Bedroom renos to dream about
Three pre-pandemic updates include a luxury hotel vibe, a Caribbean-style retreat and a stress-release suite
Is your bedroom your happy place?
It doesn’t take a full-scale home renovation to create the master suite of your dreams. Take inspiration from these pre-pandemic bedroom makeovers. A third-floor retreat for a retired couple. When the family home is a destination for grown kids and grandkids, you’ve got to carve out quiet spaces where you can. For a couple of empty nesters, that meant creating a master bedroom on the third floor of their house in Toronto’s Playter Estates neighbourhood.
“They’re both conscientious about staying healthy. One of the biggest indicators of longevity is moving your body, so putting those stairs as an ‘obstacle’ on a daily basis only helps their overall fitness,” said Maia Roffey, director and principal of Black Sheep Interior Design, who designed the sanctuary.
“They have a beautiful home with a pool in the backyard and family that loves to visit. At any given time, there could be six children in the house so going upstairs to take a break when they need it makes sense.”
Inspiration for the 10-by-18 foot room with sloped walls came from their happy place in Barbados, where they honeymooned many years ago and now own a home-away-from-home. “I wanted to give them the vibe and materiality of Barbados,” said Roffey.
She started with sand-toned grass cloth on the walls, including the knee walls and angled ceilings, to introduce a soft texture. Drapery in a similar toned fabric was brought in to create a cocoonlike feeling. Caribbean blues, florals and fresh greens pop up in the bedding, chairs, rug and pillows to provide a comforting palette.
They chose a custom-made bed to ensure it could be taken apart and carried up the stairs easily, upholstering the headboard in a luxe fabric from Kravet. Four skylights and two windows on the angled walls flood the room with natural light. All can be opened to provide a gentle cross breeze.
Roffey worked to provide a mix of high and low furnishings to keep the budget reasonable. The major splurge of the room are the ornate nightstands from Made Goods. “The body is made out of wood and then clad in bone and filled with an epoxy that create gorgeous swirls and patterns. Two of the four kids have already claimed one each as an heirloom,” said Roffey. Bringing the hotel experience home. In what is possibly one of the city’s
poshest bachelor bedrooms, a hotel executive has brought the best of his work world home with him.
Eva Healy, owner and principal designer of Avenue Design, created the space that revolves around sleep, comfort and luxury. “He can go from sleeping to chilling to bubble bathing without leaving the bedroom,” said Healy.
The centrepiece is an enormous bed: Two queens brought together with a tight bed frame, a custom mattress topper and extra padding that eliminates the divot between them.
The bed fit for a king is outfitted in luxurious Egyptian cotton sheeting, two custom queen-sized duvet covers strategically stitched together and a total of eight hotel-quality sleeping pillows.
“Even the quilt at the base of the bed had to be two sewn together with an almost invisible seam.
“The look mimics a real, normal-sized bed, but everything is double,” said Healy.
Besides the show-stopping bed, the master bedroom in the concrete penthouse suite of a downtown condo is spare. Two charcoal benches anchor the bed and a nearby loveseat creates a sitting area where the homeowner can get a gradual start and end to his days. A bathtub sits just out of reach of the bed, so he never has far to go to fall into another relaxation station.
Understated white bureaus flank the bed, topped by pendant lighting in staggered lengths to provide a little personality. An awning above the bed features pot lights and speakers.
“We designed the space so that everything is serene and almost architectural in feel. The walls are all windows, so we propped up a mirror to reflect the light and illuminate the space,” said Healy.
When it’s time to shut out the world, he activates the built-in blinds with a remote control. A place to sleep — and read: Growing up on a leafy street in the Beach, Emily Cade never imagined that one day she’d be designing the interior of the house next door.
But in a twist of fate, her interior design business Emily
Cade Design was referred to help a family renovate their newly purchased craftsman home from scratch.
“The clients are busy lawyers who have teenage daughters. They had never renovated before and were very much looking to someone to interpret their personal style,” Cade said.
She settled into a design process that included unifying the family design esthetics and providing a complete turnkey service, right down to the sheets and towels.
The piece de resistance was the master bedroom, a place where the couple could get away from the stress of their days.
“The wife said she wanted feel like she was walking into a hotel suite, but it’s her own. I wanted to create that with a little more personality, playing up a Brooklyn townhouse vibe with classic elements that feel contemporary and fresh.”
One of the first design choices was the dark grey wall colour. “They initially said they didn’t want to go that dark, but I told them I’d pay to have it repainted if they hated it. In the end, it was the right choice to create the cosy environment they both wanted.”
The rest of the room’s finishings are a blending of masculine and feminine.
“The wife really liked purple, so I tried to find a way to work that in.”
A silvery, linen-upholstered bed with brass legs from Restoration Hardware is offset by a plush burgundy Tom Dixon bench from Wayfair. Violet throw pillows connect the light and dark tones.
A two-sided fireplace creates both an ambient reading nook in the bedroom and ambience by the bathtub in the ensuite bathroom. Creamy upholstered chairs in the bedroom lighten up the warmer stone around the fireplace.
“They are both avid readers so it was important to create a retreat where they could comfortably settle in with a book.”
The final touches are the artwork by Cade’s father, Paul Cade. “
The large white textural piece helped elevate the space from hotel room to actual stunning master bedroom retreat.”