Fab find
Kate Spade Red Surprise Ball, $25; The Bay.
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{ Author Archive - Sara Cation }
SAH You describe yourself as a lifestyle architect – what does that mean?
WS I’m always considering how we can shift the old paradigms of how rooms are architecturally set up to best suit the way we live. I want to set people up for a better lifestyle within the context of their home – it’s more anthropological than it is interior decor. For example, having a games table in the room adjacent to the kitchen would inspire family time because they’d naturally go to that table after dinner and maybe play backgammon. But if that table never existed, no one would think to go there – the room would just become a pass-through. I want to take a room from something you’re just looking to something you’re actually living in.
It was a delight to interview hip Vancouver designer Peter Wilds for a feature in Style at Home’s January 2013 issue.
His ability to juxtapose opposite elements like masculine and feminine, elegant and industrial, unique and classic is impressive. As is his talent for making the quirky look chic – his obsession with skulls single-handedly made me feel better about my love of guns (…in terms of home decor, that is).
Peter Wilds in his Gastown, Vancouver, studio. Photograph by Janis Nicolay
But what I didn’t have room to include in the article was where Peter’s style comes from – how he got into the business, where he got started and what inspires him. How lucky, then, that blogs aren’t nearly as limited in space.
Interviewing incredible design icons just happens to be one of the many perks of this job, but only every now and then do we have the honour of sitting down with a legend.
Last month, design editor Jessica Waks and I enjoyed afternoon tea with Lord Wedgwood, great grandson of Josiah Wedgwood, who started perhaps the best-known and best-collected tableware brand in the world, Wedgwood (now Waterford-Wedgwood-Royal Doulton) more than 250 years ago. We chatted about everything, from tea to terrible cooking, from spectacular dishware to Downton Abbey, and walked away, under the spell of British charm, to bring tea time back to our own homes.
Jess and I with Lord Wedgwood
At once masculine and modern, sleek and stately, Hotel Duret exudes Parisian chic – how fitting that it’s in one of the chicest parts of Paris. Local to everywhere you want to be, it’s walking distance from the Arc de Triomphe, Avenue Foche (among the most expensive residential streets in the world), Avenue des Champs-Élysées and the Eiffel Tower (I should know, I walked them all). It feels cozy, homey and welcoming while also clean, charming and fashionable – exactly the kind of combination that will have you waking up feeling like a bon vivant every day of your holiday.
- a swanky room equals stylish sleeps
It’s that time of year again – you know, April showers, spring flowers and all that jazz. The birds are back, the sun is shining and gardens are growing. And on the family front, bellies are getting bigger and additions are being made. The season of rebirth is also, it seems, all about birth… At least if you’re in my circle of my thirty-something friends.
So here’s an easy and inexpensive spring shower craft – inspired by the one and only Martha Stewart – that I adapted to welcome an old friend’s new baby.
Bucket of joy for a bundle of joy!
At Style at Home, we so often look at where the worlds of fashion and decor intersect, whether the influence is from room to runway or runway to room, but it’s rare that we get to see these two bastions of style as fantastically combined as they were at Korhani Home’s fashion show.
Dramatic opening moment; Photograph by George Pimentel
Toronto textile guru Virginia Johnson has gained international acclaim for her designs, from resortwear and homeware for her own eponymous brand to stationery and journals for Kate Spade. We recently caught up with Virginia, who’s getting ready to move her flagship store to 970 College Street in Toronto this spring, to find out where she started, what inspires her and what’s next!
photo by Miriam Johnson
After interviewing Lotta Jansdotter, the Scandinavian-born print and product designer, author and artist, my crafting flame has been reignited.
The geeky fervour that I formerly applied solely to scrapbooking now applies to stenciling… and I just can’t reign in my paintbrush. Greeting cards, notebook covers, tote bags and tea towels are all getting the touch of the brush – and I’d stencil a pink heart onto my cat if she’d just stay still. Once I hone my craft, I’ll work toward a wall hanging or stencil the walls themselves!
If you’d like to get stencil happy… or simply inspired by beautiful spaces, leave a comment below and you could win one of Lotta Jansdotter’s books. We’ve got Lotta’s Printing Studio and Open Studios with Lotta Jansdotter up for grabs. Take it from me, you’ll be crafting in no time!
Contest closes April 15 at 12pm EST. Open to all residents of Canada, except those in Quebec. Not open to any Transcontinental Media employees, their families, or any other persons with whom they reside.
