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Inside Eye Candy, Toronto’s newest pop-up museum, with a pizza room and a private jet booth

By Jean Grant| Photography by Gabby Frank
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Toronto’s latest Instagrammable pop-up is a maze of boldly patterned rooms inside a hot pink storefront at Queen and Spadina. Set designer Alanna Davey teamed up with Honeycomb Hospitality to bring her technicolor vision to life. She styled each picture-perfect booth with trippy decals, fun wallpaper and playful props (think giant rainbows and life-size chess pieces). And, crucually, she installed LED lighting in all the booths to make sure they were selfie-ready. Here’s a look inside the space.

Each room was built off-site by Davey’s husband’s construction company, INTOR Construction Inc. They were designed to be easily transportable:

Inside Eye Candy, Toronto's newest pop-up museum, with a pizza room and a private jet booth

The rainbow room was inspired by a giant installation Davey saw at Burning Man, where people could walk on top of the structure. Since she was short on space, she used a mirror to give the illusion of a full rainbow:

Inside Eye Candy, Toronto's newest pop-up museum, with a pizza room and a private jet booth

This room is one giant optical illusion. Davey handmade all the candies (unfortunately, you can’t eat them) and gilded the frame:

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Inside Eye Candy, Toronto's newest pop-up museum, with a pizza room and a private jet booth

Davey is obsessed with details, so she put fluorescent lighting on the ceiling of the Blockbuster room to make it feel more like the real thing. (Don’t worry: it’s not on, so it won’t ruin your pictures.) The movie cases have real VHS tapes inside:

Inside Eye Candy, Toronto's newest pop-up museum, with a pizza room and a private jet booth

Davey worked with 3-D printing company Imaginate to create this giant rotating pizza slice:

Inside Eye Candy, Toronto's newest pop-up museum, with a pizza room and a private jet booth

If you want to save yourself a trip to High Park, this room is decked out with cherry blossoms that mimic the real deal:

Inside Eye Candy, Toronto's newest pop-up museum, with a pizza room and a private jet booth

This leopard-print booth is an homage to fashion photographer David LaChapelle:

Inside Eye Candy, Toronto's newest pop-up museum, with a pizza room and a private jet booth

Sia’s “Chandelier” was the inspiration for this disco ball swing. Apparently it’s great for boomerangs:

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Inside Eye Candy, Toronto's newest pop-up museum, with a pizza room and a private jet booth

The pathway between the booths was designed to look like the yellow brick road from The Wizard of Oz:

Inside Eye Candy, Toronto's newest pop-up museum, with a pizza room and a private jet booth

This room is also Wizard of Oz–themed; it’s inspired by the Emerald City:

Inside Eye Candy, Toronto's newest pop-up museum, with a pizza room and a private jet booth

They saved the best for last: the private jet booth:

Inside Eye Candy, Toronto's newest pop-up museum, with a pizza room and a private jet booth

There’s also free cotton candy:

Inside Eye Candy, Toronto's newest pop-up museum, with a pizza room and a private jet booth

Dogs can get in on the action, too. This photo op is outside the museum:

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Inside Eye Candy, Toronto's newest pop-up museum, with a pizza room and a private jet booth

322 Queen St. W., thisiseyecandy.com.

Jean Grant has been a freelance writer since 2015, covering a range of lifestyle topics like shopping, interiors, wellness and culture for publications like Maclean’s and Toronto Life. She also enjoys working with brands to develop custom content, and shares personal essays through her Substack newsletter, Nobody is Thinking About You.
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