shops we love

Decorating & Design

Shops We Love: Michael Thomas Antiques, Art & Furnishings

Michael Thomas Vuksta is a retailer with an impressive pedigree (he was VP of Home for Joseph Mimran & Associates, Director of Lifestyles at Indigo, and held positions at Holt Renfrew and Tiffany & Co.). Last November, Michael moved his eponymous antique store from Port Hope, Ontario, to a 100-year-old building in downtown…

Decorating & Design

Shops We Love: Advice From A Caterpillar

When she was pregnant with her daughter, Emily Dyer took a trip to Paris with her mom, Susan, and sister, Elizabeth. Uninterested in bubblegum-pink walls and plastic toys, the trio was inspired by the city’s design-minded shops for kids — the antithesis of toy-store chains. “We loved the magic, the visuals…

Decorating & Design

Shops We Love: LivingSpace

In 1988, Ross Bonetti opened LivingSpace in a 5,000-square-foot store on Vancouver’s North Shore. Now, they are in a sprawling 20,000-square-foot space in the Armoury district, the city’s hub for architects and designers. The bi-level space — a bakery in the 1920s, then later a printing press — was renovated…

Decorating & Design

Shops We Love: Much & Little

A former interior designer, Sarah Savoy is drawn to objects that connect her to the past. Her store, Much & Little, showcases vintage-inspired housewares on Vancouver’s East Side. “I love that many new, independent designers are choosing to go back to well-crafted pieces that evoke memories,” she says. Reclaimed…

Decorating & Design

Shops We Love: Dwell Studio

Home design label DwellStudio‘s flagship store in New York’s SoHo neighborhood has a relaxed sensibility. Modern, eclectic and enduring, DwellStudio reflects its founder, Ottawa native Christiane Lemieux’s philosophy: “We’re tweaking, not decorating,” she explains. “It’s about constantly evolving spaces in an organic, seasonal way.” Driftwood candelabras cohabit with vintage brass ram bookends…

Decorating & Design

Shops We Love: Rob Kurkut Interiors

Rob Kurkut opened his namesake shop near Calgary’s design district in March, as a culmination of 20 years’ experience in interior design retail and a lifetime of collecting antiques. The historic 1912 building is the perfect setting for the boutique’s vintage European wares. Kurkut’s taste is pleasingly eclectic, from…

Decorating & Design

Shops We Love: 31 Westgate

Halifax designers Colin Blanchard and Ken McRobbie wanted an easier way (rather than hopping on a plane) to offer luxury brands of furniture, lighting and accessories for clients’ homes. They opened 31 Westgate — named after their first design project together — to bring the stylish pieces they…

Decorating & Design

Shops We Love: Saudade

If Saudade, a new lifestyle shop in Toronto’s Little Portugal neighborhood, feels like a surprisingly mod boutique set in an old world Lisbon city building, that’s on purpose. Co-owner Nancy Fernandes grew up in Canada but spent her summers with family in Portugal, where she developed an appreciation…

Decorating & Design

Shops We Love: Hopson Grace

Even reluctant hosts who wander into Hopson Grace will find themselves planning elaborate dinner parties and intimate brunches just so they can dress their tables with delicate stemware from Japan and striped plates by the U.K.’s Richard Brendon. This is precisely what owners Andrea Hopson and Martha Grace…

Decorating & Design

Shops We Love: Vintage Fine Objects

As a veteran antiques dealer and stylist, Vintage Fine Objects owner Kevin Austin has honed his design sensibility to one simple criterion: “I choose things that I would want to live with,” he says. At his store, he makes those carefully selected items available to all. Kevin isn’t afraid to…

Decorating & Design

Shops We Love: Inspirati

An appreciation for fine linens was instilled in decorator Wendy Brownie by her grandmother, who owned a linen shop in England before emigrating to Canada in the 1920s. When Brownie became frustrated looking for an heirloom-quality tablecloth to give to her daughter as an engagement present, she followed in her grandmother’s…

Decorating & Design

Shops We Love: Lambert Et Fils

After years of sitting behind a desk, Samuel Lambert left his office job to found Lambert et Fils, a lighting store in Montreal. At first, Lambert restored vintage light fixtures and transformed unusual objects, like photography tripods, into floor lamps. Today, he designs and crafts his own mod…

Decorating & Design

Shops We Love: Kantelberg & Co.

After a decade in the Designers Walk building in Toronto, Kantelberg Antiques founder and designer Jill Kantelberg realized her company had outgrown both its name and floor space, and relaunched in a renovated, 4,500-square-foot warehouse in the Castlefield design district as Kantelberg & Co. Designers and homeowners frequent Kantelberg…

Decorating & Design

Shops We Love: Spruce Collective

This charming West Coast shop showcases new products alongside revamped thrift-store and estate-sale finds. Owners Elisa Robertson, Jessica MacDonald, Kevi Zupancic, Monica Klein and Lily Ellis first met as vendors at local vintage markets. “People kept asking when we were going to open a store,” says Ellis. Encouraged, the quintet pooled…

Decorating & Design

Shops We Love: Gild & Co.

After leaving her job at a brokerage firm and becoming a decorator, Bonnie Wilson took her career change a step further in June when she opened her antique and vintage furnishings boutique in Vancouver’s West Point Grey area. The shop features well-designed classics with a fresh feel. “I buy pieces…