First up, I got a sweet mention from my client Christine who has been blogging about her kitchen reno on Apartment Therapy. I’m not gonna lie, it is quite thrilling seeing my name mentioned on a design site that I have been reading for years. Really nice.
Work-wise, I have been doing some fun research for the new General 54 retail space. I wanted to bring seating into the space, for the waiting area outside the change rooms as well as for just having about the space. Really to create a cozy, warm feel. And when thinking of seating, I rarely think of something that is ready to go-I almost always make the leap to reupholstering. The owner of the General, Jen Glasgow, and I had talked about loving patterns and specifically, loving Ikat. She had a couple of armchairs at her studio that I wanted to reupholster and Ikat or other highly patterned fabrics felt like the right way to go. I started the day at C&M, my go-to fabric store in the city. I let patterns in either geometrics or Ikat/African styles be my guiding line when looking at the millions of fabrics that C&M have to offer. Fabric shopping is kind of heaven for me, I must say.
the family of fabrics I fell for. Definitely a common theme here.
We had a really hard time narrowing it down. These were our top picks from a pile of great picks. Then Jen suggested using two fabrics per chair, one for the seat cushion, the other fabric for the surrounding back, arms, sides. Now this is not something I would normally go for but in this case I was thrilled with that suggestion. It worked with the feeling we are trying to create and it allowed me the opportunity to use all of my favourite fabrics. Win-win.
one chair 
the other
the changing room curtain options with the winner on the right.
And that was the Aha! moment I’d been waiting for: fabric shopping for two chairs that are basically just random pieces in the space, gave me the creative nugget I’d been hoping would come soon. These decisions made other decisions flow, like paint colours and lighting choices. The indigo, greys, creams and black of the fabric led the way for the rest of the creative decisions.This choice was the outline or the map that I look for to create a cohesive but still eclectic space. And I love that this gives the space a distinct colour scheme : Lawrence was all greys, black, and cream with pops of red. The butcher shop I just finished was greens, creamy white, and black. This space’s underlying colour-way will be navy/indigo, cream, and black. It is fresh and cool and pretty. LOVE this:
We had discussed painting the ceiling black to make the space seem less huge and more enveloping. Now, given our upholstery choices, we are going with the gorgeous Hague Blue by Farrow and Ball for the ceiling.
Hague Blue & ceiling being painted.
It is almost black in certain light and has a definite warmth to it. I love Farrow and Ball colours and because they cost a fortune, I often get the paint store to match their colours. It is cheating a little but when you have a tight budget, who wants to spend over 100$ a gallon? That’s crazy talk.
Now for the floors:
Jen had mentioned doing a stencil on the plywood when we first met about the space. When dealing with a painted plywood floor there aren’t a ton of options. And just one flat colour on the whole expanse of floor felt boring for this place. I thought about tile but the store is way too big and this would have busted the budget. I’m not a fan of one stencilled image but a full floor pattern is another story. I found these inspiration pics on Pinterest:
We will meet with a painter towards the end of the week. Hopefully by then we’ll narrow it down, though we are both leaning towards a more geometric pattern.
The next thing I did was go to the St-Michel flea market. There were tons of things that I wanted to buy but I restrained myself (as did my client via cell phone). I did come away with a few sweet finds:
3 hat stands, a pretty table, and a perfect greeting card display
I met with the builders/painters this morning. We looked at the change room and cash counter dimensions and finish. This week I will also meet with Sam from Lambert & Fils to talk lighting, buy the upholstery fabric, finalize the floor stencil, the wall colours and the cash counter finish. And then we need to seriously look at signage/logos. All that and help my other clients, run restaurant/butcher shop errands and take care of my hubby and little monkeys. Busy week ahead. So much running around. But I got my Aha! moment so I at least know which direction I need to run in.
xa
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