It was announced this week that CB2 (Crate and Barrel’s younger, hipper line of home decor items) is expecting to open its doors for November 2011 at 651 Queen St. W., after earlier rumours that the opening would take place in 2010. This comes in a wave of new shops, like higher-end Fibre Living, Domison and Bo Concept (we say higher-end because none of them offer 100 tea lights for almost no money at all), but the Crate and Barrel brand has opted for the former location of Queen Street West dive bar Big Bop instead of the typical King Street East design district. Evidently CB2 intends to carry on the youthful energy and spirit of the once club-concert hall, but we hope that doesn’t translate to wet toilet paper strewn on the floor and a lingering odour of stale beer. Some kind of modern boxed potpourri on an ottoman (that no doubt doubles or triples as storage) will do.
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Crate and Barrel’s CB2 announces it will open for fall 2011 on Queen West
The Sell: A Bloor West Village couple reaps the benefits of downsizing in a surging market
Listed for: $999,900. Sold for: $1,226,500. (Image: Courtesy of homeviewphoto.com)
The Sellers: Laura Ducharme, the 43-year-old host of Fido and Wine, in production for The Pet Network, and her husband Jason, a 51-year-old consultant.
The property: A 2,300-square-foot, four-bedroom house on Glenlake Avenue, just north of Bloor West Village.
Great Spaces: A Toronto screenwriting couple steals a home renovation idea from their own show
Karen Troubetzkoy and Derek Schreyer met at film school in Vancouver more than 15 years ago and have been romantically and professionally inseparable ever since. Nine years ago, they bought a 1940s two-storey home in Little Italy—their first house. It was stumbling distance from Café Diplomatico, Schreyer’s favourite hangout, and a bargain because it had been slow to sell.
Design Scout: 14 outdoor furniture finds in the King Street East design area
Summer is in full swing and so is the annual urge to relish every possible outdoor moment before Labour Day. Garden decor has become big business in Toronto, with people rushing to splurge on everything from full outdoor rooms to portable accessories that can be enjoyed year-round.
For this chapter of Design Scout, we visited three major outdoor furniture design shops in the King Street East neighbourhood: Andrew Richards Designs, Jardin de Ville and Fresh Home and Garden. Check out some of our finds, because we think it might be time to do more than just pot a plant and put out some paper lanterns. See our 14 picks after the jump.
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The Find: an outdoor furniture set that didn’t put us to sleep
When shopping for outdoor furniture in Toronto, we’ve noticed that there’s an abundance of beige, white and black, which appears to be a move by retailers to cater to Tom, Dick and Harry. So it pays to chat with the sales staff about the other colourful options, which are always available to custom-order (but may not necessarily be on display in a showroom). After seeing piles of cold, modern designs, we were pleased to find Tribu’s Mirthe line at Avenue Road—it has both shine and colour and adds a bit of extra warmth to what will likely be an already pleasant, sunny day. The deep purple accents take the simple white set-up from straight-lined, clean and stuffy to something unique and more fun. And each piece is sold separately so shoppers can customize their outdoor look, which means no two backyards will look the same (unless of course, they do). Mirthe sidechair $596 (Cushions $196), Mirthe bench starts at $996 (cushions $138), Mirthe table starts at $2,460.
Avenue Road, 415 Eastern Ave., 416-548-7788. www.avenue-road.com.
Pottery Barn announces Canadian e-commerce launch for its in-between brand, PBTeen
Parents looking for their next home renovation and decorating challenge may not have to stray too far from their usual Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware haunts. PBTeen, a decor age bracket above PBKids with a wealth of sports-themed linens, paisley quilts, dainty study chairs and decorations (but where’s the Eames chair and the Jon Goulder desk?), has launched an e-commerce website for parents who feel the need to redecorate every time a new issue of House and Home hits the newsstands. Those looking to physically touch the product can check out Pottery Barn’s 100 Bloor Street West location, where they’ll be hosting a series of vignettes until May 27.
Introducing: Domison, where Canadian-made furniture is affordable
Introducing Domison, the latest in Toronto's custom furniture game (Image: Carole Park)
The place: Across the street from St. Lawrence Market in a cluster of furniture shops is a glass storefront that invites pedestrians to peer inside a 3,500-square-foot showroom by award-winning interior design firm Blazysgerard. To break up the stark-white open space, designers Alexandre Blazys and Benoit Gérard placed black metal columns as contrasting graphic inserts.
Rosedale-Summerhill Guide: 23 need-to-know places along Yonge Street’s poshest stretch
Yonge Street’s poshest stretch, from Ramsden Park up to the Summerhill LCBO, has two strong suits: food and decor. Locals from the tree-lined side streets keep the shops going during the week, while the weekend brings floods of shoppers from further afield. Here, our list of 23 essential restaurants, food shops, furniture stores, clothing boutiques and beauty parlours along tony Toronto’s main drag.
START THE ROSEDALE-SUMMERHILL TOUR »
Introducing: BYOB, a Queen West shop for everything booze-related (except alcohol)
BYOB: Queen West’s new “cocktail emporium” (Image: Signe Langford)
Boozehounds, start your livers. Queen West is now home to BYOB, a new shop that specializes in cocktail-related accoutrement of every imaginable variety. Owner Kristen Voisey told us, “I went to L.A. last year and came across a shop called Barkeeper. It was in a neighbourhood, Silver Lake, that is very similar to Queen West (Beck lives there). And I thought, I could do this in Toronto.”
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Toronto gets crafty at the One of a Kind Spring Show and Sale
One of a Kind Show visitor sees something she likes (Image: mistagregory)
Attention shoppers, potters, crafters and hobbyists: the One of a Kind Show and Sale is returning to the Direct Energy Centre from March 30–April 3. The kitschy finds and one-offs we’ve grown to love will all be on offer, but to ensure the need for granola bars, sedatives and sensible footwear, there are a staggering 118 new vendors (450 total) this spring.
Domison and BoConcept to join King East’s furniture store row
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Two new contemporary furniture stores are set to open in the next few weeks within a couple blocks of each other. Domison, a Montreal-based design company, and BoConcept, a Danish firm, are both putting finishing touches on their St. Lawrence Market–area storefronts, close to established names like Filter, EQ3, Visitor Parking, Klaus by Nienkämper, Trianon and many others.
The Thing: A dollhouse for the design snob’s Mini-Me
(Image: Toni Hafkenscheid)
It reads like a dreamy real estate listing: six rooms, open floor plan and floor-to-ceiling windows. Emerson House, as this sweet pad is called, has impeccable eco-cred, with a rooftop solar panel, lead-free finishes and recessed LED lighting. But this house is under two feet tall and, supposedly, designed for ages three and up. Created by New York luxury toy team Brinca Dada, it comes with smooth black walnut furniture, Barcelona-esque loungers, an egg-shaped tub and even a bidet. Marketed as a $540 plaything, it seems destined for a sleek console table, safely out of a toddler’s grubby reach. A Lilliputian version of high-end living, it’s equal parts absurd and alluring, a lovely piece of craftsmanship that’s also house porn made miniature. Hey, it’s not just children who enjoy a bit of make-believe. Kol Kid, 674 Queen St. W., 416-681-0368.
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The Find: a glamorous, champagne-coloured chandelier
The last few years have seen so many different takes on the classic chandelier, from jet-black drops to painted and recycled pieces. This champagne glass and crystal chandelier at Putti retains a classic shape, with eight lights, Venetian-style glass arms and crystal drops. But the champagne colour is refreshingly novel, as is the slight aurora borealis finish, which, depending on the light, gives each facet an extra twinkle. Although they’re traditionally hung overhead in a dining room, this chandelier would make a glamorous statement in a bedroom with the necessary ceiling height. $1,395.
Putti, 1104 Yonge St., 416-972-7652.
The Chase: searching for a classic Cabbagetown house for under $1 million
They wanted to stay in Cabbagetown. Their budget was just under $1 million. But the place had to be big enough for Cardinal Richelieu
The Buyers: Keith Pfeiffer, a 50-year-old retired television director, and Lawrence Reiter, a 37‑year-old pharmacologist.
The Story: When Pfeiffer and Reiter moved to Toronto from their native Johannesburg in 2008, they bought a modest home: a semi-detached Cabbagetown Victorian on a narrow lot with no yard. Two years later, they started looking for an upgrade.
Their wish list: a house wide enough for their oversized furniture, with a yard for their three dogs and a large wall to display their huge antique portrait of Cardinal Richelieu. “The Cardinal has been in my family longer than I can remember,” says Pfeiffer. “It’s a beautiful piece.” Read the rest of this entry »
