Shaker chair, bought in part because we passed a chair up while on our shaker road trip–although it wasn’t a real Shaker chair, we had felt kind of disappointed we didn’t buy it. This one will come in handy with our upcoming exhibition in January!

Cast-iron Doorstop Acorn by Eva Shildt and Maja Sten. We admired this piece when interviewing Eva Shildt in her home.

The gorgeous brass Plate Moondrop in the foreground, by Ingegerd Råman. Howell is obsessed with this piece, and keeps getting his little fingerprints all over it.

In case you’re wondering, yes, the coffee table always has these objects(or some iteration) on it, and mostly the children pay no mind. We just have to be mindful when they are feeling some big feelings…then we have to batten down the hatches so to speak.

It’s becoming a yearly Christmas tradition for John to go on a Svenskt Tenn bender. With such a gorgeous and otherwise inaccessible collection it’s not hard to understand why. One spectacular piece he picked up is this giant candelabra. I cannot even find it on their website anymore so I assume it was a holiday thing. This is the only calm moment during an otherwise chaotic dinner.

 

Our visit with Santa this year, at the Junction train platform. What a nice tradition our BIA has going. It’s so lovely to just walk across the street, see Santa arrive on a local firetruck, wander the neighbourhood watching local dance school students perform the Christmas themed dances in shop windows, grab a hot chocolate and warm up inside doing a craft at ARTiculations.

We hope that everyone had a lovely holiday, and we wish you all the best for 2017!

A new Mirakel special edition pillow from Svenkst Tenn.

Midday light on the shoji door and print by Max Papart.

A random sculpture, copper low table and African textile from Latre.

This is Elodie’s bedside Aalto shelf where her treasures live.

I write this post inspired in part by this sweet photo series “Preschool Pocket Treasures”. I enjoyed reading this article because it reminded me that I shouldn’t discredit the treasures my kids find, even if they appear to be actual trash or seemingly useless randomness.

I love that she likes to keep a fresh flower in the Natalie Lahdenmaki bud vase. She goes with John to longtime Junction flower shop Martin’s, who incidentally set up in some very nice new digs near Keele, with an expanded selection of blooms and plants now available.

I also love that she just had to have the Renaud Sauvé porcelain container with moss. She kept eyeing it and finally John just told her to take it.

You may remember the Hafod Grange paperweight acquired on our trip to Iceland.

The Little Mermaid (Architect Made) was bought while in Copenhagen last spring.

John has a mild obsession with giving Elodie shells. It’s sweet.

The square blue tile is Elodie’s “favourite” (whatever that means) colour, and came off our neighbour’s exterior, as they renovate to open a new Northern Thai restaurant. Looking forward to that!

While I’m at it, plant people, what is going on with this Peace Lily? What does it need?

We only have a few unresolved spaces in our home. Naturally one is the space that we won’t speak of (the laundry area aka deposit random everything here spot). The other two spaces are our kid’s rooms.

Maybe because they were in cribs, which were temporary, or maybe because we had hoped on bringing them together–Howell refuses this, classic littlest child, he wants to carve out his own path–we never really resolved their spaces. Then again, in a way, the beauty of Studio Junction’s woodwork and our desire for simplicity almost demand that we don’t interfere too much.

In the end, we seek a bit of coziness, and an element of playfulness, that is a real challenge to bring together.

In the meantime while we mull things over, we have gone plant crazy. We cannot get over how quickly and easily the plants have transformed their spaces. It’s beginning to look like a jungle.

Howell’s room still has a black and white theme, and he recently picked out this cute panda pillow by local maker (and friend) Newmies. I let the kids pick out a pillow pal to help cozy up their beds.

A temporary help in getting Howell more excited about his bed was letting him pick his duvet cover. This one is from Ikea, and has all the favourite toddler things on it.

I still desperately wish I could buy some bedding from Chamomile London but it’s too hard matching the sizing with North American standards,  I’m having long distance commitment problems.

Anyone find some fantastic North American bedding? It always seems too saccharine or too geometric or two trendy. You know when you have a feeling of what you want, but never ever see it anywhere (besides halfway across the world, naturally). That’s where I am.

I’d love to hear how you resolved your kid’s room conundrums!

We are so excited to finally have a new front door to our house installed. Made by Studio Junction, it replaces a standard grey metal door. Now we have better sound insulation, as well as a better seal against the cold winter air.

The door is made of white oak, and the handle is a simple brass style, ordered via our neighbour Safe Guard Locksmith.

Unfortunately we just missed the warm weather window, so we’ll have to wait to apply a fresh coat of black Falun paint to the wood slats.

We picked up a holiday wreath, which finishes the space nicely. I cannot express how nice it is to come home to this door. The entry way feels so much bigger as well, now that the door opens to the right.

Thank you to Studio Junction for their great work!