Can’t get enough of this brand’s tagline …. still chuckling! “Rescue a CEO“ featured our own Kelly Fallis in their most recent blog about the best tips for bootstrapping. Click here to check out the rest of the tips
Onyx. What a cool word. Black onyx. What a cool stone. Black isn’t a colour that makes it onto most people’s wallcolour lists. Yes, it’s dark – it is BLACK, after all. But it’s also sleek, edgy. It’s James Bond in a colour. It’s the pavement on the open road. It’s how some take their coffee. [...]
Some tables are made for eating. Some are made for putting your feet up. These are the kinds of tables we’re talking about - the ones that occupy their space in the room quietly and unpretentiously. Sentinels of leisure, they prefer to sit in the corner, or on the side, biding their time. They do [...]
It’s not that books are a new trend. It’s that people are finding ways to use books to their interior decorating advantage. From wallpaper to bookends to colour-coded bookcases, it looks like books are for more than just reading and burning. There’s wallpaper that offers a Victorian library feel, minus the musty, dusty tomes. (The [...]
White is clean, crisp, and fresh. It is, quite literally, a blank canvas against which the sky’s the limit. But there’s also something to be said for maximizing the whiteness of white itself – for making white the focal point of a room. Take a look for yourself if you don’t believe us. Here are a [...]
No, not that spring – the one that comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. This is the industrial kind of spring – the ones you find inside mattresses and machines. And now, the ones you find super-sized and doubling as seating at your kitchen counter, rustic and admittedly, a little rusty [...]
Hickory Chair Furniture Company began way back in 1911, in Hickory, North Carolina. Since their very first made-to-order dining chair, they’ve specialized in custom-made furniture of all kinds – not just chairs. They pride themselves on their artisanal upholstery and handcrafted workmanship; in fact, 90% of their furnishings are still made in the Hickory, NC [...]
In the past week, Canada Day and July 4th have come and gone. Both countries owe something to England – without Britannia, who would Canadians and Americans celebrate having wrested control from? – so today we thought we’d have some fun with Anglophilia. We may be celebrating independence from England, but we’ll concede that the [...]
Make of this what you will. We are neither endorsing nor condemning the now-ubiquitous antler trend cropping up all over the place, but merely acknowledging that yes, it is a trend. And it is ubiquitous. We’re reminded of that line in Beauty and the Beast, when Gaston proudly declares, “I use antlers in all of [...]
It’s regal, it’s royal, it’s rich, it’s deep. It’s also gentle, soothing, soft, and elegant. And don’t forget majestic. Purple is nothing short of majestic, in any of its shades, hues, or forms. And, like orange, nothing rhymes with it. Which, somehow, makes it even more lovable. (What can we say, we’re suckers for elusiveness.) [...]
Porta Romana is full of funny, cheeky little design bits. Like this duck-footed lamp, for example. It’s chuckle-worthy but also elegant; the gold helps quite a bit with that, offsetting the whimsy with a touch of the refined. (Of course it’s refined; Porta Romana are English. Leave it to the English to make a duck-footed [...]
Let’s discuss chairs. The cushy, deep ones that you just sink into – and sometimes need help getting up out of. Bolier & Company are experts in this field – the field of deep-seated seats. Their wares are elegant and simple, classic and refined. These are chairs we wouldn’t mind sinking into – and never getting [...]
There was a time, long ago, when people did nothing but sit on the floor. (They did other things too, of course. But seating was mostly limited to the ground level.) Shakespeare even wrote jokes catering directly to the “groundlings,” who’d sit on the ground in the cheap seats, in the pit right at the [...]
It seems everyone wants a piece of factory life these days – or at least, a piece of the factory. Industrial style has become huge in the world of eclectic and daring interior design. It’s harsh, worn, unfinished, and definitely not pretty – but that seems to be precisely it: design subversiveness. In some cases, [...]
Cornflower, sky, denim, navy, ocean, cobalt, cerulean, lapis lazuli, sapphire…and the “Heart of the Ocean,” that blue diamond necklace Rose tosses into the water at the end of Titanic. Maybe because of its association with both the sky and the ocean – the sea above and the sea below – blue has found its way [...]
Trust the Italians to come up with something original, sleek, and playful. Italian design firm Soup Studio was awarded an Honorable Mention by the Design Institution at the 2nd International Designer’s Workstation Competition in 2008 for this odd, fun little piece: a table that doubles as a work station and a giant Post-It note. The tabletop [...]
They seem simple enough. Adirondack chairs – or Muskoka chairs, depending on your national orientation – are low, contoured, wide-armed, and big enough to curl up in. They’re understated and they’re rustic. And they’re over 100 years old. It all began way back in 1903, when Thomas Lee was vacationing in Westport, New York, in [...]
For all the charm a hardwood floor brings, there’s still more charm to be found. Something interesting happens when you paint a hardwood floor – specifically, when you paint it white. There’s suddenly a rustic feel, but a delicate one, too. Call it princess-cottage. The room opens up, illuminated by the white from below. It’s [...]
When done right, green is one of those colours that makes you walk into a room and utter a soft, “Whoa.” Emerald furniture, turquoise walls, forest green drapes, teal rugs…they really pack a punch. Quieter, softer greens are also delightful: sage can be soothing, moss can be elegant, and seafoam is soft and retro. Pistachio, [...]
Delicate, lovely colour scheme of pastel blue, gold, and black – check. A touch of the exotic with two symmetrical tribal masks – check. Refined elegance in the form of matching entrance tables – check. Oppositely facing mounted unicorn heads – check? We’re really not sure what to make of this one.
Because the grandiosity and distinct Britishness of chesterfields, which we discussed a little bit in yesterday’s post, makes us want to fly the Union Jack and serve high tea, we thought we’d keep that thread going with a spotlight on British Chesterfield, the U.K.-based manufacturer. Their couches – er, chesterfields - are constructed with a solid [...]
Ever since hominids started walking upright, arguably, seating has been key. But it’s not quite enough just to sit down. We like to lounge, to sprawl out and laze around. Chairs are great, but sometimes just don’t cut it. Enter: The Couch. Fun fact (as if couches weren’t fun enough already!): The word “sofa” is [...]
Headboards, while not necessarily crucial to the whole bed-thing, have a way of making a bedroom look complete. They’re like an additional piece of furniture that takes up no room at all, and makes the room look fuller. They range from the opulent, extravagant, and over-the-top to the understated and the elegant. Here are a [...]
Meet yellow, and its children gold, buttercup, sunburst, citrine, dandelion, Post-It, sunflower, lemon, and banana – just to name a few (it’s a very big family). Whether a subdued accent piece or a bright back wall, yellow has a way of tying a room together. It goes especially well with black and white. And blue. [...]
This highly geometric sink is an oddity if ever we saw one. There aren’t many places it would work, it’s big and oddly shaped, and it’s altogether weird, looking like it belongs more on a runway or in a showroom than in a house. (Think of it like the crazy, unwearable, unthinkable fashion you see [...]
