apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Lovely. This makes me want to have tea - right now! Your color tips are spot on, and you've managed to make your home look completely pulled together even with such variety of pieces. Well done!

i must say, this is lovely.

This is perfect! I love how eclectic and stylish everything is...when you want to consider the alternative to minimalism, this is what it looks like for me. It's a great space.

This is really inspiring - I love the trunk in the fireplace.

Holy crap! I have that same poster of the Mikado! Good taste, my friend.

incredibly funky, unique, and sophisticated. wow!

i think i actually have the same ceramic hand as the one you have on your mantle in the 2nd photo. i think it's from an old department store display...

oh, and the live plants, too, add a lot of life, freshness, and color to the space. great job!

I love the porcelain lamp with the orange shade.

Wow. There is so much interesting pattern and texture going on.

from looking at these pictures I would have never guessed that a) this is a rental and that b) you live in canada! bravo, this is awesome!

Wow, looks great. Really like the proportions of the pieces and the way you set up the wall decor to the place looks complete. That first photo of couch with orange drapes behind looks like a great contrast!

I figure you must work in the industry somehow (or be gay). Please tell me your profession? It it related to design?

Each piece is not exactly my style, but the way you pulled it together and arranged furniture so well, and chose correctly proportioned sizes and mixed up colors, it looks great. I am really into different materials, i see you used fabric, glass, chrome, etc....not all wood.

Also, can't say that this entry is really about COLOR though, it is more about good design, than color. :( sorry.

This is so not my style, but I rate it an insta-finalist because when the photo popped up on my screen it gave me an immediate WOW between the bright orange rug, the spiky green plants, and the white sofa. Great color work!

I've been hoping to be wowed. Now I am.

i'm not sure if this is my style, but what you've done here really appeals to me on some level. maybe on a retro level that reminds me of a 70's vibe.

LOVE the plants! It's so nice to see someone who obviously loves plants as much as I do AND uses them as decor elements. I vote insta-finalist!

P.S. I LOVE your ceramic spaniel collection under the yellow lamp shade in the dining room. I have 2 Cavalier King Charles Spaniels a Tri-color and a Blenheim) and I really want to start collecting the figures too!

I voted Insta-Finalist before even looking at the third picture. WOW!!!

This looks great - what are the two plants in the first photo? The tall one on the left and the one in the top right?

Even a modernist like myself can appreciate this GEORGEOUS home. WOW! I love it all day.

Wow, thanks everyone for the encouraging comments! I'm really "chuffed," as Colin & Justin might say.
First, let me sing a mea culpa and apologize to my partner Mike for taking all the credit for OUR rooms; Mike and I decorated the space together and hunted long and hard for flea market finds and Craigslist bargains to fill our home.
In answer to a few of the questions here:
The trunk in the fireplace holds all the dog toys. We have two Scotties, a brother and sister act named Punch and Judy.
The orange flokati rug is machine washable (if you can find a machine big enough) and is THE most amazing thing for any dog owner. Highly recommended.
The Mikado poster is a souvenir of Mike's; he worked on that production at the Stratford Festival.
Industry or gay? Both, sort of. I'm a sometime graphic designer and Mike is a chef--we both LOVE home decor.
And finally, the Staffordshire dog collection is Mike's but we try very hard to keep a lid on this particular folly. Our latest thing is Chinese Foo dogs and we just bought a beautiful pair of 19th century ones at auction.
Thank you Apartment Therapy for this terrific and fun site!

I love this place! The beautiful couch make me want to have a nice hot cup of English Breakfast tea and a scone, while that orange shag rug reminds me of a Sesame Street character (and oddly Mrs Roper). It's hard to pull of a sense of style while still having a sense of humor. Well done.

BTW, I commend you on your guts for using orange. Orange is often a scary colour. I stayed safe and went with blue and green in my house, but would love to step it up with something bold.

not my taste in the last but I still loved it, so that's really saying something.

love it love lit love it love it!

i adore the wall hanging behind the orange lamp and the wallpaper on the fireplace wall...

well done, guys!

Finally someone on this site that is not mid-century. Inmy humble pedestrian opinion, this is gorgeous!!

I was getting quite over-loaded with the eames, wanna-be-eames stuff. It was becoming cookie cutter, everyone had the same stuff albeit in different colours, settings or somewhat diluted. When I first joined this site I enquired whether or not mid-century was the only taste here. I got a no but looking in the archives and reading the comments regarding this posting I am more convinced that Apartment Therapy is only for the mid-c's.

Bravo to Chris and family.

Coco

P.S. can we see rest of the flat? i.e. bedroom, bathroom and kitchen.

Wowza! Love it. It's a bit much for me to be able to live in, but I admire the layering of textures & colors. Really love that ceramic white & orange lamp. I was a bit distracted by that very large, spiky plant in the first picture.

This is one of my favorite AT apartments ever. I love your Dr. Seuss-looking plant, the paint colors, all the orange, the combination of ornate, Asian, and modern stuff. Very very nice!

what fun!

Super-gorgeous. I can't wait to see more pics in the finals!

The plant to the left is a Dracaena marginata. They are extremely forgiving with a forgetful waterer. We have two that we really love.

that chandelier is sooo sexy!

siiiiiiiiiiiiigh. Beautiful.

I can't believe you haven't been profiled in Canadian House & Home yet guys. You have superb taste.

very cool.

wow, i have very similar dining chairs (your black ones). i got mine via craigslist- where did you guys get yours?

go orange!!!

mar- of mar and bry.

Love it all, I could really live in a place like this, it would be so great to hang out in this space drinking wine with friends on a freezing February night. As a fellow Canadian, I have to say that having large plants in the house really makes the winters that much easier.

This is what my place wants to look like when it grows up and gets it's act together. All together splendid!

Chris, if you stop by again, would you share information about the wallpaper above the fireplace? Anyone else recognize it?

Woohoo, fellow Torontonian! There really should be an apartment therapy: toronto, huh?

Anyway, it's already a given that this place is awesome, so really, I don't think I can add anymore to that :)

My questions about the plants in the first picture. In the back two corners, there's the tall 'tree', with the spikes, and the other one with giant fat leaves in the other corner. I love 'em both, and have been looking for them for a while, but don't know what they are called. Anyone?

And ChrisToronto, if you're out there, where did you get them (in Toronto)?

in the words of Steve Carrell in "Anchorman"

"I Love Lamp". :)

I didn't expect to like this one so much. It's just so well balanced and still makes a clear statement. Though I am worried about that one striped vase on the edge of the mantle!

Dear Chris and Mike,

Kudos to you both for the wonderful job! Your place looks great! Please invite me over the next time I'm home in T.O.; I would love to see it in real life!

Sestofi

Woo, represent T.O.!

And a gorgeous place to boot. Bravo!

My Mum had that "woven" wallpaper in the 70s!

Thanks again for all the encouragement. Mike and I are flattered and a little embarrassed. Our décor is constantly evolving to incorporate our latest finds, so things look different today (better we think) than when those pics were taken.
Anyway, about the pattern on the chimney breast—it’s paint! Since the photos were taken we switched out the drapes in the dining room to a black and gold basket weave. We wanted to incorporate the pattern into the living room so I scanned a swatch of the drape fabric and printed it out on a transparency, which we then projected onto the wall with an overhead projector. Then we just filled in the pattern like paint-by-numbers. We used the paint color from the dining room as the background and the living room color for the pattern; that way it cost us nothing but our time (the better part of a Sunday) and the projector rental ($40).
We had our eye on a gorgeous gold chinoiserie wallpaper from Thibault but there was a three roll minimum, which would have put the order at around $400. For a chimney breast??? The paint option was a lot cheaper. Why do paper manufacturers and retailers insist on the three roll minimum, anyway? We think they’d sell a lot more paper and fuel more interest in their products if they relaxed this silly rule.
Thanks again everyone!
PS--Wig3000 is right about the large spiky tree, which is a Dracena marginata. The plant on the right is a common “split-leaf,” don’t know the Latin name, sorry.

I have been a little disappointed with the entries so far, nothing really stood out other than maybe 2 others (one was a historic home somewhere southern? With a fab dining room) But this is FANTASTIC, it really looks professionally done. Insta-finalist, no question.

By the way, love the Colin and Justin reference! They are the best!

Heather Cooper did the illustration for The Mikado poster. She is an artist, illlustrator and designer working out of Toronto.
An interview from the Canadian Centre for Comtemporary Art

Nice room composition. As I'm looking at this, I'm realizing that there is indeed a "Toronto look". I think you've captured it.

2 Dark 2 80s.

I agree with Tiffany... I liked some of the entries but nothing was out of the ordinary... and this one is simply beautiful...

May I ask where you get the chandelier?

So unexpected and not what I would choose at all, but just lovely. It has just a tinge of the seventies, but with such taste and panache. Well done.

Love your couch, chairs and that chandelier.

I dunno, I think this looks nice but I am also glad I don't live in such an environment. It is far too full and too 70's for me... Call me European ;-)

PS: lol @ "I figure you must work in the industry somehow (or be gay). Please tell me your profession? It it related to design?"

Can I move in or at least come over for dinner to bask in the great design and enjoy Mike's cooking?

This is delightful! I love the mix of textures and the courageous use of orange! The tones in the chandelier pull the whole thing together beautifully. Well done!

this is a beauty! love the organic green with the yummy orange and that chandelier!

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Where did you get that golden mirror in the 2nd photo??
I've been looking for something like that!!!
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I don't care for most chandeliers, but I love this one!

Kudos Chris and Mike! This is the first entry I've gotten really excited about. Love your style and your use of color. I especially love the dining room with that beautiful Chinese cabinet and the Staffordshire dogs. The dining chairs are great as well.

Lovely use of dead animal skins.

I adore the use of orange in your living room! I am looking for a similar orange curtain. Were they purchased at a retail store, or were they custom made?

Really not my style, yet I love it!

Beautiful.

Living Etc. feature worthy in my mind.

"Lovely use of dead animal skins." - yeah, yucky!

not getting a good color vibe here. i see orange, much of it in shag form.