MADE, 867 Dundas West, 416-607-6384, www.madedesign.ca Rating: NNNNN
The Maple Leaf lumber yard across the street from MADE on Dundas West is a fitting neighbour for the new showroom and shop specializing in True North-designed furniture and home accessories. But all is not knotty pine and taxidermied moose heads in the month-old boutique (though an installation room at the back of the store is infested with red lacquered elk figurines mounted on marble trophy bases).
A window vignette featuring a Mazzie Design chest with turned wooden legs topped with a Castor Design table lamp fashioned from a cylinder of recycled fluorescent light tubes tips browsers and interior design clients off to the local furniture scene’s modern twist on traditional, kitschy and minimal forms.
Owners Shaun Moore (a Sheridan College grad) and Julie Nicholson (a printmaker from Brisbane, Australia) jumble smaller buys (like Jen Graham’s ceramic tray filled with cups glazed in red, pink and celadon) with supersized showpieces (a honeycomb paper wall by Molo) to convert your casa into a mini Design Exchange.
MADE picks: Katy Chan’s zippered felt pods look ready to bite, $45 and up a Mazzie two-seater sofa mismatches neutral brocade and basement-den orange woven fabrics on its back and seat cushions, $2,970 abstracted otters swim across Andresa Sisson’s hot-pink-and-yellow acrylic hanging screen, $1,200.
Look for: Nicholson’s rubber-band ball lights and Moore’s steel and walnut furniture pieces arriving in time for MADE’s November 4 grand opening. (The store is in a soft opening phase while stock arrives.)
Hours: Monday by appointment, Tuesday to Friday 11 am to 7 pm, Saturday 11 am to 6 pm.
