Inside A High-Rise Condo With A Neutral Palette — And Lots Of Texture

We're in my client's condo. It's on the 46th floor of a beautiful building in Toronto that looks over Lake Ontario, has gorgeous south-facing views, lots of light, and was a beautiful open space that was just primed for decorating. The unit is a two-bedroom, two-bathroom, but has really generous living spaces. So there's a big kitchen, open living room, dining room, and also a really generous hallway, which I really wanted to make use of. My client was really open. We had a good sense of the aesthetic from the beginning. We wanted it to feel handsome and finished and quite polished, but at the same time very comfortable and easy to live in. As far as the colour palette, the floor was existing, and we knew we were going to keep the kitchen the way it was, which is soft creams and greys. So it was a matter of working with those elements, which meant mostly keeping things neutral, adding a bit of black, and then adding a bit of red, which is not a typical colour for me to use, but in small amounts, it can feel quite intentional and is a beautiful accent. The living room started with the sectional. Mike wanted a really large sofa, lots of people could sit on, and really grounds the living space. From there, it was the coffee tables, side tables, accent chairs, and we also went in that warm direction, playing up the warmer tones of wood to contrast with the more grey and putty tones of the upholstery and the drapery. In a neutral palette, it's important to play up different textures. So there's woven leathers, even the rug has a lot more texture. It's not just a flat black. You see the different variations of colour within that rug, although it is mostly grey and black. Also with the accent pillows, I didn't want it to feel fussy. I didn't want it to feel like there was too many or things that might just got in the way. So we kept it quite spare, used things that were essential and made them of good quality and made them sing versus overloading the space with too much. Because of the oversized living space, there was an opportunity to make a secondary zone. We did this by introducing a daybed, which is a great place for reading, but truthfully, it's just a beautiful sight line. The vintage rug, although small in scale, I like it because finds this as its own little zone and then also references that rusty red tone of the drapery in the dining room. The fireplace was existing. It was pretty basic. So we knew we wanted to give it a little more oomph and make it more of a statement. So we wrapped it in a faux brick, which is a move I love to do. It's been painted out the same colour as the wall and just adds a tonne of texture and automatically feels like an original element to the space. And then it's just a very simple dining table. It's the lighter wood tones here. And then one of my favourite dining chairs, it's called the result chair, and truly they're quite comfortable considering how simple they are in design. All of these more neutral tones in the furniture in the dining room really plays off of the red drape. You might think you have to do the same drapery in that open concept space, but I changed it here on purpose because I really wanted to define this area as the dining area. And tucked around the corner in the dining room is a photograph that really only catches your eye when you're actually in the space. And that was done intentionally because of the way it references a very vertical feeling of the drapery columns and these red panels within the photograph. It's a really beautiful piece, but it feels quite intimate when you're viewing it from in the dining room. The kitchen was existing. I really liked the warm white and the light blonde wood. And the introduction of black really elevated that space. So we included some sculptural black stools and a very high contrast piece of art, which draws your eye over to that space. And it gives that kitchen a lot of life without actually needing a lot of accessories. The entry hallway is quite moody and dark compared to the rest of the space. I knew we wanted to do panel molding. That was something Mike was up for from the beginning. We wrapped the entire room and painted it a rich minky gray. I like this because knowing the rest of the space was going to be light, the entryway has more of an identity and feels like its own space. Centered on the opening to the living room is a beautiful vignette. It has a metal console table and a really large scale photo of a horse. I love this piece. It actually works really well. I like how it intentionally crosses over the molding. Like this molding was already here and the art came later and it has this evolving feeling of decorating versus just everything feeling so perfect and alive. In the bedroom we carried the same panel molding throughout. It's a slightly lighter color than the hallway and it just adds a nice richness. One of the biggest changes in the bedroom would be the closets. It was a pretty basic sliding door and we had those removed and had a wardrobe style unit made to fit. It's done in a beautiful walnut which warms up the space with all the different gray tones. It's just quite simple and sleek and push latch so it disappears but also adds this custom and warm element. The furniture is quite simple. There's a low, sleek, sexy bed and then a display unit which is a glass atelier along the window. Just things that give the room some more personality. We played with different textures. The bed is in a velvet. It has a bit more sheen to it. It's still gray but then in the drapery we went for a more mossy green. And then it was just about art and accessories. Because the walls have this beautiful molding and in this case we did a cluster off-centered it's just a little more interesting than filling the room with art and it's pretty impactful. The den which also functions as Mike's home office has got to be my favorite space in the condo. It was wrapped in a beautiful minky grass cloth which is one of my favorite things to do. In this case we actually painted the ceiling and the trim the very same shade as this grass cloth so you're not really highlighting bulkheads or smaller trade ceilings but just feels like one cozy space. I really love the drapery fabric in this room as well. It's a beautiful cream with this gorgeous ebony embroidery which was something I wanted to use for the minute I saw it. Pull-out sofas can be difficult to find where they function and look good and I think this one does both successfully. And there's another beautiful glass shelf full of accessories and interesting objects. This room had a small basic closet with sliding door and we removed that and also installed a built-in wardrobe painted out the very same color as the ceiling so matches the grass cloth perfectly and looks really custom. I think Mike really loves the space it works well from him in terms of a place to work from home but then also a really comfortable place to relax and have friends and family over. It's a really beautiful bright open space but at the same time has the ability to close off and be cozy and warm which I think is important when you're dealing with so many windows and so many views that you can still tuck away a little and I think he appreciates that too.