Green Light District

Last weekend while the husband and I were in Toronto participating in the Fall Antique & Vintage Market we FINALLY got to visit Green Light District. Deborah and David started this shop here in Ottawa but a few years ago packed up and moved themselves and the store to Toronto. This was my first time in Toronto since the move so I was stoked to check out their new digs in the really fun neighbourhood of Roncesvalles (a short jaunt from downtown). We met them at the shop where I toured around drooling over all their wares and snapped photos, then we all went for dinner a 2 minute walk down the street at Hopgood Foodliner (amazing drinks and food - try the Newfie Fried Rice!). I really can't wait to go back to GLD and check out more of that 'hood. Thank you so much Deborah and David! Missed you guys!

Just beyond the Subway is The Chocolateria - OMG! Need to definitively stop in there on the next visit. 

Their sign from the Ottawa shop looking right at home against a beautifully restored brick wall. 

That petal table is so freaking cute. And such incredible craftsmanship.

They have REAL butterfly chairs complete with leather covers and steel bases. I have always wanted one of those. 

(Mom - you need this lamp!)

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Glebe House Tour 2015 - part 2

This little office is at the top of the landing is above the mudroom in the rebuilt addition. 

I saw a before photo of the bathroom. I recall a very narrow yellow tub and really awful tile on the wall. This bathroom is a dream come true in comparison. 

I LOVE this photograph by Maureen O'Connor from the H.H Richardson Complex Asylum for the Insane in Buffalo NY

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Glebe House Tour 2015 - part 1

It is that time of year again....the Glebe House Tour is coming up September 20th. Get your tickets HERE! This is one of my favourite local events - when a select group of people in one of the coolest neighbourhoods in Ottawa open up their homes for us nosy folk. :) There's nothing like snooping through a stranger's home (it is a well guarded tour I might add) without them present so you can OH! and AH! and HUH? to your heart's content. I was given a personal tour by the owners of one of the homes on the tour (thank you Michel and Lara!, and the kids who I did not get to meet but who cleaned their rooms for me!), and I really lucked out because this house is almost identical to mine so it was really interesting to see how someone else made over the same spaces. In this case the owners have gone to town renovating what was once a very neglected home. Over the past 6 years they have worked on every single nook and cranny to restore and update to their liking. And boy do I like! I always have a hard time narrowing down the photos of these house tours so this post will be the exterior front and main level and the next post will be the second floor and backyard. (Posts from last year's tour here and here) 

 

There's a surprise behind that door :)

All of the original oak doors/trim/window frames/beams are so beautiful and OMG the time it must have taken to restore it all... That's the vestibule door in the middle, with the living room on the left and the dining room to the right.

When the homeowners first moved in things were in such rough shape the family of four all lived in one room for a while. I may not get these numbers quite right but they lived without a kitchen for 6 months and without a bathroom for 1 month. 

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How to make an 80s home not look 80s

I was perusing the latest issue of Style At Home magazine and fell in love with this house that was featured. Designed by Melissa Davis and Halina Catherine, it is classic but streamlined and modern, making it fresh and inviting and not at all stuffy. Built in 1987, you would never know it based on its appearance now. I am completely smitten with the hard wood floors and the acrylic-front custom hutch above by Hardware Interiors Studio. (We also featured Catherine and Melissa's work in this post).

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Working on a Saturday

There is something clean, contemporary and killer about the Blue Communications office by Montréal-based Atelier Moderno in collaboration with Anne Sophie Goneau and I'm not just talking about the life size sharks floating around the walls. I still can't believe I have found two workspaces in a matter of weeks that feature sharks as a design statement. A company mascot or perhaps a work ethic? Anyway as I always say if you have to drag your sorry self into work on the weekend it helps if it's somewhere stylish.

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