffith travelled out of town to shoot one for Canadian House & Home I lost sleep worrying about wolves and bears. Perhaps I'm not the outdoorsy type.

Anyhoo, please do click here to see the rest of their charming cottage. It's absolutely cool and and filled with lovely vintage finds - I think they should consider renting it out - and (if they need another opinion) they definitely shouldn't paint out that lovely old stone fireplace.

Bowling 50's

Lovely news this morning from Normann Copenhagen about the company reviving a design classic; the Krenit bowl. The fine-edged and ultra-simple enamel bowls, designed by Herbert Krenchel in 1953 (they won a gold medal at the Milan Triennale in 1954) were in production until 1966, and now have hit hot collectible status. Normann Copenhagen's re-issue comes in three rather sober colours - white, blue and green - so we'll just have to keep our digits crossed that they go and get all the original happy colours (like the red and yellow) back into production. Krenit is available in two sizes, including the large never-before-produced badekarret size (which translates into English as bathtub) and, well, I totally fancy a slew of them scattered down the centre of my dining table...

That first snap shows the original bowls, the second is Mr Krenchel himself, and the third shows the new Krenit bowls in all the available colours. If you'd like to get your sticky mitts on them, drop Canadian online design retailer Lumiaire a line to see when they'll be available.

  

Black and white and orange and yellow and sweet

I have obviously missed my calling - I should be a Sweet Stylist, just like brilliant NYC event planner (and dessert table designer extraordinaire) Amy Atlas. Though, if you know me, you know I have such a rotten sweet tooth for baked goods. One week doing stuff like this and I'd be have to enroll in my local chapter of Cake Eaters Anonymous.

Anyhoo, Atlas's work is chic and beautifully styled, with a controlled use of colour and a lovely sense of wit. Click here to check out her whole portfolio, and here for her blog. I'll be checking out that Jan issue of Town & Country that she just posted about and, oh, I stumbled across the work of Atlas on another blog that's totally worth a boo - Liberty Post. So play nice and make sure you check that site out too. And, if anyone is inspired enough to throw a dessert party, I'll expect an invite.

  

PS I love you

The other day I overheard an interior designer say how much he hated Ikea, slagging it off as cheap and nasty, and I thought to myself how he'd completely missed the point. Their affordable design means that anyone and everyone can have access to cool gear, no matter what stage of life and how deep their pockets might be. I've gotta say, if you're too posh to have Ikea in your house, then you obviously far too posh for me, lol.

The new Ikea PS collection is finally in select stores across the country (hello Boucherville, Etobicoke, Edmonton and Coquitlam) and is definitely on the cool side. The line employed hot designers such as Hella Jongerius, and edgy all-woman Front Design group, to come up with a slew of fab stuff. In researching the stories behind each piece I stumbled across a bunch of Ikea PS videos that I thought would be sweet to share. The first gives an animated overview of the collection, the second (subtitled in French) digs deeper and follows Hella Jongerius to India where the Mikkel wall hangings are made - and how brilliant that each one is signed by the craftswoman that made it... Click here to check out the rest of the videos (be sure to watch them in HD).

   

AWOL in TO

Yep, the last couple of weeks have been, shall we say, major (to quote Ms. Victoria Beckham). Basically we rocked out and got just about everything finished on the house. Seriously. Everything. I am exhausted, as is my other half, and oh, since we weren't quite busy enough we brought home an impossibly cute Whippet puppy on Sunday.

So, what with the arrival of Spot the Whippet, painting, painting and more painting, furniture deliveries out the wazoo, wallpaper going up and hanging artwork, not forgeting the nailbiting time I had watching Dan and Craig of Mieda Design gingerly maneuver a 10ft long upholstered headboard up the stairs - well - no time to regularly post. Anyhoo, I'm back at it and sharing a taste one of my current fave lighting collections. It's called Havana, is designed by the always witty Jonathan Adler for Robert Abbey, and is available from quite a few spots across the country. Apart from lusting over that 3-Light floor lamp (I so have the perfect spot for it), there's another piece I totally fancy; the desk lamp. Take a boo here to see it, and the rest of an online gallery for the Style Scout feature I do for the National Post's Post Homes section.

  

  

Of cheese, watches and knives

Oh, and don't forget luggage and menswear. Well, maybe the cheese isn't really part of the equation, lol, since I'm talking about Victorinox and the Swiss Army line of products. If you remember I posted about this Victorinox Special Edition Airstream a while back, and this week, the touring version of their Airstream made a stop in Toronto as part of the firm's 125th anniversary. I got the chance to check it out (v. cool), and you can too, since it's parked up at The Ex this weekend. Want more of a reason? They're giving away a trip to Switzerland while they're here, and in every other city they make a stop in. How cool is that?

 

Saint David of the Stairwell

I feel like I should just have the paint roller duct taped to my hand, lol. For the last couple of weeks we have been pretty much painting non-stop, and that includes getting someone in to paint all the trim and doors in the house. The last room is almost done (I'm typing while paint is drying upstairs), so there is light at the end of the tunnel. David, my sainted other half, is the one who should get major kudos though, and maybe a medal and a knighthood too, since he took on painting the wrought iron spindles in the stairwell. It was a job and a half, chiselling off old paint, sanding, priming and painting each and every wiggly bit of iron up three flights of stairs. Oy.

That stairwell has been a challenge (I went mano-a-mano with the acrobatic job of priming and painting the walls and 15 foot high ceiling) and not just from a paint perspective. Nope, we were going too and fro over whether to keep the original banister and spindles. Twice we had it quoted to switch everything out to something custom and modern in tempered glass and steel, and twice the quote came back at $8,000. Gulp. So, instead of auctioning off a kidney, we decided to embrace the kitsch and re-work the original one. As for the old gouged and cracked gold handrail; I managed, after a fair bit of Googling, to find a company to come and replace it for a spanky new one in white. The price? Way less than $8K and from a local company no less - Alku. So, if you've got a place from the Fifties or Sixties and need a new vinyl handrail, check them out. 

An odd dose of green

It seems that Malachite green is on its way to being quite influencial, though not just the colour (which is wickedly intense and very '40's to my mind) by the actual pattern of the stone itself. I've spotted it popping up over the last while and think it's sensational, though I've yet to commit to it 100%. Osborne & Little has two new wallpaper collections that feature both the stone and the hue. First up is Palais Chinois from a new collection called Pompadour (influenced by the Marquise de Pompadour, the fave mistress of Louis XV). That second shot is Kishangarh (try saying that three times fast) from the Indian styled Sariskar collection, featuring silhouettes of perfume bottles in Malachite. Both look very dishy in that green, though if that's all a bit too much there are safer options too. Osborne & Little is available through the design trade at Primavera.

 

Buh-bye serial killer's den

We are totally ending the week on a high note. The laundry area is now a picture of streamlined modernity, completely kitted out with Ikea kitchen cabinetry to maximize on desperately needed storage (errr, coz we had none, lol). Just take a look at that first shot below, snapped when we first bought the house 13 months ago. Ummm, yep, it was obviously the vile den of a serial killer. If anything, the photo makes it look way nicer than it was - Seriously.

I hafta tell you the Ikea installers were stellar. Apart from doing a brill job fitting the cabinets into quite the wonky space, they swept up after themselves and left the place spotless. So, here's the what's what in laundry land, with a few extra pics below to help figure things out - Abstrakt white hi-gloss doors, aluminum and white Numerar countertop, Strecket handles, a Lagan sink and a completely gorgeous white Ringskar faucet (which'll be installed on Monday). It's laundry love fo' sho'.

     

A pocketful of sunshine? No, a van full of furniture

The house has been turned upside down, and I've been relegated to a small island in the middle of the living room whilst controlled pandemonium occurs, well, everywhere else. The Ikea installers (hello guys) have almost finished all the cabinetry in the laundry area, plus they've started in on the Besta media storage for the basement tv room and the Pax wardrobe in the bedroom (more info on that soon). Oh, and Rod the wallpaper guy is about to put up the last panel of grasscloth in the bedroom and then he'll be onto the paper for the living room and powder room.

Below is the truck full of furniture that we drove, bleary eyed and very early, out to Tim the furniture finisher to get sprayed. We managed to fit a motley crew that included eight dining chairs, two 2-drawer end tables, a 4-drawer chest and a 9-drawer dresser. We'll have to wait a week or so, but everything will be coming back in either a lovely Benjamin Moore Oxford White or Baffin Island. In the meantime all of our clothes have been relegated to plastic bins dotted hither and yon. Ummm, when will this be over? lol

The uproar continues...

Mucho is happening on the house today (yay). Rod, my intrepid wallpaper guy, has started in on the grasscloth in the bedroom. It's a Gramercy wallcovering available through Design By Color and it's already looking mah-vellous. And Rod, ever the perfectionist, is carefully cutting the paper down so each wall has equal sized panels. Take a look below at the first few pieces up on the wall...

Downstairs in the basement we have the Ikea installers working their magic fitting the kitchen cabinetry into the laundry area. I'd planned out the cabintery last week with the Ikea Kitchen Planner - we went with the yummy hi-gloss Abstrakt white doors - then everything was delivered in super-zippy fashion. Now the work is happening very, very fast. A few hours ago all that was down there was this SmartDispense laundry pair from GE Profile, and by tonight most of the cabinetry will be finished. Phew! Oh, and btw - the latest Ikea catalogue smacked down on my doorstep this morning, so in a quiet moment (lol) I'll be leafing through and dog-earing all my new faves.

And then finally, that last shot is the media room, after we'd gone to town with the Ralph Lauren Paint in Palais Royal (take a look at the before here).