Every year, when the Interior Design Show (IDS) descends upon the city of Toronto, thousands of industry professionals and consumers acquaint themselves with businesses at the fore of design. Booth exhibits boast inspiring techniques, home accessories and bursts of colour, piquing the interest of passersby. Perhaps it was the intrigue and mystery of a particular …
According to artist Mary Conover, landscapes are as much about human energy as physical place. “This series of abstract images of the ocean [was] taken in an area of St. Barths called The Windy Coast. It is the last untouched place on that island. It’s what the French pirates would have seen for the first …
In the centre of a room cradled in cream and candor rests a sculpture of Aztec beginnings. Its ceremonial presence is surrounded by touches of modernity and tradition, imparting a distinctive yet comforting look. This is but one of the many signature approaches of NordSouth Interiors, an international design firm that eagerly moves beyond the …
Interior design has gone through drastic esthetic changes over the past 10 – 15 years. We’ve seen the traditional opulence of the ’80s and early ’90s transition to a spare, modern and mid-century-influenced look in the 2000s. Recently, a very eclectic approach has evolved, and its given the homeowner an opportunity to inject more of …
What sells well at the moment? Despite the overall economic downturn, some areas of the art market are performing extremely well. This has come as a surprise to many people, as usually the art market suffers during times of economic decline. This recession, however, has seen consumers seeking refuge in luxury items and brands, gold …
"It’s never too late to be who you were meant to be,” says interior designer and lifestyle expert Moll Anderson. This phrase, a personal favourite of hers, is from her first book, Change Your Home, Change Your Life (Thomas Nelson, 2006), a saying that echoes the words of renowned author George Eliot, and one that …
For Los Angeles-based designers Ron Woodson and Jaime Rummerfield, beautifying spaces isn’t about dedicating blueprints to particular times or places. It’s about expressing relationships: affairs between scale and texture, vocabularies of colour and proportion. It’s about unions of the old and the new – the modern and vintage – or what the design pair has …
Whether renting or buying, these works fuse life with splendour and an artist’s unique view of life. 1. In Mark Strutt’s “Big Thinkers,” dark cracks and wrinkles contrast the soft dirt-covered faces on a pair of solemn elephants, allowing the audience to share a simple moment of peaceful intrigue with two serene giants. www.thefocusgallery.ca 2. …
It was a right royal night in 2008 when Tricia Guild found out that the Queen was appointing her to design a collection of fabrics and wall coverings influenced by the dignified décor of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. “I was pretty shocked and a little nervous, but delighted to have been chosen,” says Guild, …
When your childhood is chock-full of globetrotting excursions alongside your diplomat father, exposing your inquisitive mind to the sights, sounds and styles of foreign cities and cultures, you acquire a certain aptitude for all things fashionable. This first hand experience was a central facet in interior designer Moe Razi’s growth, and a pillar of her …
