Tag: design

IDS 2015 – What to See

IDS 2015 (Interior Design Show) is probably my favorite show of the year. It is full of inspiration, the latest and greatest home products, and some of the best up and coming designers. This year it hits Toronto from January 22-25, 2015. We will be heading there for trade day on the 23rd and will be sharing some of our favourite things over on Instagram (make sure to follow along with #ids15). However, I already have a few things on my must see list!

CUBITAT, a special feature by Urban Capital, focusing on transformable design and architecture as object.

Jonathan Adler – On the main Stage Saturday 12pm-1pm

 

sTUDIO North

Studio North, an always favourite curated collection of emerging practitioners on the Canadian design scene.  Studio North itself is a reason to head to IDS. It is my favourite part of IDS and one that usually takes up most of my time. Seeing the incredible up and coming Canadian design talent, speaking to the artists, and buying their work. Its a huge source of inspiration, a great way to work with local artists, and has some of the BEST designs I have ever seen.

Here are a few of my faves from Studio North IDS 2014:

Studio North

Studio North

Studio North

Great speakers on the main stage on Sunday the 25th. Lynda Reeves starts things out from 12-1pm, Suzanne Dimma with Mark Challen 1:30-2:30pm and the House & Home editing team including the awesome Margot Austin will be knocking it out of the park from 3-4pm.

Sunday Schedule

Designboom Mart, a pop-up shop and Designboom’s only Canadian location for buying jewellery, accessories, textiles and furniture from their sources, created by Toronto’s Arc & Co. Design Collective.

designjunction lounge, designed by London-based Michael Sodeau of Michael Sodeau Studio, featuring La Marzocco and Muuto. YES Muuto, the Scandinavian design line I fell in love with in during my trip to Denmark and Sweden. Remember that awesome stone salt dish I brought back? YEP! Muuto. Cant wait to see the lounge!

The IDS Opening Night party goes down on January 22nd, and the show opens to the public Saturday January 24th, 2015 to Sunday January 25th. Get your tickets here. See you there!

 

New Site Design

Notice anything new round here?

My hair you say? How great my ass looks  in these jeans? Why shucks, you are too kind, but I was talking about the site design.

It’s been a while in the making, but we finally have a responsive site! For those of you visiting on a mobile device or tablet, things are gonna look a whole lot different, and hopefully be a lot easier to use.

Continue reading “New Site Design”

New York New York

I took a quick business trip to New York last week. It was a busy three day trip, with not much time to take in the city. However, I did manage to pop into a few home decor shops, and did some walking, eating and enjoying New York in the fall.

My hotel was in a fantastic location, West 23rd between 5th & 6th avenue. When I walked east from my hotel I walked right onto 5th Avenue. With Eataly on one corner, the Flatiron building in the background, and tons of shopping and restaurants.

Flatiron Building
Flatiron Building
Eatily
Eataly

The night I arrived in town I was able to pop out to a few shops before they closed.

Restoration Hardware had some holiday decor up, and some generally lavish and fantastic decor pieces (but nothing that I fell head over heels for.)

Restoration Hardware - Lights under glass - great for a Holiday table
Restoration Hardware – Lights under glass – great for a Holiday table
Restoration Hardware - Great Headboard
Restoration Hardware – Great Headboard

West Elm was surprisingly small, and I felt it had less to offer than my Toronto location.

Fishs Eddy’s was my favorite stop, and I brought home two pieces from there (in my small carry on luggage!) Thanks to a twitter friend Abby @crabigail for the Fishs Eddy & ABC Carpet tip! (no pics of Fishs Eddy, as they asked me not to take photos, but imagine a kitchen supply heaven.)

ABC Carpet & Home. Although the carpets & lighting were gorgeous, I sadly could not fit anything that large in my suitcase, however ABC just opened ABC Kitchen with tons of fab kitchen serving pieces. I loved their wood cutting & serving pieces (umm olive wood anyone?!). They also had some great matte ceramic pieces in whites and grays that were gorgeous.

ABC - Olive Wood
ABC – Olive Wood
ABC Ceramic Dinnerware
ABC Ceramic Dinnerware
ABC
ABC

I tore myself from ABC Kitchen and only left with a large wooden spoon from France.

My New York Purchases - Ceramic Mason Jar & Tea Towel from Fishs Eddy & a wooden spoon from ABC Kitchen
My New York Purchases – Ceramic Mason Jar & Tea Towel from Fishs Eddy & a wooden spoon from ABC Kitchen

On my last morning in New York, I got up bright and early to walk down to the High Line. I love what New York has done with the space, and its a great urban walkway. I wish the West Toronto Railpath was half as nice (and integrated) as the High Line! They even have elevators for accessible access. Awesome! If you are visiting New York I highly recommend taking a nice walk on the High Line.

The High Line
The High Line
View from a bridge on The High Line
View from a bridge on The High Line

As I was heading back to my hotel, I noticed a Home Depot on 6h Avenue. I thought at first it was a head office but when I got a little closer I realized it was an actual retail store! A Home Depot on 6th Ave? New York, I love you!

The Home Depot - 6th Ave NYC
The Home Depot – 6th Ave NYC
The Home Depot - 6th Ave NYC
The Home Depot – 6th Ave NYC

Of course I had to pop in (I couldn’t resist) and they surprising had a very good selection.

Home Depot 6th Ave - Faucet Department
Home Depot 6th Ave – Faucet Department

While wandering around Chelsea I also noticed a large lumber yard near the Chelsea Market. I could certainly DIY in New York!

I love the city, but next time I visit I need to stay a little bit longer. It was too much a whirlwind visit (but business travel is always that way!) Whats your favorite stop in New York City?

Project Office

I have been working on our office for SIX MONTHS now. That’s right, half a year! Having a clingy spazzy puppy around doesn’t help. The moment you try to get some work done, he wants to play, or is hungry, or wants to go for a walk, or chew on the baseboard, or just wants so sit there and whine until you stop doing work and pay attention to him.
If having a puppy is this bad, I have no idea how people with babies eat, go pee or bathe. If I ever have kids, I just know I am going to be one of those mothers who puts the baby in the crib screaming and goes downstairs and has a glass of wine.

Where was I? Oh yes the office.
Wrangling the puppy was especially difficult when we were painting, or doing things that he could in no way be near. We would take turns working while the other watched the dog, or built a dog play area in the hallway. Needless to say the simplest task ended up taking days or weeks. I am still finishing a few things up, and a few projects are still incomplete, but it’s finally gotten to a point where I may actually let someone see it.

As for furniture; in our last office we built in a custom desk so when we moved to the storefront the desk stayed behind. We also owned a crappy old office chair, that I happily pushed to the curb before we carried away our last moving box.
So coming into the office in the new house, we owned:

  • A filing cabinet covered in El Granto’s music and snowboarding stickers, which is missing the rails to actually hang files on
  • A cheap Ikea drawer unit
  • LOTS AND LOTS of books, antique cameras and crap.

That is not a lot to work from…Try as hard as I did, you just cant make a desk out of crap. It topples over…

So for the first six months of living in the house we used my Grandmother’s 50 year old Ikea card table as a desk, and a folding chair. More often than not we ended up working with the laptop on the sofa downstairs.
Before I post pictures of all our office projects, here is some insight on what we had planned

My Pinterest Office Inspiration Board

This board is giving away a ton of hints of what we were up to, so stay tuned for the results!
And here is our great big office plan/project to do list.

TO DO:

 

UGH…I am tired just looking at the list…wheres my drink?