Northern Enclosure (continued)
When a prominent Toronto designer built a home of her own, her palette included light, space, her own firm's furniture and infinitely versatile Corian used in highly inventive ways.
One of Cecconi's favorite elements in the kitchen is a slat wall with removable glass shelves, which she uses like a sheet of lined paper on which she can write a new story whenever she wants to amp up the atmosphere. For a birthday party, she filled the shelves with balloons; at Christmas, with rows of baby white fir trees. "You have to have fun in your space or it feels dead," she says.
Cecconi's cabinets as well as her countertops are Corian; she has even hidden her Sub-Zero refrigerator behind Corian panels. Lem stools in white vinyl by La Palma came from Studio B in Toronto.
Being able to entertain 24 guests at a time and to live comfortably with her two oversize dogs were Cecconi's main practical considerations as she designed the interior, so durable materials were vital (in her last place, the dogs wore the finish off the wood floors). Here she used pet-proof tinted concrete floors highlighted by aluminum terrazzo strips -- and the floors are embedded with radiant heating to keep feet and paws warm in winter.
The main living, dining and kitchen area is one long 1,200-square-foot space punctuated by bold gestures. "There are a lot of horizontal and vertical lines in the interior. The repetition creates drama and cohesion," says Cecconi. "I also wanted to create a bit of wonderment, especially with the chimney." The chimneypiece is made of Corian, which is a favorite material of Cecconi's, one she used extensively in the house. "It's a seamless material with no grout to get dirty, and you can do almost any pattern or texture," she says. "If you ever ding or chip it, you can patch it invisibly."
Looking back on the project, Cecconi thinks the hardest part about designing the interior was the kid-in-a-candy-store feeling that she could do anything she wanted. "I was the worst client I've ever had," she jokes. "I can make a decision for a client in a second, but I couldn't make a decision for myself. We would get new product in the office every day and I would be like, 'Oh, gee -- that looks good!'" In the end, trusting her own instincts, as she does for her high-profile clients, and going with her first choices proved the best solution.
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