{ Posts Tagged ‘event’ }

ids round-up: 7 favourite booths

I’m still spinning after all the craziness of IDS, so I took some time to sit back and review all the amazing stuff I saw. From neon-coloured toilet paper to fireplaces with Swarovski crystals, there was something for everyone at the show.

I already mentioned how much I simply adored the colourful Style at Home booth this year, but there were a few others that took my breath away as well.


1 UpCountry
I actually gasped when I spotted this booth. With Union Jack’s everywhere (storage trunks, a sofa, wallcovering), UpCountry showed how to do Britannia right by showcasing their new collection by Timothy Oulton. Ab fab, if you ask me!

ids11 upcountry1 ids round up: 7 favourite booths
ids11 upcountry2 ids round up: 7 favourite booths
2 IKEA
The IKEA peeps took a bold step outside the box this year by showcasing a black kitchen. Although I’m a huge fan of the classic white kitchen, I like how IKEA gave the space depth with a metallic backsplash and an abundance of white paper pendants.

ids11 ikea ids round up: 7 favourite booths
3 Nicole Tarasick
Over in the Studio North section of the show (where artisans across Canaada feature their forward-thinking designs), Nicole Tarasick had set up her booth showcasing her fabulous cushions. I love how she celebrates Canadiana in a fresh, modern way.

ids11 yyz ids round up: 7 favourite booths
4 John Paul & Co
As I was finishing up my tour of the show, I fell upon a booth of stunning designer dishware and saw that Style at Home managing editor Tamara Robbins Griffith had done the same! Here she is chatting to the owner of John Paul & Co. about hanging the dishes on the wall to display their gorgeous bottom sides.

ids11 johnpaul ids round up: 7 favourite booths
5 Sibling Revelry (Sarah and Theo Richardson’s space)
I know everyone has already gone bananas over the space that Sarah Richardson designed with her brother Theo, but I need to jump on the bandwagon of love. It seems like everything Sarah touches turns to gold, and this is no different — how fabulous is that photo of Summerhill station? I was able to snap a photo of Sarah and her sidekick Tommy outside the space, as well.

ids11 sarah summerhill ids round up: 7 favourite booths
ids11 sarah seatee ids round up: 7 favourite booths
ids11 tommysarah1 ids round up: 7 favourite booths


6 Andrew Richard Designs
During TIFF, I had the pleasure of shadowing Andrew Bockner of Andrew Richard Designs as he set up a party space, and I’ve been a huge fan since. Their booth this year at IDS was a dreamy outdoor oasis with a water feature on the wall, a cabana, and their new line of gorgeous outdoor furniture.

ids11 ard ids round up: 7 favourite booths
7 STYLEGARAGE
Canadiana seemed to be all the rage this year at IDS and I, for one, am loving it. STYLEGARAGE has long been a favourite Toronto haunt of mine for great furniture finds and I loved seeing the way they set up their booth. They accessorized the space with Canadian chic, from Nicole Tarasick’s cushions to a wall map of Canada (think back to your grade 3 classroom).

ids11 stylegarage ids round up: 7 favourite booths

It’s safe to say this has been my favourite IDS to date! What were some of your favourite parts of the show?

xo,

Lauren

ids11 tweet-up at nota bene

There’s no better way to kick off IDS than to have a party before the party. Designer pals Meredith Heron and Sonya Nesbitt-Kinkade organized a tweet-up at Nota Bene tonight as a fun way for design tweeters to get together prior to the IDS11 gala. Margot and I attended on behalf of Style at Home — other guests included Arren Williams, Kimberley Seldon and Tracy Moore (who brought along her CityLine crew).

And then, there were of course the amazing bloggers and social media fiends that we chat to every day on Twitter. It was wonderful to meet all the people behind the tweets and it’s not surprising that we all had a fabulous time!

So what we really want to know is — when’s the next one?

tweet up nota bene ids11 tweet up at nota bene

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tweet up arren williams ids11 tweet up at nota bene
tweet up sarah gunn ids11 tweet up at nota bene
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tweet up glamma mama ids11 tweet up at nota bene
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tweet up lauren margot1 ids11 tweet up at nota bene
A big thanks goes out to Meredith and Sonya for organizing the tweet-up, as well as all the incredible guests who attended the event. Also, the staff at Nota Bene were simply fabulous and the food was delish. And finally, a big thanks to the following groups who provided goodies and showed their support:

Beauti-Tone Paints
ELTE
West Elm
Hewlett-Packard/Palm
Artemano
Benjamin Moore
Penny People Designs

xo,

Lauren

flower arranging class

 

arranging flower arranging class

A huuuuuuge thank-you to everyone who came out to the Norwich Library on Saturday for my flower arranging class! We had a great turnout, and I think everyone stopped by at their local nursery on the way home to pick up some fresh greens for the garden!

Here I am with the showstopper arrangement that I created during the seminar –

an easy, breezy arrangement of simple daisies and pink carnations in a rather unusual vessel… Yes, that’s a watermelon!

 

watermelon flower arranging class

 

I simply shaved about an inch from the bottom of the melon so that it would sit stable, and then carved off the top third. Using a melon baller, I emptied most of the fruit (about two-thirds deep), and dried out the remaining interior with paper towels. After lining the interior with floral cellophane (clear cling-wrap would work wonderfully as well), I inserted pre-soaked floral foam, secured in place inside the melon with floral tape. Pop in a few of your favourite summer flowers, elevate on a cake stand, and you’ve got a quick and easy centerpiece that will have your guests talking at your next al fresco soiree!

Photos courtesy Rose-Le Studio.

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anthropologie’s new toronto store

anthropologievisual anthropologies new toronto store

For years, Anthropologie’s been at the top of my list of “American stores that should open Canadian locations”. It’s nice to know that someone’s been paying attention to my listmaking.

Scheduled for a grand opening on April 22, Anthropologie’s first Canadian storefront — at the new Shops At Don Mills outdoor shopping centre in Toronto (which my friend Janine Falcon likens to The Grove in L.A.!) — is generating not so much a buzz, as it is a deafening drone. I mean, it’s impossible to overstate how big of a deal this is. Whereas we used to only be able to order “small, gorgeous things” from Anthropologie’s website (glamorous knobs and cabinet hardware, sweet stitched monogram table linens…), we now have full access to big, yummy lighting, rugs and furniture that we’ve drooled over in each issue of the Anthropologie catalogue, but couldn’t order due to shipping restrictions. 

anthropologiebed anthropologies new toronto store

There’s no sneak peek at the store interior itself (the image at top is from one of Anthropologie’s 121 already-existing U.S. locations), but my peeps at Anthropologie H.Q. say the 8,000 square foot store will have “a rustic modern feel, realized with reclaimed materials and work by artists and artisans, such as surfaces hand-crafted from plaster, paper and fabric”.

In this gorge shell, Anthropologie’s famed visual merchandisers (they’ve actually hired a full-time TEAM of visual merchandisers!) will be crafting creative and innovative window and store displays “that possess a sense of surprise and discovery.” Their theme for the store launch?  Bees!  ”The store’s bee-themed windows will reflect in abstract ways upon their role in our world. Bee-related iconography like hives and honeycombs will be recreated with unexpected materials and whimsy.” For a store that’s generating so much buzz, it’s hard to imagine anything more appropriate. icon wink anthropologies new toronto store  

Anthropologie, Shops At Don Mills, 1090 Don Mills Rd., Toronto

 

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Images courtesy of Anthropologie