Blog

Welcoming Habitat For Humanity

January 26, 2011 | Real Estate, Renovation, Trades

Back in 1999 (see photo above), after three years of a detailed retrofit, the third adaptive reuse conversion I was engaged on became registered as 'The Movie House' condominium. Located in Toronto's Little Italy on the northwest corner of College Street and Euclid Avenue, this former Metropolitan Review Cinema became an intimate 18 unit…
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We Flip Flapjacks, Not Houses

October 27, 2010 | Design, Real Estate, Renovation, Selling, Style Enhancement Staging

I'm all for renovators improving property for resale and putting a profit in their pockets, but sometimes they shoot themselves in the foot by making poor design choices that are too taste-specific or, as the case may be, devoid of taste at all. I recently showed a downtown dwelling that featured…
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In The Lounge Of Luxury

October 14, 2010 | Design, Furnishings, Renovation, Trades

Ten months ago I decided to finish my loft in The Button Factory and take it to 'the next level', meaning I was actually going to complete the space and make it more of what I'd always dreamed of rather than what I had settled for. It was an enormous…
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Stairway To Heaven

August 20, 2010 | Design, Furnishings, Renovation, Retail

Ok, I'm sure you know well by now I'm a product of the 70s, so please forgive the 'Stairway To Heaven' reference on a stair railing blog. It simply can't be helped given 'Stairway To Heaven' is, without doubt, one of the greatest rock anthems ever created! Released by the English rock band Led Zeppelin in 1971, this breathtaking eight minute song…
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Wonderful Wallcovering

August 16, 2010 | Design, Renovation, Retail, Trades

For a good chunk of my adult life, those who subscribed to the purity of contemporary architecture and design considered wallpaper a bit of a decorating no-no. Or at least it seemed that way to me. Canadian and American Shelter magazines like Metropolitan Home (now defunct though archived), Dwell Magazine or Canadian House…
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Toronto’s Villa Discrete

August 07, 2010 | Architecture, Design, Lifestyle, Renovation

I can't say I was completely won over when that Michael Lee-Chin 'Crystal', by architect Daniel Libeskind, smashed into the venerable Royal Ontario Museum in 2007 and stuck. I think I would have liked it more had it actually been a crystal and not a bunch of galvalume with a few strips of glass that…
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Sweet Dreams For Bed Head

August 04, 2010 | Design, Furnishings, Renovation, Retail

Research shows that being well-rested is one of the most essential aspects for healthy balanced living. And yet I have a sneaking suspicion most of us are sleeping on mattresses that have gone past their prime, using pillows which don't compliment the way we rest our weary body and head,…
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Pretense-Free Snob Appeal

July 29, 2010 | Furnishings, Renovation, Retail, Trades

Snob 388 Carlaw Avenue #202F Toronto, Ontario, M4M 2T4 Tel: 416.778.8778 Fax: 416.778.0606 I love to entertain. In fact, I have been gathering friends and family around my table to feast and laugh for almost twenty-five years. I'm not a chef by any means, but I have learned that the key to a…
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Kitchen A GoGo

July 27, 2010 | Design, Renovation, Trades

So it's been six months since I slipped into Makeover Madness and decided to upgrade my loft from boho to chic. Not that it was an instant decision. It started with a desire to finally unpack my cd collection and boxes of books that were gathering dust in my storage…
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Sizzle And Spice

July 16, 2010 | Design, Furnishings, Renovation

One of my favourite home improvements is the custom gas barbecue located on my sunbrella-covered cedar-decked dining pavilion that's wrapped in ivy-clad original factory windows. The scorching hot gas grill unit was inset into a custom steel cabinet eight feet long backed by a stainless steel trellis that provides some privacy between my neighbours and I.…
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