http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog Real Canadians decorating Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:34:29 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2011/05/green-design-centre-comes-to-castlefield/ http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2011/05/green-design-centre-comes-to-castlefield/#comments Mon, 30 May 2011 12:46:43 +0000 Chris http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/?p=17112 Last week I contributed my first post to new Toronto city mag, The Grid, where I introduced readers to 'g' Green Design Centre, a retail outlet specializing in eco-friendly building materials, fixtures, finishes and housewares. The brainchild of LEED-accredited architects Joe Caricari and David Lee, ‘g’ Green Design is the first Canadian outpost for the fledgling Massachusetts-based retailer. In the photo below, the tabletop is made of Paperstone, the Haworth cradle-to-cradle chairs are fully recycled and recyclable, and the carpet tiles from Canadian manufacturer Belletile are also composed entirely of recycled material. Check out my post at The Grid and definitely stop into 'g' for advice and inspiration on how to build your very own green house.]]> http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2011/05/green-design-centre-comes-to-castlefield/feed/ 1 http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2011/04/harness-the-power-of-google-image-search/ http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2011/04/harness-the-power-of-google-image-search/#comments Mon, 04 Apr 2011 10:27:26 +0000 Chris http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/?p=16709 StyleNorth reader Natasha wrote to me last week seeking help identifying the barstools at left. It took me about 30 seconds to track them down using a method I take for granted but it occurred to me that some of you may not be familiar with the power of Google image search, which lets you search visually for something you can describe but don't know the name of. In this case, my keywords were "x back barstools" searching under images rather than web. A quick scroll down the page revealed a near-perfect match and the image then linked directly to the manufacturer, American furniture maker, Ballard Designs. ]]> http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2011/04/harness-the-power-of-google-image-search/feed/ 8 http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2010/03/unhappy-hipsters-make-me-smile/ http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2010/03/unhappy-hipsters-make-me-smile/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:11:20 +0000 Chris http://stylenorth.ca/blog/?p=13630 StyleNorth reader Vanessa did me a favour when she wrote to tell me about a delightful blog, happyhipsters.com. The site poaches shots like the one above, from self-consciously hip decor mags like Dwell (photo by Gunnar Knechtel); the bloggers then add their own subversive captions that wittily undermine the lifestyle choices on display. In this case . . . "The frequent window washing and dry mopping required to keep the room sufficiently spartan became more than she could bear. The bed suffered the consequences."]]> http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2010/03/unhappy-hipsters-make-me-smile/feed/ 7 http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/09/fifteen-seconds-for-stylenorth/ http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/09/fifteen-seconds-for-stylenorth/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:26:04 +0000 Chris http://stylenorth.ca/blog/?p=12212 Dear styleNorth Reader, We need your help. Without some basic demographic information about who our readers are, styleNorth can’t pursue the advertising that will allow us to keep the content coming. PLEASE take the 15-seconds required to answer our brief, 7-question survey. Just follow this link and tell us a bit about yourself. Your information will NOT be shared with any other party, it will only be used in aggregate to create a general user profile for stylenorth.ca. Thanks in advance, Christopher Jones Founder, styleNorth.ca]]> http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/09/fifteen-seconds-for-stylenorth/feed/ 3 http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/07/where-to-find-ontario-auctions/ http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/07/where-to-find-ontario-auctions/#comments Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:26:45 +0000 Susan Forint http://stylenorth.ca/blog/?p=10468 With Canada Day landing mid-week this year, I thought I'd take advantage of the free day and do something I rarely make the time to do . . . I went to a rural antiques auction. I consulted a few of my favourite auction listings to see if any sales were being held on our nation’s birthday. Auctionsfind.com handily tabulates auctions in Southern Ontario, in a format that's easy to scan by area and shows whether the sale includes a photo preview. The Auction Advertiser features a calendar view that lets users find auctions on a particular date, and Ontario’s Auction & Antique Paper is another good source for auction listings]]> http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/07/where-to-find-ontario-auctions/feed/ 1 http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/05/resource-decopedia/ http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/05/resource-decopedia/#comments Tue, 12 May 2009 12:00:42 +0000 Chris http://stylenorth.ca/blog/?p=8897 Yesterday, I stumbled upon a pretty great resource called Decopedia, the modern design encyclopedia. An offshoot of Deconet, a newish contender in the online furnishings space, Decopedia is a wiki for modern design enthusiasts that benefits from Deconet's photographic database. For instance, if you search Hans Wegner under the "designers" category, you'll get a brief career overview and 200 images of Wegner furniture designs, including their current availability on Deconet.]]> http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/05/resource-decopedia/feed/ 0 http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/04/kimberly-seldons-decorating-dos-donts/ http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/04/kimberly-seldons-decorating-dos-donts/#comments Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:41:06 +0000 Chris http://stylenorth.ca/blog/?p=8396 While collecting links for today's post about Distillery District events I came across Kimberly Seldon's design blog, which contains a useful post called Less Cash and More Splash. Seldon's budget decorating advice includes focusing on big impact/low cost improvements like paint and starting with obvious eyesores: "That 70s tile in the bathroom is not coming back in fashion," she chides, "and the balloon shades in the living room are as relevant as 80s shoulder pads."]]> http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/04/kimberly-seldons-decorating-dos-donts/feed/ 2 http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/03/resource-retrostartcom/ http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/03/resource-retrostartcom/#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:00:11 +0000 Chris http://stylenorth.ca/blog/?p=7131 StyleNorth has very kindly been included on RetroStart.com, a new directory of international blogs and assorted other 20th Century Design resources. Created by Dutch partners Pieter Akkerman and Margriet van de Wie, the duo also runs Designlover.eu, an online retail outlet specializing in retro accessories. RetroStart.com features exhaustive link lists dedicated to designers, magazines, fairs, manufacturers and auction houses, among other categories. Give it a look.]]> http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/03/resource-retrostartcom/feed/ 0 http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/02/resource-design-museum-london/ http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/02/resource-design-museum-london/#comments Sun, 15 Feb 2009 10:05:09 +0000 Chris http://stylenorth.ca/blog/?p=5503 While gathering links for another post I stumbled upon the Design Museum London site, a fantastic web resource that I’d never seen before. Beyond features about what’s new and notable at the museum itself, the site sports a searchable design library with an impressive cache of photographic and biographical info on the world’s greatest designers, living and dead. The content doesn’t quite stretch from A to Z but you can trace from Alvar Aalto to Michael Young. Other interesting articles look at the introduction of “new” materials like aluminium and plywood and their impact on furniture design.]]> http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/02/resource-design-museum-london/feed/ 0 http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/02/repeat-after-me-tawn-at/ http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/02/repeat-after-me-tawn-at/#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:30:54 +0000 Chris http://stylenorth.ca/blog/?p=5907 While perusing the Smash showroom Friday, we spotted an awesome set of vintage Thonet chairs, below ($395 each). We talked to sales assistant Dana about them and like many people, she very purposefully pronounced the manufacturer's name "tdone-ay". This initiated a discussion about the correct pronunciation of Thonet, a German name, that is usually mistaken for French and pronounced accordingly.]]> http://www.stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/02/repeat-after-me-tawn-at/feed/ 2