On reinvention and true innovation

When Stephen King wrote, “Sooner or later, everything old is new again,” he captured one of the most useful starting points of creative thinking: the past. To the general public, reinvention and novelty are tricky because true originality is seldom welcomed. Although most of us long for something new, we tend to associate an idealized…

Design and science are equally important

Reality is systemic, inter-connected, and ever-changing, and it does not take place in a vacuum. Design methods produce solutions that reflect that. They are environment-sensitive, bio-responsive and non- destructive to both the human subject and the environment. Science, in an unnatural way, validates everything through experimental isolation. Equally valuable truths stem from both approaches; science…

Keeping a little sparkle going in the relationship between you and your house

Like with any kind of relationship, when things are too familiar and uneventful, things get stale. The culprit? A phenomenon called hedonic adaptation. If you look at your kitchen for a long time and you’re there all the time, you will likely not notice its beauty, no matter how beautiful it is. Having mini-adjustments continuously…

BELONGING, Monthly Focus

You’re in. You’ve got your people. Someone has your back. You have someone else’s back. That’s what belonging is—a sense of certainty like no other. You matter in the context of others, those who accept you for who you are because you are like them or complement them on some cosmic level. Belonging is not…

The side effects of scientific thought and how they killed the mind before its time

When Einstein said in an interview in 1929: “I believe in intuitions and inspirations. I sometimes feel that I am right. I do not know if I am.” (G.S. Viereck interview, October 26, 1929, reprinted in “Glimpses of the Great” (1930)) the world around him was on the verge of tipping. A thin, malleable line…

A beautiful walkway

Canadian designers often face the challenges of merging heirlooms and artifacts with a contemporary aesthetic, as many families have a link to one old world or another. This is such a home where the interiors have been shaped at the intersection of a distant past with the contemporary architecture of the present and a new…

Is it me or every home is a luxury home? Whatever happened to good old sensible design?

Dead of winter is here. And it feels more alive than ever. Standing on the fireplace mantel is a small wooden amulet chipped at a corner and leaning against the plaster. Next to it is a bowl full of fruits, fresh bananas and oranges from the harvest season of a faraway land. The copper bowl…

Bond With Your Environment

Over three millennia of cosmology, osmosis, Fengshui, psychology and now, Selftropy tells us that influences exist between us and our environment. It’s here; it’s real; it’s useful-bank on it. In a world where experience is everything, why limit yourself to the tangible when you can have so much more? The borders of real and surreal, virtual…

What interior design really is and the value of great advice

One of the difficult things to pay for is intangible, hard-to-understand, hidden-value advice. Why would you? When you go and buy something, you have it in your hand. When you go and rent that holiday villa, you’re in it, living the life. When you have kidney stones, and the doctor tells you how to get…

IDS Toronto 2023 in review (Interior Design Show)

Cheers to a new and beautiful year of design! Let’s celebrate the creative minds of the design industry, the forward thinking visionaries and manufacturers and take a look at the new aesthetics of 2023: MICROPLANTS Beautiful structures for all your microplants needs☘️ OUTDOOR LIVING IN CONTRASTS Black and white have never looked so good!👇 A…

Living with snow in Canada

At the start of winter,  an ever-changing mass of gulpable snow covers buildings, trees and streets with blobs of different sizes, colours, and cleanliness levels. Everyone assumes that Canadians love snow just because we have it. I am Canadian. And a Romanian emigrant. I do like snow but not necessarily all aspects of it. Does…

2023 Kitchen design trends

The most reinvented room in your home is the kitchen. By far. Because of that, following the kitchen trends can be very insightful in what new living patterns are concerned. Here are some of the ones that I’ve spotted with my keen (22-year and counting) professional eye that I’m sure will fill in the 2023…