Just Opened: Mjölk brings Scandinavian style to the Junction

With such stores as Post and Beam, Forever Interiors and Smash, the Junction is one of the city’s prime destinations for decorators and home decor junkies, but the addition of the Scandinavian lifestyle shop Mjölk in December is a good reason to revisit.

For the past year, the young owners, John Baker and Juli Daoust, have been sharing their favourite spaces, places and things on their blog, Kitka Design Toronto. But it was the challenge of furnishing their home that inspired them to open the store.

“We were looking for a well-made sofa that had a unique and timeless look,” says Baker, a mid-century modern aficionado. “We searched everywhere but couldn’t find a piece in a book called Scandinavian Modern that caught our eye.” They eventually ordered the black leather Børge Mogensen sofa on-line from Copenhagen and paid a hefty sum for shipping. They now sell the piece in the store.

Funky kitchen accessories, office supplies, lamps, furniture and children’s toys stand out against the store’s white backdrop. The owners are especially fond of the solid beech dining chairs from the Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa ($1,495); colourful hand-blown glass carafes from Denmark ($120); and hand-carved rocking sheep with lambskin coats ($550).

Despite the name and clean aesthetic, the couple is quick to squash any comparisons to a certain Swedish retailer. “Most North Americans equate Scandinavian design with IKEA, but it’s so much more than that,” says Daoust. “IKEA is like a Scandinavian Leon’s—a big box store of mass-produced, cheap pieces that are not built to last.” The owners plan to stand out by offering hard-to-find items and originals. “We don’t sell standard Scandinavian pieces, like Hans Wegner’s iconic Wishbone chairs, because you can easily find them elsewhere in Toronto,” says Daoust. “We want to give people something new to look at.”

Mjölk, 2959 Dundas St. W., 416-551-9853, mjolk.ca.