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?

So you say grey or gray?

Which is it? Unfortunately I tend to flip back and forth, which confuses both spellcheck and any editor I might be working with, lol. Whatever, it's a colour that people seem to have a penchant for these days. We'll be picking a dark smoky tone, either Palais Royal or Chrome from Ralph Lauren Paint, for the walls and ceiling of our basement media room. And I have a bit of a thing for grey/gray glass too - Somewhere in a box in storage sits a bunch of (fingers crossed) well wrapped vintage and new art glass that will be making an appearance shortly in the new place...

In the meantime, here's a swanky set of grey/gray glass vases from BoConcept who, sadly for me at least, have yet to open a store in Toronto; though they do have one for the lucky folks in Vancouver.