Episode 4 of Marriage Under Construction – online

Watch Melissa create an urban retreat in Rod and Nat’s backyard.

YDF Suppliers: Spot Home

The sales component of designerfriend.ca will include a selection of products from several key suppliers that we use often.  Spot Home  has been making waves this year as owner David Craig continues to transition from a trade resource for custom upholstered and wood furniture, to a public store front. 

We will be carrying many of David’s collections including exclusive lines by The Design Agents and Core Architects as well as YDF signature pieces.

David’s furnishings can be seen throughout the city in bars, restaurants and exclusive private clubs including the W Hotel, Cheval, and Cosmopolitan Hotel.   He has become the go to source for custom, modern furniture at affordable prices.

hide hair classic chair

yorkville chair

core media unit

army tables

Hot peppers, pineapple, green olives, tomato and extra sauce.

I like my pizza and my furniture made to order with my specs, my way…..

Hudson my coworker (baby) and I just returned from a morning at Spot Home. I had a meeting with David Craig the owner, and my Balmoral clients. It was quite a scene, my 10 month old, David’s 18 month old, his wife trying to keep them entertained and my lovely and accommodating clients grinning as I update their plan in CAD with one hand and remove Hudson’s hand from the power cord with the other. There were bumped heads and little pools of unknown spit up (not all from the kids) – but we emerged after 2 1/2 hours with 3 pieces of furniture and the entire house full of window coverings decided.  Saturday meetings sometimes call for a bit of  “special” coordination.

We’re having two sofas and a headboard made by David and we all met to decide on sizes, arm heights, leg styles, fabrics etc. I use David allot. I may see a sofa or table somewhere but wish it was a bit smaller, or had better fabric options. David has a large manufacturing facility on site, so all I need do is tell him exactly what I want, and he makes it for me.

In this case, the client saw a B&B Italia sectional they love, but the proportions were uncomfortable and the sizes weren’t perfect for the house. We’ve used that sofa as the starting point and David is making us an 8′ sofa with ottoman 36×30 which will pull up tight to one end creating the sectional comfort without committing to its footprint. He has dozens of fabrics to choose from or we can always spec our own. We found the perfect taupe microfiber from his standard options.

He’s also making a headboard for us. The headboard will be 139″ long x 48″ high and will be upholstered in grey ghost hide. For the bed we’re just making a super simple wood platform with a 4″ overhang on three sides. I’m thinking a pair of Saarinen tulip based white tables will sit beautifully in front of the headboard on either end. I measured the bedroom and put together some basic plans and elevations of the headboard and David is able to custom make the bed for us and install it on site in about 3 weeks.

The other sofa is inspired by a Crate and Barrel model. The quality and fabics are not up to snuff on the actual sofa, so we are having David manufacture something very similar in a beautiful cream fabric for the living room.

If you are in need of a piece of furniture and wish you had the ability to tailor it to your needs, the custom route is the way to go. The prices are affordable and compete with main stream retailers. Send us an email if you have any questions or needs in this department! melissa@designerfriend.ca

Happy Weekend, YDF’s Melissa and Hudson

Find a nice Spot and stay there

I’ve been working with a fella for many many years.  He in the past has focused on custom furniture manufacturing and supplying for other retailers.  He was one of the now defunct Caban’s sources along with doing custom work for many design and architecture firms.   Over the years I’ve watched his business grown and evolve and I can honestly say that it now seems to have become a labour of love for him.

He has incredible design sensibilities, a quality that’s invaluable to us desingers when trying to explain the vision.  He travels allot and is really tapped into what is current and cool.  Most of Toronto’s top clubs are owned or operated by one group and he is their go-to guy for custom furniture, banquettes, and classic contemporary furniture.  We’ve done a few clubs together and he just gets it.

Shortly after I started putting together my supplier list I gave David Craig a call to chat about carrying his current lines and designing a few of my own.  It was incredibly timely and still makes me a bit goose bumpy at just how much potential we have working together, and what that all means for my YDF clients.

So today I’ll show you a bit of what Spot Home has in their current collection, but it’s really only a taste of what is to come.  David has designs from me for several items that I found to be missing from my other retail options.  On the commercial side he will be making for me several standard and affordable reception desks.  contemporary designs that at the firm I was asked to do over and over……i digress, I can’t tell you about the YDF exclusives just yet  – that’s another blog!

Spot Home will also be manufacturing and supplying YDF with 3 new designer lines.  Designed by well know interior design and architecture firms.  They are exclusive, brand new and when released I will blog in all caps to tell you about them.  I’m so excited to be the only online retailer for these yet to be divulged collections to come….. 😉 

so, on to the show and tell of Spot Home’s current offerings.  This is just a sample, check out his site for more – but remember even their site only shows a small collection of their peices.