Recycled Design at Fresco Bistro's New Guest Room

Last Thursday was also the launch of the 2nd floor of Fresco Bistro Italiano. The new Guest Room is designed by Crawford Alexander, who used recycled and reclaimed materials in their concept. There were all sort of reclaimed items in the room: old windows, suitcases on the wall, wood shingles, reclaimed wood planks, funky lamp shades, etc.



There was way too many people in the space for me to take pictures of the entire space that night, but fortunately photographer Michael Davidson was able to take some pictures of the space, shown below. Enjoy!






Photo : MOOT | Michael Davidson

Modern Condos are selling like hotcakes in Ottawa

I attended the Urbaina VIP Event last Thursday to see the new model suite for phase 2 of the Central condo project: Central 2, from Urban Capital. The place was buzzing with people. There was a serious line up to get in and people were there to buy.

I also got a chance to meet David Wex, co-owner of Urban Capital, who explained that a lot of the people who came to the event were people who didn't get a chance to buy the first time around (Phase 1). He also felt that there would be a good chance that a portion of guests present that evening would have to reserve space for phase 3 since the condos were selling so fast! I wasn't there long and already a lot of red dots were on the plans.




Central 2 will be located at the corner of Bank and McLeod. The building is designed to have a low carbon footprint, be very stylish and affordable. The Central building and units themselves are projected to be LEED-Silver certified with eco-friendly features including a green roof, a rainwater storage system, energy-efficient windows, sustainable materials, and even a car share program.

The suite showcased during the event was modeled after the "Brampton" unit, a one bedroom + den unit, slightly over 600 square feet. All units come fully loaded with five-star energy-efficient stainless steel appliances,engineered hardwood floors, huge windows that flood rooms with natural light, custom-designed European kitchens and bathrooms, and exposed concrete ceilings. In the bathroom, the cabinets provide maximum storage (similar to the re hotel and residences) and nice finishes. I also like how they eliminated the handles of the upper cabinets in the kitchen by using taller doors that can be opened from the bottom, giving the kitchen a clean look.









Photos : MOOT

re Hotel and Residences Launch Party

Last Wednesday, I attended the launch for the upcoming re Hotel and Residences I mentioned earlier. It's great to see people taking matters into their own hand and revitalizing this street in great need of a lot of TLC! I thought I'd share my visit with you :)


As we came in, we were greeted by hostesses dressed in black, white and with a teal accent scarf. I thought it was a nice touch. After checking our names on the list we continued to the tent furnished with Mikaza Home furniture.


In the tent, you could look at some renderings for the project.





The lobby was great and grand. There was a DJ, lots of people, waiters serving drinks. (I had an really good lychee martini). I thought the colors used in the lobby were conservative (very neutral) but by using interesting material, it made the room interesting. Notice the mini subway tiles on the reception desk and the white tile on the wall.




There was some great scale models of the building project. The penthouse will have an amazing view of parliament. The project consists of a boutique hotel and luxury condos. Both will have an entrance on Queen Street. There should be retail stores on Spark Street. Finally. I really hope some great stores will come there. Hopefully whoever is in charge will seek appropriate tenants to help revitalize this area. As mentioned earlier by fellow blogger A.K.T. of Small City Streets we could use an anchor store such as H & M. But I would suggest bringing some great young, vibrant, fashion forward Canadian brands such as Rudsak, Mackage, Browns, Dubuc, etc. This is the place for flagship stores showcasing the best of what Canada has to offer! (Go big or go home).

THE BATHROOM
The model bathroom had some great features using modern fixtures. The floor to ceiling tiles created a neat effect (I was surprised to see they were the same than the ones I used for a client 2 years ago). There was a washer and dryer tucked away in a little closet on the side. The best feature for me was the extra tall cabinets behind the mirrors that provided ample storage. I thought it was really smart.





THE KITCHEN
The model kitchen was nice and sleek. From the look of it, it would be possible to host a party with a large number of people there. It was not a big kitchen, but I like the european style backsplash made out of colored glass. I wasn't sold on the light fixture above the table. They look a little too much for that small glass table, not to take away from the light fixtures themselves, because they look pretty awesome.




THE LIVING AREA
I really like the feature wall in the living room hiding storage behind and the stainless steel sleeve under the flat-screen TV. Imagine adding an ethanol fireplace in there. The small living room had access to a small balcony on the side as well.




THE BEDROOMS & ENSUITE
The master bedroom had real life models in it showcasing jewelry. Nothing against the model, but I didn't like that concept and though it looked a bit tacky. From the master bedroom you could access the second bathroom and the walk-in closet. It probably would have been better to inverse the bathroom and walk-in. The second bedroom was small but had great storage solutions.





So the old and ugly will eventually be replaced by the new and beautiful. And you can have a piece of it for a price. The smallest condo (570 sq. ft or 53 sq. m) starts at a little under $400,000. There are some great amenities that come with the purchase of one of these condos including underground parking, concierge, party room, lounge, theater, etc. Maybe I'll get to design some spaces in there. Now I really hope that the rest of the street will also get a face lift. You can see more pictures from the re hotel and residences website.



photos : MOOT | re hotel and residences

A cleaning station for dogs

Beautiful entrance with a sleek dog shower station in the Echo House designed by Kariouk Associate

I came across this great design solution by Ottawa architect Paul Kariouk a while ago where he integrated a dog shower in the entrance of a home. It inspired me to write an article about design solutions for dogs in the Ottawa Citizen. Find out more here.


Kariouk and his late dog demonstrating the dog shower at his entrance. Photo: Rod MacIvor, The Ottawa Citizen

Source : Kariouk Associates | Ottawa Citizen

Bringing the spark back into Spark street - Sneak Peak

Hotel Lobby

Sparks street is in great need of a makeover: something exciting to bring some life back into this area. Fortunately, there's a new project coming up that will hopefully inspire more people to improve this area of town and make it shine. Re Hotel is a new boutique hotel and residences pioneered by David Choo of Ashcroft Urban Developments and designed by architect Roderick Lahey of Roderick Lahey Architects and by interior design firm Cecconi Simone.



6th Floor lounge

An exclusive launch will take place this Wednesday on Spark Street. Amongst other things, guests will be able to see the floor plans and a fully decorated model suite. I believe David Choo, the visionary behind the project, who also recently started his own blog. Other Ottawa personalities will also attend this event. Based on these renderings, it will look really nice!


Residential lobby


Sky lounge

renderings : designtor

Designer's Touch at the Ottawa Home and Garden Show

Things are finally getting back in order after a couple crazy weeks getting ready and setting up for the Ottawa Home and Garden show. This year, as some of you already know, I really got involved with the show. My biggest project was to create and build four trendy dining rooms based on the 2010 spring/summer fashion trends and Benjamin Moore's 2010 Envison Colors. The rooms were named after each theme as shown below :



For the list of items in the Ode to Nature room click here.



For the list of items in the Popular Appeal room click here.



For the list of items in the Southern Comfort room click here.



For the list of items in the Light Tech room click here.

I also helped put together a mini art gallery on the way to the stage. I contacted Lisabel Filiatrault from Montreal and Jennifer Bisson from Ottawa to showcase their work.




On top of that, I also participated in the preparation for the decor of CDECA's booth and the Cameleon House and came up with the 30 Designer Finds.



It's too bad I didn't find time to check out all the booths from the show (there's just not enough hours in the day really), but I did notice that Custom Home Interiors did a great job decorating the Décor Stage. Same goes for the booths of 2Go Custom Kitchen and Corbeil who were nice to help us with the wood panels in the first dining room.



Doing the show was a great experience and I would do it again and even better (I got tons of new ideas). I got great feedback for the rooms from visitors and, as I suspected, quite a few of them said they wanted to see more finished rooms to show them how to use various items and inspire them to redecorate or redesign their own home. I hope more exhibitors will see the value in staging their rooms or hiring designers and decorators to help them out.

I'd like to thank the volunteers again who helped me set up the booths. It was really appreciated!

P.S. LSI Floors, Logs End and Bemz donated their items to Habitat For Humanity, which was really great too!

Photos : MOOT & Ottawa Home and Garden Show