tokengifts

Interior Design Show

Installation by Pascale Girardin

This past Sunday was supposed to be my "design" weekend. I had all intentions of going to the Interior Design Show, Come Up to My Room at the Gladstone and the Radiant Dark curated by Made at the Burroughes Building. I think 3 shows trekking around Queen West was a bit ambitious on my part, even sans daughter in tow.

We made it to IDS. My favourite areas were the 10 Innovative Canadian Designers area, which included a very cool sauna/ shed structure by Castor Design and this installation by ceramicist, Pascale Girardin, pictured above. Other notables were the fantastic exhibits by students of the University of Alberta and the Studio North area. (My pictures did not turn out, hence the lack of pics. I take them so hastily because I feel like some sort of fake reporter ;) For more detailed info. visit the IDS site.

I also enjoyed Sarah Richardson's showcase room. I first caught wind of Ms. Richardson, oh, about 10 years ago when she was set-designing and way before I caught the decorating bug. Her style was so refreshing and a lot of her appeal was the D.I.Y. This exhibit was a more evolved, grown-up version of her earlier style. The layers of colourful fabrics on the upholstery, cushions - the whole coziness of the cottage lent by the piles of books everywhere. Included in that pile, Kevin found one entitled something along the lines of: How to live like a WASP - inspiration comes from everywhere, I guess.

It would have been nice to hear Tom Dixon speak, but that seminar was for Trade only, sadly. I know much of the appeal of the show is as a consumer show, but it would have been nice to see more "styled" booths, other than those of large corporations who can afford the booth space. It's nice to see the innovation in products and design but I see an incongruity in the availability of the raw materials to the finished product of the furnished room. As noted, there is a wealth of Canadian talent who would have been up for the job if given the chance. It would be nice to see something fresh. I don't know, is no one tired of the "loft" or "hotel chic" look?

DWR Toronto

I felt a twinge of both joy and defeat as we drove by King St. to discover that a DWR (Design Within Reach) was opening its first international location right here in our city. Joy - because now we have access to a great design store and defeat - well, another American retailer has joined the countless ranks of other American chain stores crossing our borders.

We used to have Caban to roam around aimlessly and admire all things design-related, from the latest denims to those "Eames-style" chairs. I say this a bit facetiously, because it was a bit silly trying to buy a dining room table from someone who knew more about the label on my back jean pocket than of interior design. Still, their demise brought a lot of sadness to shoppers.

But has anyone been in any high-end furniture shops lately? Be prepared for the service to be a bit chilly if you don't bring your interior decorator with you. And someday we will outgrow our Ikea fixation. It always surprises non-Toronto natives that we have 4 Ikeas in the Toronto and 905 area.

So, I will give DWR a try. I visited DWR's site. To debut their foray into the Toronto market, they are partnering with the Design Exchange and donating 10% of their sales in efforts to create public awareness of design.

I know from blogland, DWR has always partnered with and fostered all design talent. They have hosted many a Biz Ladies night via Designsponge, and recently a Modern Craft event in Portland. (Modern + Craft may seem like an anomaly to some, but I love it as a design movement)

Reading further on their site, they got me at "Authenticity is something we're proud to do; elitism however is not". I think their concept is in agreeance with the philosophy behind the Eameses and their peers. I'll let you know after I check it out - I'm on the hunt for dining room chairs to replace those chairs I bought from Caban...

Is It February Already?

I am always caught off guard by the month of January. When I think I can take a breather from the holiday rush, I am bombarded with Valentine's day, Alice's birthday, mixed in with various colds and flu bugs. Normally, we are off to New York this time of year for the NYIGF, but we decided to forgo our trip. We decided to do a minor renovation instead.

We took down our shelves.

We put up a panel of drywall to cover up some of the old brick wall - don't worry, it's still there.

We wallpapered.

And we put up shelves.

We are thrilled with the results. It's more open and airy and it should better show off products. We have a lot of filling in to do. The frames on the wallpaper is meant to be filled in. Alice is itching to get her hands on that wall!

We will be switching things up a bit here. I guess, you can say, we're going to do a bit more growing up. And of course, this all coincides with Alice turning 4!

We got up early on the morning of her birthday and decorated her cake (store-bought. i always contemplate baking, but, well...)

And voila...

It was a fun day filled with family, friends, kids and babies alike. Alice liked it too!

Admittedly, the new shelves are a bit bare right now. I hate this in between season as we all wait for Spring and warmer weather and new merchandise...

Let's Play "Spot the Ikea Furniture"

Every time I mention a re-organization of the shop, two things are guaranteed - a grimace from Kevin and a trip to Ikea.

When we were making plans for the store, I searched high and low for store fixtures. They were mostly a) ugly, b) over-priced and expensive, but mostly c) all of the above. Custom work was out of the question, it was just too costly. And besides, the look I was going for - clean and modern, well...it was just cheaper to go to Ikea, not just a slightly cheaper, it was a fraction of the cost cheaper.

It all started with Dish Cooking Studio. I used to live around the corner and loved the feel of the shop. As I wandered around the lovely cooking utensils and appliances, I noticed the display fixtures looked oddly familiar - they were Ikea furniture pieces sort of stacked together!

A light bulb went off in my head. Then it kind of snowballed from there. Everywhere I looked, there were Ikea shelves, tables in shops, restaurants. I looked back at storyboards I created for the shop and there they were, more Ikea fixtures!

When I first opened the shop, we had a lot of curious on-lookers who would just come to look at the space. My goal was to create almost an empty white box of a room, so that whatever product I had displayed would just POP, much like the galleries along this strip. My landlord's goal to reveal the brick work beneath a foot of drywall curbed that plan - the west wall is exposed brick, which admittedly, lends a warmth to the room. But really, I don't agree with everyone's fascination with exposed brick. I am grateful that mine is real, not the fake kind.

One thing that I was adamant about was having a hit of colour, and that "hit" of colour was a deep, pinky, magenta on my ceiling. Of all the changes I have made in the last few years, I have consistently loved my pink ceiling. It is so unlike what I would normally do. I attribute it to my pregnancy hormones, I should have known I was having a girl! Amidst all the straight lines, clean minimalism, concrete floor - that was my nod to the feminine side of Token.

People can turn their noses up at the thought of Ikea, but I know stores who probably paid a fortune to have shelves made to look like the ubiquitous Expedit shelving unit. It does a wonderful job at containing things and each cube allows an individual display for products.

And in the past year, Ikea has put a "business" segment in their catalogue. There are some great ideas in there.

For those of you who need your furniture choices to be a bit more customized, take a gander at Ikea Hacker.

I personlized my table top (a custom order hollow door at Home Depot) on top of Ikea trestles, with some fabric from Virginia Johnson.

One of these days, when I have the time to aimlessly wander around antique shops, I would love to pick up a statement piece here and there, or have a commissioned piece by a young designer. But for the time being I don't mind contributing to the democratization of design by my love for Ikea.

Home Is Where You Lay Your Hat

This past holiday weekend after the shopping, after the thanksgiving dinner, after the apple picking, after the bedtime routine of putting Alice to bed, after the tidying, and after the everything in between...I finally curled up on the couch and flipped through my copy of Elle Decoration UK. (I had taken more pictures of the magazine layouts, but they just didn't turn out, except the one above.)

I can't stress how much I love this magazine...it inspires me to live and think a different way, your own way. Upon first glance, the picture above does not look like much, but after you look at all the details (sorry about the photo of a photo), you realize that this house is lived in, this bedroom is filled with objects lovingly collected by its owner. Everything about it, is intuitive.

Elle Decor UK does do the typical sleek modern interiors featuring the super-high-end furniture - the kind of interiors where you wonder "who lives there?". But the highlights for me are the interiors like the one above (check out the October issue).

Another guilty pleasure are the sneek peeks over at design*sponge. Grace Bonney features homes of many indie artists, including Toronto's Katie Muth, whose stationery we have here at the shop. I find beauty in these sorts of homes, because there are signs of life and frankly, personality.

I have had a very long week, unpacking boxes, rearranging shelves and merchandise. At the end of the day, I am always happy to come back to our tiny house with the view of the CN tower, into all the flower beds and the green patch where the kids play, with all our family photos and Alice's artwork proudly framed and displayed, because it is simply...home.

I love the patterned cushions set against the classic Marshmallow sofa by George Nelson.
Interior shot of Danish home from Elle Decoration UK July 2007.