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Tag Archive | "Wall coverings"

What’s New, What’s Now at IIDEX/NeoCon

Saturday, September 24, 2011

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While January’s Interior Design Show encompasses residential spaces and applications, IIDEX is much more focused on contract architecture, landscape and hospitality design with lots of trade-only seminars. IIDEX/NeoCon is where designers and commercial buyers come to source the latest materials, textiles, wall and floor coverings, lighting and storage systems. Sustainability continues to dominate the design world with revolutionary materials and new technologies stealing most of the thunder. Think: Material (above) is this year’s showcase of innovative wall and flooring materials made from everything from coconut shells and sugarcane pulp to new polymers, laminates and recycled glass.

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Barrymore Wow!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

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Let's face it, decor blogs are about pretty pictures and striking vignettes and when I see one I try to capture it. I was in Toronto's Barrymore Furniture last week when I was stopped in my tracks by this over-the-top Christopher Guy display by Showroom and Design Manager Karen Ottenbrite. The strong colours and the sheen of the silk upholstery were rivetting, nevermind the divine Paul Evans-inspired mirror. None of this stuff is even remotely in my price range (mirror $3,760, settee $7,290, hand-carved table $2,890) but display is about fantasy and this one certainly carried me away. In the photo below you can see how the vignette draws you down the long corridor and that's a trick any of us can borrow -- be brave, go bold!

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Decorating Detectives

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

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You and I would tour Spadina Museum and not have a clue (or a care) that this wallpaper or that drapery wasn’t absolutely accurate but the project’s chief curators, Karen Edwards and Neil Brochu, take authenticity very, very seriously. Spadina reopened to the public last month after a nearly year-long restoration that took the grand old mansion back to its glory days in the 1920s and '30s. From now until the end of November special tours of the house are being offered that examine the enormous challenge of recreating rooms like the library, below, featuring this digitally reproduced wallpaper.

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Stencils For a New Decorating Era

Thursday, October 1, 2009

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When I got the press release from Beauti-Tone I admit my first thought was, 'Stencils? You've got to be kidding . . . so 80s!' But rather than being used as borders as they were two decades ago, today's stencils are being sold as super-inexpensive alternatives to wallpaper. "They're fantastic for an accent wall or a nook," says Beauti-Tone Creative Director Bev Bell, "and without the expense or challenge of hanging paper. There are no seams to match up and no stripping to do when you're ready for a new look."

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What Goes Around . . .

Sunday, August 16, 2009

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Inspired by my post about paint and paper expert Mike Scapellati, styleNorth reader Elena sent me a photo of the wallpaper in her grandmother's spare bedroom. "Everything else in the house has changed over the years but being a spare room this one never been touched," writes Elena. The paper, which went up in the early 1960s, really is amazingly current. "Look at celiling fixture," adds Elena, "Have I got a cool Nana, or what?"

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