“Our client asked for a cozy room where she could curl up with her daughters and read books,” said Eye4Design’s Janice Burke of her favourite room—a grey-toned living area featuring subtle splashes of colour and, of course, her trademark upcycling style.
“I kept the palette fairly neutral and allowed for a little splash of colour with the throw pillows,” she explained. “[My client] wanted a calming space so I used various tones of grey.”
Known for their creative repurposing and impressive carpentry skills, Burke and her colleague Carla Marquardt transformed the “very non-anything” room with unique, custom-made pieces. “The art was purchased on sale from Furniture Walk and I added colour to it with the blue,” said Burke. “The half-moon tables beneath the piece were initially a small round dining table that someone had donated to us and we kept in the workshop until we had somewhere to use it. It was cut in half and painted with grey chalk paint.
“The sconces were taken down, chalk-painted and returned to the walls upside down without the shades and we used an LED Edison-type bulb which gives off a soft glow. The book shelving on the far wall was custom-made by us ladies using galvanised pipe, which we spray-painted stainless steel, and the wooden shelves were made with plain spruce and were stained, painted and varnished. The large coffee table was an eMoo purchase that was also chalk-painted and given a new life.”
The team also redid the fireplace using a light stone tile from Pembroke Tile & Stone to give it a modern, rustic look and topped it with a simple, slim white wooden mantle. The photos are of the client’s three daughters and were digitally manipulated to look like sketches, and the two little boxes with the “Row the Boat” poem are from ESC. “I thought they would look more unique with one of them turned sideways,” added Burke. “I always like a little quirky.”
Other custom pieces included a farmhouse dining table with old piano legs and matching long bench, and a wine storage unit in the kitchen; in addition, the designers cladded the kitchen island with pallet wood. The client was “blown away.”
“My design philosophy is to make the space work for the person or people living in it, following their preferred style but giving a little twist along the way adding a little of the unexpected,” concluded Burke.
