Globally we find ourselves in what is now called the cognitive revolution where the recognition that self-fulfilment, social health and the fight against loneliness are at the core of chasing personal wellbeing. Their importance is as high if not higher than nutrition, exercise, and amassing sufficient wealth to ensure a comfortable life. While all of…
Category: My 2 CENTS ON…
Lifestyle articles of opinion on everything that contributes to a fabulous lifestyle. From design, creativity and self-esteem, to the future, history and culture, art and living well and all things important according to Adriana.
Land of Dochia magazine Issue #1 Showcase
To integrate the antiques and traditional pieces, the design team employed a museum-like approach where the items are treated like artifacts, and the interiors are tailored to enhance their presence. Since this is a home and not a museum, careful attention was given to introducing texture and enough finishes in each room designed to maintain…
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…
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…
Time’s a waste! Change your home and boost your brain power
What is there to think about when you thought about “things” for more than half a century? What is there to buy when you bought all that you need? Where is there to travel when you’ve travelled everywhere. If you’ve gotten to the point where you’ve wondered about these, the answer is … plenty. And…
On the back of things – and how that matters in design as much as in people
It infuriates me. To a point where I refuse to look that way. If you’ve ever bought a piece of furniture that has an unfinished back, you know what I mean. The edge of the particle board, brown and unsightly, as if someone had forgotten to take a look at the whole thing. What if…
What I feel is who I am – Tasting travel in so many colours, part 1
In the 1970s, in the small art community of Mendocino, California, a new kind of textile dye emerged, shedding light on the little fungus that never ceased to amaze. From truffles to poison, mushrooms are a species to recon with. Nowadays, we see so many products coming out of them that, soon enough, we will…
Design mixology – one part talent, one part science, one part charm and a whole lotta love
Admired and envied at the same time, a designer’s work is often viewed with a certain mystique combined with a magnetic curiosity, which is hard to let go of. They seem to see and sense things that others do not, to say things that others don’t think of, to put together environments that simply splash…
Paris, Cartier Latin and the difference between shopping and collecting
I mostly collect. The shopper yet, an anti-shopper. The buy it forever because you need it and want to keep it, truly, not the buy it for the right price or the right sale. I don’t judge and don’t care what others do. Except when they are my clients, in which case, I strive to…
Homes these days are less about norm and more about culture, part 3
Continuing our house tour of this eclectic home… (If you’ve missed it, start with part 1 and read it HERE) COLOUR Early-century modernists were purists that looked at interiors and architecture in a sculptural and straightforward way. Colour, artifacts and the interest in chinoiserie punctuated this aesthetic. Similarly, here, colour was applied in rich tones,…
Homes these days are less about norm and more about culture, part 2
Continuing our house tour on the main floor… (If you’ve missed part 1, read it HERE) MAIN FLOOR The living room and dining room are pulled together by a three-sided fireplace that articulates them without disrupting the flow of the space. The dining room sports a beautifully detailed bar with a backlit natural stone backdrop…
Homes these days are less about norm and more about culture, part 1
When myriads of cultures mix, borrow and evolve together within Toronto’s small geographic footprint, their aesthetic preferences intersect and build homes that exude a rich cosmopolitanism, proud of being different. This is such a home. A home where the owners love the contemporary design and wanted to keep most of their existing furniture and artifact…