Interior: Home for a rest

Here’s a 21st-century design myth that needs busting: neutrals are bland, safe choices for timid decorators. Admittedly, it’s easy to see how our overdose on taupe in the neutralized ’90s gave subdued hues a bad rep. But this decade’s swing to bold, beautiful colour and pattern doesn’t mean neutrals aren’t all that, too, as this condo in Toronto’s Roncesvalles Village neighbourhood proves.

Designer Stephanie Lees of Studio EyeSpy helped the homeowner, a globetrotting businesswoman, redo her 950-square-foot abode top to bottom. “The joke was that the only thing we kept were two toilets,” says Stephanie. The new design addressed functional issues, such as a poorly planned kitchen with no counter space, as well as aesthetics. “Every square inch of surface and most of the furniture is new,” she says.


A peaceful space
White linen drapes softly filter light through the wall of windows in the living room. A luxuriously large grey sofa and sleek white Barcelona chairs form a contemporary-style conversation area around the wenge-wood-clad fireplace. A concrete surround reinforces the use of grey throughout this Toronto condo.