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Summer in Montreal is sticky, fun and way too short. It is also about getting out of Dodge and heading out to the cottage. Until the day we can have our own, we borrow/get invited to/invite ourselves to, the cottages of friends. I ran away to a place we go to every summer near Morin Heights in the Laurentians. It was kind of chilly – so no swimming but there were still BBQs, hikes in the woods and couch lounging. Cottage times are good times.

And also time to check out a Martha Stewart Living magazine in which I found my dream craft project: antique cutlery dipped in colourful paint. So pretty.

 Then back to town for work and for my son’s birthday. My first born, my baby, my little guy, turned four. Four! Not a toddler anymore. A big kid with another year to go before he starts school. I get way too emotional at milestones. If, and when, he graduates from any kind of schooling, I will have to be picked up out of the puddle of tears I have fallen into. And his wedding (if he chooses to have one) ? Jeez, forget about it. So so so many tears. Happy tears but tons of them. That being said the boy had a wonderful day being celebrated at daycare and at home. And then I geared up for the tons of prep for the big kid’s party on the weekend. Yikes.

I exited mommy world for a few hours of shopping with one of my best and most long standing clients. Bit by bit I have worked on her kitchen, bathroom, guest bath, back yard, living room, entrance, terrace, and I am now helping her with every other room in the house. It’s a big house. A dream really. In bits and spurts over the last three years we have done some really beautiful things. And as a designer it is really fun to get to do a whole house; even though we have been chipping away at it slowly. I respect that slow progress – as she has lived in the house, different needs and different desires to renovate and redecorate have come up. It is important to live in a space and really get to know what works and what doesn’t before knocking it all down. Though knocking it all down can be pretty great too. It really depends on the house and the finances and whether you can get someone like me to help visualize it.

These are a couple of her new assignments for me: help in decorating a large second living room area/projection room- we need a big carpet, a couch, coffee table and we need to change a door. Redoing tile in an upstairs bathroom. Help in finding a nice couch for an upstairs office. It really is a big house. So with all of the requirements in mind, we decided to hit west elm first. Recently, the first Montreal store opened down in Griffintown. I really like their designs and often refer to the web site to look at sofas and carpets but had never set foot in a bricks and mortar store until now. Exciting!

The entrance and a wall of very nicely designed practical products for the home.

Love the striped bed linens & finally some nice ready-made curtains that aren’t Ikea!

They have a great selection of soaps & candles & hand towels. Great gift ideas.

Loved these bowls (clearly I have an Ikat addiction) & this carpet was a dream come true.

Pre-kids I had a ceramics/glass vessels obsession. This place was dangerous for a recovering pottery addict. Couch for the office, check!

There were a few of these handmade ottomans in different patterns & I LOVE the chair.

It was pretty great. I found the quality just that much better than a store like Crate And Barrel: the finishing was cleaner, the edges more polished, the drawers slid in better. The carpets, baskets, home knick knacks were nice and seemed well made. Didn’t love everything but there were definitely some nice desk, nightstand, couch options. I will return but I think more for accent pieces: pillows, carpets, lamps, pottery.  As for my client, she fell for the green couch pictured above and we’ll order it but in this beautiful blue. And I want to change the legs. Still the overall shape is good and it will fit the room perfectly.

I even got a few things for myself. In my defence, my client was twenty minutes late, what was I supposed to do?

A dish rack. We’ve gone without till I could find one I liked. I like this one. Clean & simple.

Striped yellow & white hand towels with each family member’s initial. We’ll use them as napkins.

Birthday card for my son & just-because-I-love-him card for my man. By Egg Press.

After west elm, we headed to the opposite end of town and to a store that I absolutely love going to: Spazio. It is a shop that specializes in architectural antiques, mainly from old homes and estates. There are tons of old doors, mouldings, bathroom fixtures, doorknobs, hooks, etc. I bring almost every client there and it is a real treasure trove. It is expensive and other than some small pieces, I’ve rarely bought anything but if a client is looking for pieces to fit in an old house, this place is a must-stop. This particular client was looking for a stained glass window that would bring light from the front vestibule into a dark entrance area. Here are some pics from the shop:

You could really get lost in there. At least I can. I get so very happy surrounded by mountains of hardware and old filing cabinets. Truly a shop full of drawer pulls and hooks makes me as happy if not more, than a shop full of shoes or purses. Blasphemy, I know. In the end, we kept that last stained glass in the picture above on the top of our short list and left this little piece of heaven shop behind. I know I’ll be back in not too long. Maybe for some antique cutlery?

And here is the birthday boy at his daycare party in what can only be described as a blurry shot of pure, unadulterated joy.

Happy tears for mama. Happy.

xa

In Montreal, every summer, the last week of July and first week of August are part of what is called construction holiday. It is, to me, the dumbest time for everything to come to a complete stop. Everybody renovates in the spring and summer here. Winter is clearly not the best time to gut your house or change your windows. Spring and summer are perfect reno times. And then everybody has to press pause because suppliers, producers, etc take a two week break. Now I understand why it happens- obviously people in the field want to enjoy the short-lived summer just as much as the rest of the population. Fair enough. But why can’t it be at the end of the summer? Why smack dab in the middle? Why? All this to say that work has slowed way down in the last week. Half of my clients are out of town and my work for the new General 54  has decreased too.That being said there have been some major advances in the new store. We are just at the stage where I have said my piece and now it’s up to painters and builders and electricians and the business owners to get ‘er done. Here are some recent pics:

 the cash is almost complete. It is missing the glass display for jewellery that will fit on the lower portion of the top. I love it. The design is simple but effective.

the back stone wall was painted a minty green. I like it but I would love to age it a bit-it’s too crisp.

  the flea market lights were sprayed in Lagoon by Painter’s Touch.

My flea market find table was given a fresh coat of paint

And the kijiji dresser I found was painted to match the table.

We decided to paint the back wall in the ceiling’s Hague Blue.  I wanted wallpaper back there but there was worry that it would compete with the merchandise so I decided to tie it into the ceiling colour instead. Maybe they can still wallpaper it one day…

The first coat of floor paint went down and at some point this week the stencil will get laid down on top. Exciting! We decided to go with Wescott Navy for the floor and Snow on the Mountain for the stencil.

Given this slower work period, I am searching for inspiration elsewhere. Mainly on the internet but also on the street: design ideas, recipes, fashion fixes. Things that will get my juices flowing. I thought I would write about some of the things I’m into looking at/trying/buying/gifting right now.

In no apparent order whatsoever:

Spoonflower. This is a site where you can custom-make wallpaper, gift wrap, or fabric. Which is great but more importantly you can buy wallpaper or fabric designed by other people, some of which is pretty cool. One of my BFF’s, Elias, has used the site to create beautiful fabrics and he has vouched for the quality. You can check out his beautiful blog and one of his Spoonflower experiments here. And it is really affordable: 60.00$ for a standard wallpaper roll. Here are some of the designs I am digging right now:

Billie is one of my favourite women’s clothing shops in town. Really, though, I’ve only ever bought accessories from there. So maybe it’s just my favourite jeweller. Some of my most precious and everyday pieces come from the shop and my very latest purchase were these super cute (and cheap) beaded, stretchy bracelets:

Great to gift or to keep and the heart pendant on the right was my birthday present from Hubby, an E to represent him and to go with my kid’s O and E. I never take these off.

Another way that I’ve been whiling away the hours (I’m writing like I have a ton of expendable time which with two kids and multiple businesses is ridiculous but this post is about finding inspiration so let’s just go with it), is Pinterest. I am really late to the party and have started using it as a work tool only recently. So far though, I really enjoy it. I’ve been able to create specific boards for clients which has been an easy way to communicate the vision I have for their spaces. I’ve also been able to use it as a great research tool: type in “painted dressers” and you’ll get hundreds of images, many of them really useful. My categories, or boards to use the appropriate lingo, are mainly design oriented. I’ve kept a couple private. For instance you will not be able to look at my secret wedding board which I spend almost no time on whatsoever (hmmm…) As a newbie with zero patience or time to look up the proper Pinterest way of doing things, I have mainly been free styling, following a few people here and there, pinning a few pics, creating a few boards. Dabbling really. The danger here is the vortex I get sucked into any time I start looking at the site. It’s like Facebook except for people like me and minus all the ads and weird stuff. Though that stuff is also probably there and I just haven’t found it yet.

After what feels like four years of trying to squeeze it all in, it is a strange feeling to have this “free” time. I know that it is temporary. That by next week it all picks up again with new clients and old ones back from their breaks. But during these two weeks, I’ve even managed some extra me time which truly is amazing. Writing this blog over the last couple of months has been the first step in carving out a little time for myself and for that I am eternally grateful. And I am super grateful to summer in the city: so short yet so sweet. Pools and parks and BBQs and playing.

Summer has also been about retail therapy, cottage getaways, wonderful evenings with friends, and great family times.

That is a pretty great summer right there. Dumb construction holiday and all. Forcing me to take a breath, slow down, and be bored for the first time in ages.

xa

It has been big decision time at the new General 54.

Walls:

We chose the wall paint (my go-to CC-130) and the ceiling paint (Hague Blue).

I love the creamy white with the blue of the ceiling. The ceiling colour changes depending on the light, ranging from blue grey to navy to stormy-ocean blue. And the ivory is buttery without being too yellow.

As for the exterior I wanted something like this:

 The exterior of Frankie’s 17.

And so another classic Annika colour pick: my trusty Onyx

 +    =  

It looks classic and cool and will look even better once the purple is all gone on the bottom cement bit and the signage is in.

Floors:

We were having a hard time finalizing which design to go with for the stencil on the floor. A painter we met with recommended a larger pattern to save costs which sort of threw a wrench in my small, intricate design dream of a stencilled floor. Then Jen (owner of the General and clothing designer) found this great print on line:

  I love the Art Deco print and I think it will look really pretty on the floor. Flowers but not girly.

We are thinking Westcott Navy (it’s grey) below for the over-all floor colour with the Fort Pierce Green on top for the stencil:

   +  

Or maybe a dark blue on top of the grey? Not sure. We may have to do some tests. But I think the base colour is gorgeous.

Lighting:

One of my favourite things to choose in a space is the lighting. It adds character and depth to the space. It can be just the thing to turn a nice space into a spectacular space. So even if your budget is limited don’t forget money in the budget for lighting. It is often the last thing people consider but it really is transformative and can make a room sing. I went to Lambert et Fils last week and fell deeply in love with these lights:

They are Art Deco (again!) style milk glass. Gorgeous on their own but so extra gorgeous all lined up as displayed in the store. My idea was to recreate this look for the General over the big merchandise table that will be in the shop’s front/middle area. I chose eight of these and they will hang in two rows of four at the same height. It will be just the wow factor (yuk, I can’t believe I just wrote that) I wanted when you walk in to the store. For the changing rooms I chose two of these bullet shaped ones:

And over the cash Samuel Lambert will make us something like this:

A little hard to read in the picture but it’s a long horizontal rod with two bulbs at either end. He is making it to measure so that it fits perfectly above our cash area. Can’t wait to see it!

Also, Sam is wiring 5 of these lights that Jen had bought at the flea market a while ago:

We just need to clean them and paint them. I’ll go look at colours for them today. Missing in the lighting is something for the exterior, something to go over the office area and maybe something for the window displays. So some work left to do in lighting world but the big, statement lighting is chosen and I love it all!

I’m really excited by the direction the General is heading in. I think it will be pretty great. I need a few more ideas to manifest themselves but we are totally on track.

Mondays:

In the dreary, cold winter months, I had a fantasy of what summer would be like once my baby girl was in daycare full time. This past Monday morning my fantasy came true.The hubby and I dropped the kids off together, went for coffee together, came home, cuddled, and read the paper.Then he went to the gym and I did laundry (NOT part of the fantasy but my reality). We met up again an hour later and ditched it all to go to the pool. We ate sandwiches and chatted and laughed and swam: exactly what we used to do in the summertime pre babies. It was heaven. It was only for a short time but it was heaven. Mondays are his only day off during the week and the last four have been eaten up by holidays (which means kids are home from school) or other commitments. This was our first nothing-to-do-except-for-a-few-little-things-day in forever. In the hustle and bustle of family and work and the everyday stresses, it’s sometimes easy to forget that the person you’ve chosen to live all these things with is your best friend and that you really enjoy spending time with each other. It is so hard for us to get a chance to talk to each other-our kids take up so much of the chatter and once they are asleep, we are usually too tired to really connect. Which is why days like this are as precious as gold.

Then we picked the kids up from daycare and took them to the movies to beat the heat. Pretty darn fun. Even though the 20 month-old was waaaaaaayyyyyyy too young to sit through the movie and spent much of the movie running up and down the aisles in bare feet natch (she refused to put them back on-pick your battles). I was looking over at the three loves of my life stuffing their faces with popcorn and it made me so super happy. We capped the movie off with a few rounds on the “structure”  as my son calls it (playground), and then dinner at our favourite Indian restaurant. This day was what summer in the city should be. Heaven.

xa

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

After a little break (there is no such thing) I am back at it, full on. This morning was my littlest one’s first official day of daycare, so I can now focus more fully on the jobs coming in. What a relief knowing that she is being well taken care of and that I can now get to work – at least between 9:30am and 3:30pm everyday. It is definitely bitter-sweet: she isn’t a baby anymore, which makes me a little sad, but I felt ready for this next step and she loves getting to go with her brother in the morning.

These are some of my ongoing projects:

I am helping new clients redecorate their home – they are unhappy with their dining room and have been struggling with it for the last three years. I found them a table design and this morning we settled on colour choices and ordered the table made. I am a little nervous about the outcome only because the company we went with for the table-build is not a company I know and I honestly don’t love the work they have presented in their showroom. Still, we weren’t able to find the exact table the clients wanted, so having one built was really the best solution. I am hoping that the clear specifications we have given them as to design, colour and finish will give us the hoped-for results. We will see, fingers crossed.

The biggest project that has come my way recently is another commercial space design. Friends of mine own the General 54 store on St-Viateur street in the Mile End. They are relocating to a new, larger space a few doors down from Lawrence, on St-Laurent between Laurier and Fairmount. My goal here is some good old fashioned empire building: I would like to slowly design/decorate/consult on as many commercial projects within a two block radius as possible. So if you want to open a restaurant, bar, clothing store or butcher shop on St-Laurent, I’m your man! It’s only funny because it’s true. This becomes the fifth project I have a hand in designing in that same area. But truly , I love the people involved in this project – they are good people and I am really excited to be working on this.

The new space is pretty great. High ceilings, tons of space, clean. The main issues are :

-a plywood floor (paint? tile? stencil?)

-a long brick wall that we can’t paint  (again!)

-and, the usual, not a limitless budget to work with.

Here are some pics of the space:

My clients want a cozy, warm, cool interior and have given me some inspiration pictures to get me going. And though the budget is not limitless, it is healthy. They also want to back away from the vintage-y, found-furniture vibe of their current shop. This suits me perfectly. I am very much OVER the reclaimed wood, rustic/industrial decor trend. I see pops of colour, mixes of pattern and texture, great lighting. And I’m all for vintage finds, but as with Lawrence and the butcher shop, it all needs to be modified or transformed in some way. No as is.

I have an idea of the layout but still have question marks regarding some key elements: what should the change rooms be made of? What does the cash area look like? How will we display jewellery/hats/bags in a user-friendly and interesting way? What I need to do to figure those things out is spend some time doing research and hit the road, checking out shops and flea markets. As in every design contract I undertake, there needs to be that Aha! moment – the piece of furniture, the light, the fabric, the paint colour that determines the rest.

With Lawrence it was finding the couch fabric: every decision regarding colour stemmed from that choice.

At Sparrow, it was the gorgeous wallpaper.

At the Boucherie, for me, it all flowed from choosing to paint the big wall Covington Blue.

I haven’t had my Aha! moment yet for the new General but I am feeling inspired and ready to go. It will come to me soon, I feel it. And even though I miss my little bunnies, I’m psyched and energized and motivated. Back to work, for real!

xa