Greta Visits the Big Toronto

As usual, my dears, we're rushing to do too much in too little time...So,since Aurelien and I visited the Toronto Residential Design Show recently, I promised to give you-all my edited view of anything worthwhile -remember, even though we see all of the show, normally, if we find 6 or 8 items , and some new ideas, we consider the trip worth the stress of the tour. But here, I must remind our dear readers, that the Train, (preferably First class), not the plane,or the car in the extended winter we Canadians are having is the sensible and stress-free way to arrive in style and comfort. Tho' you can't get a Martini, the other types of drinks are availible, as well as room to work on the laptop, and move around. Now to the news: Pattern is Back! everywhere!! As you Fashion-aware shoppers are seeing patterns and colour combinations that remind us elegant ladies( of a certain age) of the Psycheledic 60's- the youngsters think it's all new, but among us friends, pattern has been modified with new technology. We now have baroque-styles from the past that are printed in large scale on wall vinyl 54" wide, with metallic and opalescent inks. The pattern size is very different from the past. Please remember that a little pattern goes a long way. Treat it like a spice for your room - try small amounts first, and as you and family get used to pattern, add some more. For a long time fabrics have been about texture, with many similar tints or shades together. I know of several furniture shops that have bought the new patterned chairs , or carpets, but have failed to educate their sales people about how to assemble them into a cohesive room!!! So, we often have several elements trying to be the the most important in the same room(as patterned sofa next to a plaid armchair), with chaotic results. sWell planned mixes of stripes,plaids and Baroque can be very rich and elegant. The easy way to reduce the battle of who's the most important, is to keep the rule of "Patterns should be either one half or twice as big as the others." Aurelien says this rule keeps the Pattern Ego-trippers calm and a cohesive room is the result. Of course, there must be only one colour scheme- the system of colours can have different elements within the same room- all respecting the amounts of colour in the patterned items; If your featured carpet,or sofa fabric is mostly red with smaller amounts of olive green and gold, keep the same proportion of colour for the other fabric items. Don't forget that different people's culture affects their perception and enjoyment of pattern. I remember Aurel's story of the design counseling he used to find a bridge between the Husband who was European and was reared with many Persian carpets and the Wife who was Canadian from Calgary and thought that rough hand-woven wool was quite enough pattern! Enough of theory, now, let me again emphasize that visiting a Design show is always worth while - even if it's a few new ideas, it also reminds you of what you do know and like. These days, with the miracle of Modern Electronics, we can always research new things so easily. Since we are influenced with info from all over the world, there are multiple options evident in all of our shops and catalogues. I seem to find 4 definite themes in our world today: ! Retro -Revisited ,2 Organic or Ecologic, 3 Ethnic or World-Beat, and 4 Futurist-Modernist. Which are you, dear Design reader? I await your response. Montreal is often more European than Ths Big TO, so plan to visit the Montreal Home shows and the spring SIDIM (that's the Salon International of Design at Montreal) I will keep you posted with more details, as well as my next visit with Aurel. Next time we chat, I will relate some experiences that Aurelien had recently in Puebla, Mexico... It's not the Mexico of the past at all! Thanks for reading, do keep in touch, and until next time, keep on Designing, colourfully yours, Greta von Schmedlapp. aurelien@colorsbyaurelien