Tag Archives: condo design
Top 5 ways to make your condo look more expensive
Use a limited palette to make your space feel more expensive
Lisa Canning – Yourhome.ca
When purchasing a condo, most buyers sink the majority of their funds into the space, leaving little left over for furniture and frivolity. Here are a few tips to make your space look and feel more expensive than it actually is.
NUMBER 1: WORK WITH WHITE
Using a limited colour palette is a tried and true stylist tip. Why will it make your space look more expensive? Limiting your colour choices to white significantly reduces your margin of error: no clashing colours, no questionable accent wall, or other such pitfalls that often contribute to a tacky looking space.
Moreover, a bonus of working with white is that it is fairly easy to find available products at every price point.
Lastly, limiting your colour palette forces your eye to focus on what is different, namely, textures. And I encourage you to use a variety of them. The mix of a fluffy rug with a lacquered coffee table against a suede sofa with a satin pillow (all in various shades of white) will invite people to sit, savour and suggest you paid a fortune for your decor — when really you didn’t.
NUMBER 2: MAKE LIKE A MAGPIE AND GO SHINY
Magpies are birds that like to pick up shiny objects and bring them home to their nests — and I enthusiastically support this behaviour. The same way I would accessorize an outfit with a lacquered bangle or luminous gemstone, a touch of sparkle or sheen in a room lends to a polished, finished look.
A high gloss ceramic vase, fantastic chandelier or mirrored sideboard will by its nature add a touch of luxury when paired with more subdued elements. But it is this pairing of glossy and matte surfaces that is essential — a room full of reflective surfaces can look gaudy rather than glam — so use restraint when inserting these pieces into your condo.
NUMBER 3: SAY NO TO THE SHOWROOM SET
When your entire condo looks like a big box store was teleported into your space, this is a problem. I am all for things coordinating — this is an important element of harmonious interior design — but when everything matches (i.e. your sideboard, dining table, bookshelf, and coffee table are all in an identical stain, with identical millwork details and cloned fixtures) insert synonyms for boring and blah.
While my personal taste is not averse to matching sofa and chair sets (although some designers have strong opinions on this matter) I do have a fervent objection to matching “hard goods”: armoires, dressers, sideboards, etc. In a small space like a condo, these large pieces take up a lot of room and take away from your ability to be original — and your ability to look expensive.
NUMBER 4: GO BIG ON ONE ITEM
When I worked on HGTV’s Marriage Under Construction (Season 1 had the extremely low budget of $30,000 to complete renovation and decor for an ENTIRE house) I learned an important trick: splurge on one item in each room.
Whatever your budget, allot a portion of it for a big-ticket item (which will have a different dollar value for everyone), or that special something you simply have been eyeing and coveting for your space. Compromise on other areas and/or save until you are ready.
NUMBER 5: REPRODUCTIONS CAN STRETCH YOUR BUDGET
There are iconic mid century modern furniture pieces that based on their scale (and gorgeous design!) work so well in condos. My favourites include Philippe Starck’s Ghost Chair, the Eames Plywood Chair, the Eames Eiffel Chair and Arne Jacobsen’s Swan Chair. You can purchase these pieces at retailers like Design Within Reach and their price tags reflect their quality of construction, material and design. Reproductions, made of lower grade materials and construction techniques, are available at many retailers, my favourites being most! and Morba in Toronto. And while they won’t have the same luxury feel, they do have the luxury look. Mix reproductions with the real deal as your budget allows.
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Architecture of the Times
Torontoist.com
Looking back on the need for a landmark building, William Thorsell of the ROM writes of the attraction to international starchitects like Daniel Libeskind: “they could express themselves personally; they could bring in poetic aspects to buildings that were there for reasons that had nothing to do with efficiency or form. They have to do with function, and in a broader sense of what function really is. It is partly the function of major buildings like the ROM to be a symbol.”
Love it or hate it, the ROM’s overhaul is certainly symbolic, demonstrative of the best (or worst) in contemporary architecture in Toronto. It and the other big ticket, high-profile projects of the “Cultural Renaissance” like the AGO or the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts figure prominently in Margaret and Phil Goodfellow’s A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Toronto, just published by Douglas & McIntyre. But these comprise just one small portion of the architecture that’s transformed the city between 1992 and 2010. The pocket-sized book’s sixty or more entries—each illustrated by miniature photos, renderings, or floor plans—are organized by neighbourhood, letting the reader plan their own walking tour.
The expected entries are here, such as Santiago Calatrava’s galleria at Brookfield Place, National Ballet School, and Will Alsop’s tabletop at OCAD. But so are some gems: smaller, unexpected projects and public spaces that you might not ordinarily stumble across unless you knew to look for them.
The Thomas L. Wells Public School, in out-of-the-way Morningside Heights, for example, is the school board’s pilot green school—designed by Baird Sampson Neuert Architects—and it is presented here as “a leader and model for the future direction of educational design.” Also here are the Laneway House on the back alley of Croft Street and the Leavitt Goodman House on Euclid Avenue.
Two- to three-paragraph blurbs place each project within the context of their neighbourhoods, such as the way the McKinsey & Company–designed Isabel Bader Theatre blends traditional materials and stonework, which acknowledge the Neo-Gothic traditions of surrounding Victoria College, with contemporary design.
Beyond buildings, parks and public spaces like the Village of Yorkville Park and HTO Park on the waterfront are included. Even Yonge-Dundas Square is recognized: the square, designed by Brown + Storey Architects, has undoubtedly changed that neighbourhood and brought it to life. Nevertheless, would many locals consider it as a significant architectural achievement for the city, “an urban piazza framed by commercial activity and striking billboards”?
Yonge-Dundas Square’s inclusion makes it surprising that other significant and controversial projects are not even mentioned—for instance, the largest residential development in the city’s history.
CityPlace’s workmanlike, generic architecture—even Concord Adex’s websites don’t prominently list their towers’ actual architects, apart from KPMB’s Montage tower—and its suburban-esque streetscape would make it a controversial inclusion from a design point of view. “At present,” the Goodfellows note, this “area is characterized by a series of imposing but nondescript residential developments along an incongruous public realm.”
But if you compare an aerial photograph from the 1980s to the present, as Shawn Micallef does in the book’s closing essay discussing the city’s changing skyline, you’d be struck by how orphaned the CN Tower and SkyDome seem, surrounded by parking lots and rail yards. CityPlace, and high-rise residential developments in general, have been central to the city’s real-estate renaissance. As a book ostensibly for cultural tourists and local explorers, the Guidebook is not really intended to engage debates, but CityPlace’s exclusion makes you wonder about where we place tall condos in the architectural imagination of our city.
The handful of condo projects that are included are mid-rise buildings, the majority of which are designed by Peter Clewes’s architectsAlliance for Context Development, such as 20 Niagara, District Lofts, and Radiocity. With through-units for wall-to-wall daylight and cross ventilation, and community-scale design, these are certainly the upper echelon of condos in the city—and the reason why Christopher Hume has called Clewes “the leading condo designer of his generation.”
Also in the residential realm are the Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s recent projects like 60 Richmond, and 246–252 Sackville Street (the first completed project of the Regent Park redevelopment). Like these, among the merits cited for the inclusion of Evangel Hall (which architectsAlliance designed for the Presbyterian Church) is that the social housing project “masks [itself] in the skin of a market condominium.”
It’s perhaps more interesting to wonder, as Bruce Kuwabara does in one of the book’s introductory interviews, just who is transforming the city more: international sources like Gehry or Libeskind, “invited to Toronto for a single project,” or local firms like Teeple Architects, ERA Architects, KPMB, and Kohn Shnier Architects.
Taken as a whole, does A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Toronto suggest a distinctive architectural style to the city? If anything, the Goodfellows suggest, it is adaptive reuse of existing buildings and infill development. “The contemporary wave is appropriating the spaces in between,” Micallef adds, “filling in streetscapes and neighbourhoods. What this gives Toronto is an extremely heterogeneous typology. Toronto does not have a uniform look, but is this urban mix that may, in fact, be the signature style.”
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The time for bright ideas is early on
Lighting is the most overlooked item in new condo design
Terrence Belford – Globe and Mail
Ask any decorator what is the most overlooked item when it comes to turning that new condo into a showplace and the answer may surprise you: Lighting.
The same people who may search for weeks to find the perfect throw pillows for the couch often totally overlook that it is lighting that sets the overall mood for any room and brings those special features and decorating touches to life.
That perfect bedroom or living room may look like it is set on a factory floor if you leave it to the builder to make lighting decisions.
“In the United States, lighting is part of the overall package supplied by the builder,” says Steven Shaffer, president of Lighting Max Inc. He has outlets in Cleveland and Toronto, and says there is a world of difference in the way builders and buyers in those two cities treat lighting.
“In the States when you buy a condo, the builder’s designers have already thought out how best to show off the suites; here, it is left to the buyer and frankly it is often overlooked. Lighting is tremendously important if you want to show any interior to the best effect.”
Getting the right lighting for a condo is not as complicated nor as expensive as doing the same for a house, says Enza Checchia, who runs Decorenza Inc. She has created interiors for projects such as Red Hot, The Courtyards of Upper Forest Hill and Triumph South in Wildwood, Fla.
The average condo only has six to eight fixtures, whereas a house may have upward of 23. The trick, however, is to make lighting decisions early on while the builder is framing the suite. Leave it until your condo is finished and you face tearing holes in walls to run wires and install connections, she says.
Buyers may not have the cash in hand to install that LED lighting under kitchen cabinets or that cutting edge chandelier over the dining table. But better to get the necessary electrical work done by the builder that face the extra expense at some future date when bank balances are healthier.
“Most builders have people like me you can work with to plan lighting. It is a free service. If you do it while still under construction, the builder’s people can rough in the wiring and connections you will need in future,” Ms. Checchia says.
The first step is to start with the functional, Mr. Shaffer says. Decide which areas in a room will be work areas, places where you intend to read or work. Here you will need a comfortably high level of indirect light – never direct lighting, he says. A strong light shining on a work area creates glare and eye strain.
One of the latest trends in lighting is monorail fixtures, Mr. Shaffer says. They resemble older track lighting but hang perhaps six inches from the ceiling. They can handle three or more lights and come in a variety of shapes – straight or curving. The monorail can have one light directed toward a work area while others deliver ambient lighting to other parts of the room.
“You can get monorails starting at about $500,” he says. “But with those the transformer can only handle up to 20- or 30-watt bulbs. If you want something in the 50-watt range, you can pay anywhere up to $1,000.”
Ms. Checchia also suggests a floor lamp with an extending arm for areas where you may want to read or work. Table lamps may be fine in houses, but they require end tables to sit on. In smaller condo spaces, floor lamps take up less space and are decorative to boot.
For kitchens, think monorails over the breakfast bar and maybe an upgrade to an LED light source under the cabinetry to illuminate work spaces. LED lights are energy efficient with just three- or four-watt bulbs and provide a wonderful clear white light that makes touches such as granite countertops look their best, Mr. Shaffer says. The downside is that they are expensive, starting in the $1,000 range to outfit the kitchen.
“If you have gone to the expense of installing stone countertops, it makes sense to spend a bit extra to show them to their best,” he says.
For bathrooms, never go with a single bar over the mirror, both Mr. Shaffer and Ms. Checchia says. Light coming from one direction produces unflattering shadows. Much better to go with that bar plus a pair of lights one at each side of the mirror, they say. That will provide light from three directions and produce a much more flattering effect.
Ms. Checchia also suggests roughing in a wall connection for a 10-power magnifying mirror on an extendible arm.
“I find those mirrors absolutely a must,” she says. “They are perfect for applying makeup. I could not do without mine.”
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960
————————————————————————————————————
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