Commute Home

We concentrate primarily on domestic interiors on Desire to Inspire. It's all about the home. Actually it's all about the room porn for the home. Every so often, though, inspiration comes muscling in from commercial designs. Commute Home is a Toronto based design firm and although what you see before you are restaurants and offices, shops and studio space I could with just a tiny bit of tweaking see these designs providing inspiration for your "not so tame" domesticated home. A little indie. A little edgy. Definitely with attitude. Urban cool. Inner city hip.

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Jessica Kelly

I'd like to introduce you all to the wonderful world of interior design by Canadian Jessica Kelly. She lays the groundwork for contemporary spaces in cool, calm neutrals and then all the homeowners have to do is personalize with photos of their dog, a stack of favourite coffee table books, a pair of Hunter boots at the front door and they're all set. ;)

  

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Beautiful

The colours, the light, the rug, the shot. Another stunning photo by Canadian snapper Virginia MacDonald.

Pure Green Magazine in print!!

I have blogged about Pure Green Magazine before (here and here), and as one of my favourite online magazines (Canadian to boot!) I am so stoked that it is transitioning to print and subscriptions are now available! GET YOUR SUBSCRIPTION NOW! And I must mention that it is much more than your ordinary magazine. It is more like a book, meant to be displayed, collected and treasured and as such is made of high quality finishes (which you can read more about on their site). I know it's not easy for the creators of this magazine as they are an independent publisher so I'm off to order my own subscription because it would be really great to see this mag become as successful as I know it can be. Here's a little peek:

(Images via Ever Images Photography)

My dream home

Over the weekend my husband was researching Ottawa architects online, and came across one of our favourites, John Donkin (I featured him last year). He found a recently completed home in his portfolio that is EXACTLY what we've been dreaming about. We drove by it on Saturday and after picking our jaws up off the ground we managed to snap some photos of it with a cell phone like a couple of stalkers. The exterior is perfect for us - tall and narrow-ish with a huge garage (it is really deep and wide once you drive in) where my husband can hang out and do guy stuff. These folks have a fairly wide lot so they were able to plan for alot of windows on the more private side of the house, which we may not be able to get away with given our narrow lot.

I love that the facade is not made up of 8 different materials in 8 different colours like all the other modern homes going up around Ottawa. (BLEH). The simplicity of it is perfection, and draws your attention to the wonderful details like ALL THE WINDOWS.
Now, I have not really taken a good look at the interior as I am up to my eyeballs in French studies so this post is more about the shape and the exterior but I thought I'd show you the photos from John's website of both so you can see what this fabulous home is all about (after the jump).

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