In this issue
• Favourite Things
Personal picks from three design-oriented locals
• Window Shopping
Local home-design stores and showrooms showcase their products — and their style savvy — with gloriously revamped and renovated spaces
• Show and Dwell
Three spectacular spaces customized to suit their owners’ lifestyles
• Haven’t Got a Clue?
Your playbook for the pros: who to call (and when and why)
• Design Hunting
Hot products and inspired finds in this fall’s hottest shades
• Fall Design Calendar
See the editor’s letter and table of contents below.
Letter from the Editor
Even if we’re not physically reinventing our homes, it seems we’re always fantasizing about making changes. And with all the talent and resources now available in Ottawa, there’s no need to settle for a cookie-cutter space. This issue is all about imagination. We meet a boutique builder, a construction officer, and an architect, stepping inside their imaginations — and their houses — to see how they envisioned the homes that they built from the ground up. We then travel into the minds of three design-minded locals to learn what ideas and items are top of their thoughts this month. From there, we browse for inspired furniture and accessories in the fall’s hottest shades and check out the city’s most gloriously revamped home showrooms. And for those readers truly ready to turn their home imaginings into action, we present our playbook for the pros — a quick guide on who to call based on the scope of your project. I hope Ottawa Magazine’s home-design trends capture your imagination.
By now, many of you may have heard about, or perhaps seen, the musical stage production Grievous Angel. After debuting at the NAC’s tiny Fourth Stage space late last fall, the steadily maturing production has toured small-town eastern Ontario and western Quebec, packed the Barney Danson Theatre for two nights as part of Bluesfest, then headed to Montreal. Now ambitious playwright/producer Michael Bate is taking his Gram Parsons tribute to California. Not bad for a 60-something former trash-magazine editor with no experience in drama. In a brilliant insider article, David McDonald (who served as a script doctor for the play) chronicles how the ambitious Bate managed to turn an improbable encounter with Parsons on the Massachusetts Turnpike in the 1970s into a stage production — from casting Parsons and Emmylou Harris to negotiating with the likes of the Stones and Neil Young for music rights.
Coming up: Ottawa Magazine food editor and City Bites blogger Shawna Wagman weighs in on the local restaurant scene, contributing editor Mark Bourrie crashes some lawyer parties to provide an insider’s look at how local legal eagles combine fun and fundraising, and Paul Gessell profiles Ottawa’s own Swiss bankers.
Sarah Brown, Editor
feedbackottawa@stjosephmedia.com
Table of Contents
Home Interiors Features
Favourite Things
Personal picks from three design-oriented locals
Window Shopping
Local home-design stores and showrooms showcase their products — and their style savvy — with gloriously revamped and renovated spaces
Show and Dwell
Three spectacular spaces customized to suit their owners’ lifestyles
Haven’t Got a Clue?
Your playbook for the pros: who to call (and when and why)
Design Hunting
Hot products and inspired finds in this fall’s hottest shades
Fall Design Calendar
Columns
I Spy
Professional dirt digger Alan Martin takes his research skills to Partnership Africa Canada to battle blood diamonds
Grievous Angel Takes Wing
music Hey, gang, let’s put on a show (about a depressive country singer who OD’d in a cheap motel and left a charred corpse)!
This City
Oni eyes Bay Ward • Wall art at Carleton U. • Slam man Chris Tse speaks up • Telling Tales of Hollywood and hockey • Six degrees of onstage separation • Putting style to a vote
City Select
The List
Ten things sporty lawyer Eric Macramalla can’t live without
Escape Plan
Five fabulous weekend getaways
Food
Analyzing Preston Street’s identity crisis
Tasting Notes
Fall trends at the LCBO
Restaurants
Buttermilk pie’s newfound fame • Granola wars • Plus our star-rated reviews
October
Loving Meech Lake at the ARTISTS IN THEIR ENVIRONMENT STUDIO TOUR • Celebrating supercool art at the OTTAWA INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL • IMAX heads to outer space • Plus our arts and entertainment listings