THIS JUST IN

RING FLING

These stacking rings, created by jewelry designer Gloria Bass, are made of 18-kt white gold, platinum and diamonds. They’re the perfect adornment for stylish hands.

Gloria Bass Design 1361-1 Greene Ave., Westmount, Quebec 514-933-7062 www.gloriabassdesign.com

QUINTESSENTIALLY ELEGANT

The Quintessential chest has a custom-dyed eucalyptus veneer, hand-rubbed to a gleaming shine to bring out the wood grain’s beauty. Its linearity is offset by a curvaceous acrylic base, giving this piece a contemporary French flair. Each drawer has round quilted gold knobs. Whatever room it’s in, this piece fits well with antiques or contemporary design. Available exclusively at Import Temptations.

Import Temptations 188 Bentworth Ave., Toronto 416-256-3150 www.import-temptations.com

HOOPLA

Beryllium sapphires and fire opals warm the look of these lovely hoopshaped earrings, set in 18-kt yellow gold.

Gloria Bass Design 1361-1 Greene Ave., Westmount, Quebec 514-933-7062 www.gloriabassdesign.com

SUN RAYS

The Contempo Starburst mirror features a burst of gold rays that emanate from its centre. The 48-inch round base is made of high-gloss black glass to contrast with the sunburst motif. At its centre is a convex mirror. Available in two sizes: 36-inch and 48-inch diameters. Available exclusively at Import Temptations.

Import Temptations 188 Bentworth Ave., Toronto 416-256-3150 www.import-temptations.com

FAUX FUN

Add a luxurious and warm touch to your living space with the soft faux fur collection, available at Linen Chest. Choose a cushion, a throw or a bed runner, available in five styles: timber wolf, bobcat, rabbit and white or black chinchilla.

Linen Chest www.linenchest.com

HIS AND HERS

The Mr. & Mrs. Collection by Maison Berger was created by designer Jonathan Adler. Inspired by painter Salvador Dalí, this black and white collection reflects contrast: darkness and light, yin and yang. Each lamp gift pack comes with its own 250-millilitre home fragrance: citrus breeze with the Mrs. lamp and a fresh-and-woody wilderness scent with the Mr. lamp.

Linen Chest www.linenchest.com

CHOOSE YOUR MUSE

The chic and opulent Muse Collection is the result of a creative collaboration between Maison Berger and designer Jonathan Adler. The elegant porcelain lamp is a replica of the iconic Muse vase. It’s adorned with white embossed lips, while some are marked in hot-stamped gold. This unique gift set includes 500 millilitres of Imperial Green Tea fragrance.

Linen Chest www.linenchest.com

READY FOR CHRISTMAS A design team outfits a Muskoka vacation home in time for the holidays

BY PHILLIPA RISPIN PHOTOGRAPHY: GILLIAN JACKSON STYLING: LAURIE ALTER, STEPHANIE MOLINARO AND WENDY GRAND PRE

In the Muskoka room, plenty of seating provides for relaxing, chatting, playing board games and just generally enjoying the surroundings. The spectacular antler chandelier was a favourite find for designer Laurie Alter and her team at Tuvalu Home Environment.

THERE’S TURNKEY, and then there’s turnkey. The owners of this home on Lake Joseph in Ontario’s Muskoka region presented designer Laurie Alter with a newly built but empty property and said, in effect, “It’s all yours.”

In 2019, Alter and her team from Tuvalu Home Environment in Laguna Beach, California were responsible for completely outfitting the place, both indoors and out: furniture, linens, soft furnishings such as drapes and cushions, accessories, lighting, deck furniture and umbrellas, cutlery and utensils, decorative elements such as vintage lifebuoys—everything, even down to natural sponges for the bath. About the only things they weren’t asked to provide were the boats in the boathouse.

Alter’s clients knew her work, for they had a home in Laguna Beach that had benefited from the Tuvalu touch a few years earlier, and they were familiar with Tuvalu’s two California stores. Alter and her team met them at the Muskoka property during the summer to discuss the project. The owners didn’t ask for a specific style, but they did want something different from their Laguna Beach house and different from neighbouring places on Lake Joseph.

The property’s blue-and-orange palette is echoed in the lakeside boathouse apartment’s furnishings.

“We had literally a suitcase with loads of different fabrics to start the design process,” says Alter. “We pulled out a few collections, and it was then that they gravitated to a warmer, burnt-orange colour vibe. Once that was established, they kind of let us loose. We . . . didn’t see them until the project was installed.” –>

And what a project it was: the main house of 3,800 square feet, the boathouse of 1,200 square feet with guest quarters attached, and numerous decks. The main house alone comprises a kitchen, living room, dining room, Muskoka room, powder room, in addition to two bedrooms upstairs and three downstairs, each with an ensuite bathroom.

All this had to be furnished and decorated for the clients and family and friends to walk in and feel right at home, just in time for Christmas.

The designer and her team searched for little touches of luxury and whimsy (such as the framed vintage bathing suit in the principal suite’s bathroom) that combine to make this family retreat a welcoming getaway.

The kitchen features vintage pendant lights and wood cabinetry that fit well with the house’s wooded surroundings. In two of the bedrooms, custom-made bunk beds accommodate the youngest generation in the owners’ large family.

“When I saw the place, it was pretty much completed,” says Alter. “The builders were finishing the Muskoka room.” She says that the only structural change she suggested was to reconfigure the kitchen and add vintage pendants to make it more functional. Once that was done, the empty house awaited.

The result is all about comfort and accommodating a crowd. One easy furnishings decision was two custom-made sets of bunk beds in each of two of the bedrooms, ready for visits from the owners’ large extended family. The living room and the Muskoka room both feature generously proportioned pieces for seating. Outdoors, there are multiple lounging and seating areas spread over several decks. –>

The Tuvalu team started sourcing items for the home over the summer. Most came from Tuvalu or were ordered from trusted suppliers, but Alter and team also had fun visiting stores and flea markets in a wider area. Round Top, Texas is famous for flea markets and antiques shows, and there Alter was particularly excited to find two original Stickley rocking chairs. She and the team also visited stores and markets in the Muskokas, finding accessories and art with a local flavour.

Alter calls the resulting style “contemporary rustic cottage.” It combines antiques such as the Stickley chairs, rustic elements such as cow-hide rugs, and decidedly contemporary items such as the clear acrylic stools near the fireplace in the main living room. The look is “timeless but unique,” says Alter, “as though the furnishings and accessories had been collected over time.”

Keeping to a distinctive colour scheme in a room creates perfect partners out of such disparate elements as vintage life preservers and an ornate chandelier.

A constant throughout is colour and texture. Alter based the colour scheme on shades of orange, ranging from soft and faded in the living room through to bright tangerine on the decks. In some rooms it’s taken even further, going into decisive red. Many rooms have blue accents in the same manner, gentle in the living room and amping up into brilliant turquoise in the boathouse guest quarters. –>

A mix of texture and colour, always with some version of blue and/or orange, gives a sense of continuity among the various rooms, including the boathouse apartment (opposite, top), a bedroom (opposite, bottom), and the principal suite in the main house (this page). The texture story is also varied. In the master bedroom, grasscloth on the walls provides subtle texture. The look of twig-framed mirrors, rattan and bentwood seating, and rustic cabinets is softened over-all by plumply upholstered furniture and plentiful soft furnishings, with rugs and cushions throughout the rooms. The process of preparing the country retreat was demanding, because of its distance from stores. Alter and her team of five employees eventually moved into a local hotel in late autumn and worked full-time on the project. The weather did not necessarily cooperate: Alter recalls heavy snowfalls that required the driveway be plowed twice a day so that delivery trucks could get in. But she and her team completed their mandate, putting the last touches on the house right before Christmas.

She remembers the snow and the trucks and all the sourcing of items, but mostly she remembers the joy of being let loose to do a whole property from scratch. “We like to take chances, which sometimes clients are unsure of,” Alter says. “They have concerns because they can’t see the end project. . . . It truly is a designer’s dream to have such trust to let us work our magic and not be limited.”

WINTER WONDERLAND GETAWAYS

In this era of reduced global mobility, we can enjoy a holidayseason vacation close to home

BY LA CARMINA

Photo courtesy of La Corporation ski & golf Mont-Orford

Photo by John Entwistle/Whistler Blackcomb

A FRIEND ONCE DESCRIBED yearning to travel as “having itchy feet.” His catchy phrase popped into my mind many times in 2020—the challenging year of COVID-19—as it aptly described my growing longing to explore far-off places. While many foreign countries remain open to Canadian visitors, I don’t feel comfortable with flying during a pandemic, or quarantining for two weeks upon my return.

It’s fortunate that there are many satisfying ways to scratch “itchy feet” while staying close to home. Take a short drive from any of Canada’s major cities, and you’ll find splendid attractions that you can enjoy as a day trip or weekend getaway. Why not treat this winter as an opportunity to try offbeat activities such as dog-sledding, ancient caving, or snowshoe wine tours? We Canadians love to travel during the holiday season, often to warmer climes. This year gives us an opportunity to do it close to home and to discover the beauty of our own country and its winter season.

From Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal, here’s a variety of ideas for safe, local travel that allows you to bask in the great outdoors. We may not be able to venture too far this season, but we can still make memories with our families, and re-capture that invigorating sense of adventure.

Photo by Justa Jeskova/Whistler Blackcomb

Vancouver

Some of the world’s best ski and snowboard runs lie only two hours from Vancouver, at the famous Whistler Blackcomb resort. At year-end, Whistler Village gets a glow-up with holiday lights and activities for all ages, including storytelling and crafts. I recommend planning a visit for early- to mid-December to avoid the crowds and steep hotel prices.

If you prefer a more peaceful and less expensive getaway, opt for a multi-day trip to Sun Peaks. Take the five-hour scenic drive to Kamloops, and you’ll be rewarded with world-class ski runs and backcountry skiing for the entire family. Sun Peaks offers its unique Alpine Fondue and Starlight Descent that lets you indulge in a three-course dinner and then swoop downhill under the stars. You can also climb into a Cat Trax groomer to see how the resort paves its runs, or try ice-fishing for trout inside a heated tent on the lake. –>

Photo by Robin O’Neill/Whistler Blackcomb

Calgary

Travelers worldwide are familiar with Banff and lake Louise, the scenic mountain hamlets located around a two-hour drive from Calgary. Shrouded by dramatic peaks, the glacier-fed lake looks especially stunning in the wintertime. Plan a visit between January 20 and 31 to catch the Ice Magic Festival, where top artists carve intricate sculptures out of enormous frozen blocks.

It would be a mistake to overlook Canmore and Kananaskis, the Rocky Mountain town and valley located just over an hour from Calgary. This wildlife haven offers cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, dog-sledding, and a handful of unusual winter activities. Book a tour of Rat’s Nest cave in Canmore, which has an underground temperature of four degrees Celsius year-round. As you meander through the passages, you’ll learn about fossils and 7,000-year-old rock paintings. As an alternative, take an “ice walk” to see dazzling frozen waterfalls in Kananaskis. Then, go glamping at Mount Engadine Lodge: each tent is heated and has such amenities as a shower and private deck.

Photos by Nataschia Wielink

Toronto

Escape from Canada’s largest city to Stratford, a Victorian town that is particularly charming during the holiday season. Take a 90-minute car ride through the countryside and arrive hungry. Stratford’s foodie experiences include the Bacon & Ale Trail, which lets you try pairings of craft beer and smoked

Photo by Nataschia Wielink

pork. If you have a sweet tooth, embark on the Chocolate Trail to sample artisanal desserts and meet the makers.

For wine tastings with a twist, join a snowshoe tour at an Ontario vineyard. Beamsville is an hour’s drive from Toronto, and can be visited on the way to Niagara Falls. Stop at Thirty Bench and learn about the grapes while snowshoeing through the grounds. Or you could drive two-and-a-half hours northwest to Annan, home of Coffin Ridge Boutique Winery. Visitors can trek the 25 acres and learn about the winery’s history and growing process, before warming up with mulled wine paired with cheese. –>

Ottawa

If you drive half an hour north from the nation’s capital, you’ll find yourself in Wakefield, a Quebec town known for its creative scene. Get inspired at outdoor art exhibitions, and catch a live music concert by locals. Children will love dashing through the snow on a horse-drawn sleigh at Captiva Farms. For a memorable date night, book a table at Nikosi Bistro-Pub, which has a cozy dining room and patio overlooking the Gatineau River. The dishes fuse Indigenous and rustic French influences, such as warm bannock bread with aged cheddar, maple-sweetened mushrooms, and duck sausage.

Photos by Wapokunie Riel-Lachapelle, Owner/Operator of Terrasse Nikosi Bistro-Pub

At Lac-des-Loups, a Québécois village under an hour’s drive from Ottawa, you can experience ice skating on a three-kilometre trail through a forest. Patinage en Forêt invites you to glide on a pristine, open-air ice path surrounded by trees and gentle wildlife.

Montreal

Quebec’s largest urban centre offers plenty of local getaways for those who love snow sports. Mont-Orford National Park is a 90-minute drive eastward from Montreal. The 850-metre mountain has the steepest vertical slope in the Eastern Townships, plus spectacular snowshoeing and cross-country and alpine ski trails. Mont-Tremblant is located the same distance away, albeit in the Laurentians, but feels like a European alpine town. In addition to having world-class terrain for all levels, Mont-Tremblant excels in the art of après-ski. Treat yourself to hearty food and wine, and try your luck at the casino.

For an exhilarating family activity, conquer the winter slides at Saint-Sauveur, found in the Laurentians, an hour outside Montreal. Slide down 19 chutes for single-person snow tubes, or zip down two trails for multi-person snow rafts. After, warm up in front of the fireplace at the old-fashioned Sugar Shack.

Photos courtesy of Tourism Laurentians

TIPS FOR TRAVELLING SAFELY IN CANADA THIS WINTER

In the era of COVID-19, research and preparation are key for having the smoothest possible journey. Check your province’s official website for the current safety recommendations regarding local travel, keeping in mind that regulations can change.

When planning your trip, try to avoid weekends, holidays, and peak hours if possible to keep away from crowds. Research each hotel’s policy on maximum capacity, physical distancing, and sanitation, and book your accommodations well in advance.

It’s wise to pack a mask with you at all times, as many places will require you to wear one. Don’t forget to take water and snacks for the drive, to prevent making unnecessary stops. If you’re ever in doubt, remember the words of British Columbia’s health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry: “Be kind, be calm, and be safe.” And have fun.