Six of Toronto’s most inspiring home decor blogs
Toronto has its share of home-grown decor blogs. Here, to separate the frou-frou from the fabulous, six of our favourites.
Jacquelyn Clark’s Lark and Linen is the Toronto equivalent of Emily Schuman’s Cupcakes and Cashmere—a scrapbook of all things pretty. Clark posts about chic interiors (like an exquisite Swedish living room) and her own ventures at home (like how to make the perfect strawberry shortcake). We especially like her “Scenes From My Weekend” posts—Clark’s picks of the best brunch spots and markets in the city.
Nikole Herriott, one half of the duo behind the indie kitchenware line Herriott Grace (her Victoria-based dad, Lance, is the other half), runs Forty-Sixth at Grace, which she calls “a savings account for things I like.” The main attractions are rustic recipes, the Herriott Grace e-store (which sells handmade wooden bowls, serving spoons, linens and cookie cutters) and snapshots of Herriott’s stylish life.
Designer Emma Reddington became the home editor of Chatelaine on the strength of her highly addictive blog, The Marion House Book. It has the expertise and allure of a design magazine: decorating projects (in Reddington’s own boho Parkdale Victorian), carefully selected trend pieces, and “Hello! Neighbour” posts, which take readers on a tour of Toronto interiors and introduce them to creative homeowners.
Kitka, the meticulously modernist blog by decor enthusiasts Juli Daoust and John Baker, is about the couple’s life beyond the walls of Mjölk, their Junction gallery and interior design shop. Daoust and Baker detail their trips to Japan and Scandinavia, preview their in-store exhibits, post cute photos of their daughter, Elodie, and muse about the contents of their latest project, a book called Mjölk Volume II (above).
Michael Penney, self-dubbed “your friendly neighbourhood decorator,” is a regular on the Marilyn Denis Show, a magazine contributor and a traditionalist with an affection for sorbet colours (as in the cushions above). On Michael Penney Style, he writes about flea-market acquisitions and adventures in home gardening, plus he posts pictures of what’s new and coveted at Penney and Company, his Whitby decor shop.
In her Little House Blog, stationery designer Lindsay Stephenson chronicles the ongoing reno of her east-end house and somehow manages to turn grouting a floor (above) and building a backyard shed into entertaining reading. The blog is a family enterprise, so her husband, Aubrey, and son, Oscar, are recurring characters. It’s also earned shout-outs from the website Apartment Therapy and HGTV’s Sarah Richardson.
Photographs: Clark courtesy of Lark and Linen; Herriott and Spoons by Michael Graydon; Reddington by Sian Richards; Daoust and Baker by Lauren Schreiber; Penney courtesy of Michael Penney Style; Stephenson courtesy of Little House Blog
NEVER MISS A TORONTO LIFE STORY
Sign up for This City, our free newsletter about everything that matters right now in Toronto politics, sports, business, culture, society and more.
