Decorating & Design
February 6, 2020
Inside A West Coast Retailer’s Ski Chalet-Inspired Living Room
Jonathan+Olivia founder Jackie O’Brien Jones tell us why this is her favorite room.
“The move happened in a matter of months. Our son, Phoenix, who’s seven, really loved spending time outdoors in Northern Ontario, and that helped us realize we wanted to bring up our little boy in a non-urban setting. We’d looked at moving back to British Columbia for some time and, with our 10-year store lease on Ossington Avenue in Toronto ending, we decided to take on a new adventure for the family and our business in Whistler.”
“Every dance party needs music. Both my husband Nic and I have a love of music. Nic is from the North of England and is super old-school; he’s followed New Order and Primal Scream since the mid-1980s. In fact, if it wasn’t for me, that’s all he’d listen to! We met in a showroom in New York. New Order was playing, and I talked about how it was one of my first concerts. So, the first conversation we ever had was about music.”
“For me, light is everything. The lighting in this room is amazing. In any place we stay or even travel to, I have to be able to see light when I walk into the room. The hide rugs bring in warmth and a touch of the outdoors. They’re quite discreet and fit in with our style, which came from the city. If we’re sitting on the living room sofa, we can see Blackcomb Mountain and the Peak 2 Peak Gondola. If we’re closer to the fireplace, we can see Whistler Mountain and, in the backyard, we have these giant spruce trees. It’s very relaxing, just sitting, looking at the mountain. This room is our little sanctuary.”
“This living room is where we hang out together. We created our living area on the second floor of our home and turned the main floor into a playroom for Phoenix, since he’s got a lot of stuff. We love to hang out up here and chill; the fireplace is always lit, and the stonework makes for great acoustics. We sit around after work, drink wine, listen to music and have dance parties. The Teixidors throws are my favorites, and we found the Bashful elf figurine in a cute little design store in Reykjavik.”
“I used to collect Medicom Be@rbrick toys a long time ago, and now we carry them at the store. It’s part of the sneaker culture; I like that they hold a forever youthful, Peter Pan appeal for adults.”
Janis Nicolay
House & Home April 2019
Nicole Sjöstedt