The Magic Of Christmas Windows:

December 11th, 2015

White Christmas Angel from Parterre Flowers, Toronto.

When I was a child my mother took me to see the windows at the Eaton store, which started my love affair with the magical world of Christmas windows.  Over the years one of my favourite displays are the Bergdorf Goodman windows in New York  - a pilgrimage for the romantic who wants to be transported into a fairytale world imagined by a mad artistic scientist.  

My other favourite windows are the Hermès windows in Paris.  One year I was there they had coloured branches and a different colour theme for each window.  I don’t always have the pleasure of travelling at this time of year, but Toronto does not disappoint.  My passions were rewarded this week as I strolled out of my office on Yonge Street to view my vote for two of Toronto’s best:  Parterre Flowers and Putti.

Bergdorf Goodman version of the Christmas Angel.

Bergdorf Goodman Winter White Wonderland.

Both are located between Roxborough West and Macpherson streets, and as I passed by they made me stop and pause with delight.  I anoint “Parterre Flowers “ the newest floral superstar with their Christmas season’s white angel figure.  I have driven by many times and my eyes always linger on the gown covered in white flowers, and the mystical figure for all to see.  I am not sure what to make of this mysterious figure, but I am drawn to the purity and simplicity. I see her as emblematic of what we strive for at this time when the days become shorter and our celebrations become longer- a beacon for us all.

Putti’s approach is different but no less rewarding.  Embracing the maxim that you can never have too much of a good thing, they always brings out all the stops in their windows.  This year they have also gone with a white theme in the form of white flocking, layers of green boughs covered in clear white bulbs, and an atmosphere of delicious excess.

Toronto's Putti FIne Furnishings Exuberantly Decadent Christmas Window. 

 I hope you can also catch the bug and experience these delightful moments that can pull you into the magic of this time of year.

Holiday Entertaining . . .

Here we are about to head into the busiest holiday time and I thought I would pull together some inspiring and doeable ideas for all.  

Too beautiful to open!

Do or die weekend for Christmas decorating:

December 4th, 2015

Every year I note in my calendar that this weekend is the “do or die” date to do the holiday decorating.  I have my favorites and my guidelines:  I need to have lots of red, the atmosphere needs to be magical and it needs to be the perfect accompaniment to Bing Crosby’s White Christmas.  Corny I know, but I am the ultimate romantic and Christmas is my favorite time of year and my excuse to stretch my inner Baroque muscle.  Here are a few inspiring photos to get all of us  in the mood.   Happy decorating!

Paris Je t'aime

November 27th, 2015

In honour and in gratitude for the pleasure that Paris has given me over the years,  and as a reminder of all that the city has to offer, I present a photo essay of some of my favourite Parisian photos: First, Paris from above, and followed by some rich architectural details on the ground.

Baron Haussmann's Paris:

In 1853 Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann transformed Paris from a medieval warren of alleys and streets to a city of grand avenues and boulevards.  The city’s glorious, distinctive residential buildings were built to Haussmannian specifications: large (often whole-blocks), stone-faced, five-floor structures marked by the perfect alignment and symmetry of their balconies, windows and mansard roofs. Inside, the spacious apartments featured equally elegant architectural flourishes: high ceilings, parquet flooring, floor-length windows and intricate wood and plaster.

Finally, two books suggestions to continue the love affair with Paris.

Toronto Star Life Feature Article

November 20th, 2015

I am thrilled to be featured in an article in the Toronto Star Life by style maven Karen von Hahn.   I have been following her  for years and she is a writer who "just gets it".  Here she writes  beautifully about  my home and the spaces close to my heart. See below for the full article. 

Field notes: Fresh ideas in Theresa Casey’s laundry room

By: Karen von Hahn Fashion Columnist, Published on Tue Sep 22 2015

Normally a neglected area of the home, the interior designer and artist elevates the space while paying homage to her family.

Interior designer and visual artist Theresa Casey in her lower level laundry room, which she has adorned with old family photos and vintage ephemera. Says Casey, who believes in elevating the everyday, “it’s become a kind of memory portal.”

Casey begins her day by working in her atmospheric garden studio, which is filled with vintage ephemera and found objects that inspire her layered and thoughtful approach to design.

Alongside her 15-year-old Toronto design practice, interior designer and artist Theresa Casey is running a one-woman campaign against the “boringification” of interiors. 

“Every space now looks like it’s come straight out of a catalogue,” says Casey, whose own deeply atmospheric North Rosedale residence stands in stunning contrast as an example of what she calls a “thoughtful and layered approach to design.”

So much so that stepping into her own intimately proportioned front hall, you are immediately drawn into the sumptuous whimsy of a wall Casey has feathered in peacock quills, before turning around to face a hanging screen of Venetian blue silk along the stairs that she has bejewelled with a collection of vintage brooches. No surface is free from Casey’s imaginative and evocative approach: even her basement laundry room has been reconceived as a sort of personal gallery of family photographs and memories.

Meanwhile, the peacock-feathered entry, hand-applied by Casey herself, sets the tone for Casey’s uniquely artful and atmospheric Toronto home.

Casey’s basement laundry room, which she has appointed with old family portraits and a bamboo ladder to hold vintage linens, works on both the practical level, and as a quiet respite for reflection.

“I’ve never had an ‘official’ laundry room before, and I thought, ‘why not?’” says Casey. “I have a big family, mostly in Ireland, and I love old portraits and vintage frames. The truth is, I am down here a lot, so initially it seemed like another opportunity to express myself, but it has become a sort of memory portal.”

Black-framed portraits set a rhythm in the narrow, white marble mosaic room, which does resemble some kind of entrance. Hanging under a skinny horizontal team photograph of some footballers from the ’20s is a map of Paris dotted with pins and ephemera linked to Casey’s personal history and travels. On the counter opposite where Casey folds freshly washed sheets and sweaters is a clutch of antique apothecary jars filled with wooden clothespins. Even simple white laundry soap is made more compelling housed in a sculptural glass jar worthy of a vintage laboratory and accessed with a vintage metal hand scoop. Casey’s mother, pictured as a young woman in her nursing uniform, adds to the retro-clinical atmosphere.

A collection of wooden boxes and old apothecary jars hold such evocative reminders of an old laundry as wooden clothespegs and vintage buttons alongside simple white laundry soap in a glass dispensary with a metal scoop, all of which Casey has sourced on her regular flea market jaunts.

Casey’s collection of family portraits, including beloved images of her father and grandfather in Dublin, create a vivid black and white graphic rhythm against the white walls of her gallery-like laundry room. Found vintage frames, postcards and ephemera mark Casey’s favourite spots on a street map of her favourite city, Paris.

“I get a kick out of these pictures,” says Casey. “My grandfather looks so fierce in that one picture, but you can see how much he looked like my Dad. And then there’s my Dad at around four or five years old, back when he was growing up in Dublin.”

“Family is a big deal for us Irish Catholics,” laughs Casey. “But that’s how I have learned who I am.”

As a practising interior designer with a visual arts background who retires to her ivy-covered studio in the garden each morning to paint, Casey also believes in the value of discipline and ritual. 

“I believe in elevating the everyday,” says Casey. “It’s a bit of a Jungian idea of the stabilizing, grounding effect of completing common tasks, but I sometimes get my best ideas when I’m doing something entirely routine, like folding laundry.”

When it comes to the effort required in transforming the every day into the exquisite, Casey stands firm. “Sometimes people say to me, ‘why bother?’ And my answer to them, is, well, why wouldn’t you?”

Casey’s richly layered, exquisitely appointed Deco-inspired living room, full of books and significant antique furnishings demonstrates her uniquely evocative hand at interiors, the very quality clients seek her out for.