Just a square or two more...

Well, here's the rest of the interiors shots of the Hershey's Milk Chocolate Suite, including the rather nasty before snaps of the bedroom and living room (as you can see it was all a bit tired looking). I think Karen Sealy and I managed to pull off quite the miraculous makeover in just a couple of days - she took on the living room and my challenge was the bedroom - and I wanted to send a major shout out to everyone who helped make it happen. First off, thanks to Hershey's for the oppurtunity (and all the delicious inspiration!). Mucho thanks to Elte for all the gorgeous furniture and linens, inVU Drapery Co. for the luxe vanilla velvet drapes, linen sheers and fun toss pillows, Carpet One for finding the perfect carpet to replace that stained old wall-to-wall, Graham & Brown for the stunning paintable wallpaper and Para for the perfect paint, Teatro Verde for yummy accessories and flowers so breathtaking that no-one could believe were real, photographer Angus Fergusson for shooting the three chocolate bar prints above the dresser and illustrator Paul Dotey for designing that fab I Heart Hershey's poster, all framed in Ikea's great Ribba frames! If there's anything you'd like the deets on that I've forgotten just drop me a line... [Photography: Stefano Barbera]

 

      

A taste of chocolate

Okay, here we go; here's one of the shots from my Hershey's Milk Chocolate inspired bedroom. I know, it doesn't give much away (lol), but I wanted to give you a taste of the room before I post all the pics early next week. Photographer Stefano Barbera took the shot, and yes, I can promise you he and I ate the chocolate once we were finished! Waste not, want not, as my Mum always says...

He who ho-hums loses out

10 lighting and furniture stores later I am still nowhere nearer finding the table lamps for my Hershey's Milk Chocolate inspired bedroom. I had the perfect ones withing my grasp, ho-hummed a bit and when I popped back to grab them - Sold! Serves me right. Anyhoo, of course I have a plan B (and C and D too if need be), but those lamps I saw at Flick & Co were just perfect; mismatched creamy white crackle glazed ginger jar-ish bases with matching dark turquoise drum shades. There's a slim chance that a new pair might arrive in time, so fingers crossed.

In the meantime the snap below, from Living Etc magazine (one of my firm faves) is my version of a Tylenol after all that fruitless lamp shopping. That, a square or two of chocolate, a shot of espresso and suddenly everything is copacetic again.

Gray matters

Luckily the weather has been grand, so bombing around town with the windows down and the stereo blaring the Black Kids has hardly been a chore over the last two very busy days. I taped a CityLine yesterday with Jeanette Hlinka and Karen Kayne that will air next Tuesday, have sorted out a Style Scout feature for this Saturday's National Post, as well as nailed down an upcoming Trendwatch for House & Home and worked on the Hershey's Milk Chocolate space. Phew.

Last night I spent an inspiring time at the Fall /09 womenswear preview at Holt Renfrew that included a capsule show by designer Joseph Altuzarra. I love hearing Holt's Fashion Director Barbara Atkins' presentation since she always puts everything clearly into perspective for the season, hitting on trends and high notes across all the lines that they carry (80's, big shoulders, statement necklaces, silver sequins, lots of leather and boots higher than you can imagine). But, if there's one thing in fashion that will definitely be having an effect on interiors, it's the prevalence of grays in every shade. I've waffled on about gray before here but wanted to share a bit more since we'll obviously be living with it for quite a while. In fact, I've picked Ralph Lauren Paint's dark and stormy Palais Royal for our media room.

The snap below shows a cool image by artist Damien Blottiere for Intelligent Life and is their pick of the perfect gray (Slate III by Paint & Paper Libray), which they contend can rub shoulders with any look, period or style you might pick for a space. What do you think?

Chocolate and pretty paper

Sheesh, no rest for the wicked; I've been running around all over the place. No complaints though, since I've got a slew of cool projects on the go. The main one I'm completely jonesing over right now is designing a one bedroom suite inspired by Hershey's chocolatiest Milk Chocolate ever! Yes, I've tried the chocolate (delish!!!) - I had to, all part of the inspiration process, lol. Today myself and Karen Sealy hooked up to start the ball rolling on pulling everything together. Karen is doing the living room and I plunked on the bedroom and we've been wrangling drapes at inVU, sourcing furniture at Elte and wall-to-wall carpet from Carpet One, picking out wallpaper (I've found an absolutely brill paintable one from Graham & Brown) and deciding on a colour palette. The clock is ticking...

In the meantime, I wanted to share the great snap below. That wallpaper, though it looks quite stunningly modern, was first designed back in Ingram Taylor in 1897. It's called Arboretum and is available from Charles Rupert Designs; a smashing Canadian resource for historically accurate papers and fabrics. Be sure to check out the rest of their new Garden Collection, which is all eco-friendly and printed in the UK.