styleNorth

How sweet it is to be greeting the new year in my new home. Never mind the chaos of clutter and boxes lurking at the edges of the frame below, I’ll get to that soon enough. The important thing is that my move went off with nary a hitch on Friday thanks to the amazing Tome brothers, John and Joe who I’ve used for my past five moves. Lightning fast, the Tomes and their two young assistants showed up at 7:30 am and were on their way to their next job at 11:15 am. If you’re in the Toronto area and you need a mover I cannot recommend these guys more highly — totally reliable, totally professional (Tome Moving & Cartage, 416.802.8266).

One thing that helped a little this time around were the heavy duty casters my decorating buddy Kevin helped me install under my 1940s chinoiserie breakfront cabinet, below. Designed to hold up to 4,000 lbs, the wheels have made a formerly cumbersome one-piece unit into a smooth, swiveling dream. Thanks Kevin!

So how is the new apartment so far? Sad to say I’m having reservations already. The main living space is large and open if not bright but there’s some infuriating click/clack/bang noise in the bedroom that goes on all day and night. It sounds like pipe noise and if it wasn’t for my custom earplugs I wouldn’t have slept a wink. The good news is that this unit may be temporary: I’m in a dark, ground floor apartment and have asked to move upstairs into the first higher, brighter unit that becomes available. My fingers are crossed and I greet 2012 with hope and positivity.

The good news is that I’m in a great building in a fantastic neighbourhood — Toronto’s Annex — and I’m really looking forward to having so many amazing shops and restaurants on my doorstep. The buzz of Bloor Street West is half a block away and Kensington Market (vegetarian heaven!) is less than 15 minutes on foot.

I wish each of you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012! I may find myself with a bit more time on my hands this year and I hope that will allow me to devote more of myself to styleNorth. In the meantime, happy decorating!

Today’s post is a Christmas present to myself, the big reveal after a one-month makeover of a home in Oakville, Ontario. My client, Nikola, is a 28-year-old bachelor with a three-bedroom, detached home in a newish development. The location screams suburbs but Nikola wanted a space that was “modern and trendy incorporating unique vintage pieces and original art,” according to the brief I distilled from our initial meeting. The client’s wishlist included a revamp of the living room, dining room and master bedroom, if possible, on a budget of $5,000, which would include my 30 per cent decorating fee.

Now, you and I know that $3,500 could be blown in an instant on a single sofa but I gamely waded in determined to get as much bang for that buck as humanly possible. I assured Nikola that I would recover every penny of my commission through savings from smart shopping and designer discounts. In the end, there was some scope creep — we also transformed a breakfast room adjacent to the living space and added art to an empty stairwell and bathroom — along with a bump in the budget from $5,000 to nearly $8,000. What we did with that money amazes even me as I stand back and take it all in. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

You need to understand what I walked into on my first site visit . . .

Although he’d owned the home for about four years, Nikola had never painted and every room was the same pale, builder’s beige. Nik furnished the house in one fell swoop on a trip to Pottery Barn and some of those pieces would have to be incorporated into the redesign if I was going to have any chance of overcoming the budget limitations. If nothing else, I was pretty much guaranteed some dramatic before and after shots. (more…)

Poking around Toronto’s W.R. Antiques (179 Queen Street East, 416.504.6900) awhile back I was struck by how much dog art shop owner Winnie Runnquist has accumulated. Bronzes, cast iron sculptures, bookends, ceramics, paintings — if dogs are your thing or a passion of someone on your Christmas list, then W.R. is a great spot to find something special for under the tree.

I wouldn’t suggest that Runnquist has every breed covered but her range is impressive and her prices are reasonable. The beautiful cast iron Spaniel at the top of the page is $195 and I think the Boston Terrier doorstops above were about $150 each. I’ve lost track of my other prices but I don’t recall being aghast at any of the tickets. I especially love the Fox Terrier bookends below.

And there were also plenty of prints and paintings like the Boston, “Willie”, below left ($120), and the print titled “Puss Did It”, below right.

As a former Scottie owner I was naturally drawn to the pair below ($145) although I find their expressions a bit goofy. Truth be told, Winnie and I shared an emotional moment talking about the dogs that have passed out of our lives, both of us expressing gratitude for the time we had with our treasured companions.

People who don’t have dogs will never understand the bond but if there’s a dog lover on your list, trust me, you’ll be a favoured friend by wrapping up one of these charming canine tchotchkes.

Lia Fagan’s timing could not have been better. The proprietor of Mod Pieces wrote to me a few weeks ago promoting her business restyling vintage lamps and constructing custom lampshades. Well, it just so happens that Lia is based in Burlington, Ontario, around the corner from my latest decorating client in Oakville for whom I had sourced some amazing vintage lamps that required shades.

Lia will happily source shades and fabrics for you and/or reconstruct shades that you provide. For the vintage floor lamp below, I found the original shade, left, at Toronto’s Upside Dive but the groovy plaid bouclé was not the look I was after. Lia used the frame and new fabric I provided to construct a shade that better suits the room in which it now resides. She charged $75 for the reconstruction, an extremely reasonable rate, as anyone who has bought shades recently will know.

She also created shades for a couple of large, vintage ceramic pieces I found for my client’s master bedroom, below. When the linen I provided read too blue, Lia sourced an alternative fabric and re-made the shades (which she provided) for $150 for the pair. Again, a very good price for custom work.

With my go-to shade shop, Aristocrat, now out of business, Homesense is my bargain fallback and while their selection isn’t bad, their sizes are very standard. Vintage shades can be a reasonable option but always smell the shade before you buy to make sure it’s not musty or smoky.

Lia turned my custom shades around in a weekend, which is remarkably good service. The lamps she offers on Mod Pieces run the price gamut from $100 – $300 each, up to $500 for a really good pair. And while that may seem a little steep to some people, Lia’s US clients think she’s giving them away. The vintage-looking lamps below are actually new, available at Toronto’s Peaks & Rafters for $770 (left) and $300 (right) each, which makes Lia’s prices look pretty fantastic by comparison.

This morning I saw an ad on Craigslist that really took me back. The Duncan Phyfe above is a dead ringer for the table that became my first big refinishing project, my trial by fire. Because of its condition, the table is selling for just $30, which makes it an ideal candidate for someone like me with more ambition than brains who wants to get his or her hands dirty and learn a helluva lot about refinishing. And while I’m definitely tempted, I don’t have the space or inclination to take this on right now. What about you? You might end up with something you can be proud of, I know I was when my table, below, finally emerged from the fire.

Looking at yesterday’s post, I realize I’m ricocheting from the sublime to the ridiculous here, but hey, life’s like that sometimes.