Best of Design Week, Day 3: Lovely Lanterns, Rope Pendants & Creepy Dolls

Amulette. Montreal designer Annie Legault stages a beautiful scene in the window of The Cure. We love the combination of sensuous textiles and the diffusion of light. She envelops orb-shaped lights in heavy rope that recalls the comfort of a favourite sweater. Nevertheless, the pieces take on an ethereal effect when lit. (The Cure Apothecary, 719 Queen Street W.)

Place and Thing. Sandblasted wood, aluminum and intimate illuminations. Interdisciplinary design studio MSDS captures the mood of Aesop's brand and, by throwing light on individual cosmetic products, creates a self-care storyboard. We love how the studio brings private rituals into the same frame as a popular boutique. (Aesop Queen Street West, 880 Queen St. W.)

RUGS! First, some love for Made, the host of this exhibit and offsite OG. This showroom curates quality Canadian-designed furniture, accessories and even Rugs!, all smart and, as you’d expect, made here. We love Watson Soules’ reversible floor covering, too, with its painting-inspired tufting (see the light play across the strands?) and geometric flat weave opposite. (MADE Design, 70 Geary Ave.)

Wood Quilt. Devin Schaffner of Rekindle hand carves these 14" x 14" cedar tiles in Toronto, shown here as a room divider in Stylegarage's Ossington showroom. When installing the puzzle-like pieces, Devin worked with staff to light it perfectly. We love the shadows and highlights that play across the surface of the wood, enhancing its natural texture. (Style garage, 78 Ossington Ave.)

Boxhaus. When seen from the street, this cubic, illuminated dollhouse both attracts and repels passerby. Designers Claude Miceli and Jean-Christian Knaff invoked childhood legends - of the kind told around a campfire, or by an older sibling before bed - to create this illuminated high-rise made of birch boxes and painted, back-lit paper. (Image Foundry Toronto, 1581 Dupont St.)

Lantern. Part of Hollis+Morris' new collection of beautifully conceived lights, we loved this stripped-back take on the traditional paper lantern. Here, there is no lightbulb at the heart of the lamp. Instead, the frame is the light source. Ingenious, no? (hollis+morris, 501 Alliance Ave.)

Oasis Skateboard Factory x Chief Lady Bird & Monique Aura. If you pine for Peralta decks and pool-skating, then this pop-up’s for you. Oasis Skateboard Factory, a TDSB program that encourages students to run a skate-design business, has teamed up with Monique Aura and Chief Ladybird to produce an Inidigenous-inspired line of skateboards and streetwear – and it’s straight out of Dogtown and Z-Boys. Though magenta’s the name of the game, here, we’re especially partial to the Suicidal Tendencies-inspired decks that rightly proclaim that Water is Life. (Sovereign State, 827 Dundas St. W.)

Sweet Sin City. Even on minus-a-bajillion days, who can say no to ice cream? Sweet Sin City has papier-mâché ice cream cones that sit atop tiers of foam and cardboard. It’s an artistic take on Instagrammable food culture – and it’s certainly effective commentary, considering we just posted it on Instagram. Now, where’s the real ice cream? (Urban Mode, 145 Tecumseth St.)

Le Grand Mobile. Since when were mobiles just for kids? At Mini Mioche, Kira Varavina Le Grand is a decidedly adult – but no less playful – take on the mobile, featuring interlocking wood parts spinning like tops in hot pink acrylic. The sculpture is motorized, giving it constant kinetic motion – and it’s far more sophisticated than the ceiling art we made in Kindergarten. (Mini Mioche, 795 Queen St. W.)

Alignment. At Spectacle, it’s hard to pry attention away from the swoon-worthy glasses on display. But Silvia Taylor and Pasha Moezzi’s Alignment manages the feat. Featuring lathe-turned glass and metal, the abacus-style installation glows like icicles, inviting viewers in. We like them so, so much more than real icicles. (Spectacle, 752 Queen St. W.)

Orphism. At Designlines, we love smart solutions for small spaces. It’s no surprise, then, that we adore Montreal duo MPGMB’s geometric work on display at Work/Life, which doubles as a foyer mirror and a knickknack shelf. Beyond being gorgeous, it’s efficient – and built for the city dwellers who live in increasingly tiny spaces. In other words, it’s made for Liberty Village. (Umbra Concept Store, 165 John. St.)

We’re out tagging the best products, designs and installations we encounter at the Toronto Design Offsite Festival (TO DO) and the Interior Design Show (IDS). Here’s our third dispatch from the wilds of Toronto

From January 15 to 21, we’re awarding 100 Designlines Loves tags to the most beautiful, most innovative, and flat-out wackiest stuff we encounter. Keep track of everything we tagged in our master list and share your stories with us using the hashtag: #DLLoves18. Happy trails!

The third day of our Loves program took us to some of the trendiest strips in downtown Toronto: Queen West and the Junction. Fittingly, we were treated to a slew of window installations (our version of window shopping) including an MSDS Studio light, hanging in Aesop’s normally austere window, and a woven wood wall divider at Stylegarage. First, we made a trip to the spacious new Hollis+Morris showroom between the Junction Triangle and Castlefield Design District, where wood and light combine as if by magic.

In total, we handed out 11 Loves tags to up-and-coming artists and established design studios. The Boxhaus LED installation at Image Foundry by MikkA told a twisted bedtime story, while Watson Soul’s double-sided rug inspired visions of cozy, and surprisingly dynamic, interiors. Swipe through the gallery above to see everything we loved.

Last edited: January 11, 2021