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Where to Outfit Your Entryway on King West

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Our editors’ guide to the best spots for retail therapy, plus the beauty parlours and restos to hit along the way

Condoland’s microcosm of cool has a fashionable selection of lighting, compact furniture and tempting urban accents. This neighbourhood, like its residents, knows how to make an entrance. DL-0317-KingW-Products Shown in our den setup above: Poster by Rob Croxford, at Spacing Store; Console and stool, at Casalife; Tabletop accessories, at I Have a Crush on You; Foscarini lights, at LightForm; Rug, coatrack and baskets, at West Elm; Bong, at Tokyo Smoke.


King West at a Glance…


DL-0317-KingW-Map

With 20 stores to browse, you’ll find everything from pop culture-inspired enamel pins to invisible cabinet hinges. Use our interactive King West Google map to get more information about any of this eclectic design district’s hottest shops.

Don’t miss:

Don’t be ashamed to judge Swipe Design’s architecture and design books by their covers – they’re some of the best-looking tomes in print.

Haworth’s flagship on the ground floor of a Financial District bank tower resembles a futuristic space station, and the furniture on display is just as forward-thinking.

LightForm showcases exciting lighting imports from across North America and Europe inside of a former lamp factory.


While you’re in the neighbourhood…


— For after-work drinks and dazzling nails —

Her Majesty’s Pleasure

This bar-meets-spa has inner beauty in spades. A fresh, airy interior by +tongtong is splashed in several coats of white paint and accented with golden-hued Douglas fir timber and shimmering metallic seats and tiles. No wonder this spot snagged Best Bar in the Americas at the 2015 Restaurant and Bar Design Awards. Book a mani, pedi or blowout for a soothing escape from the frenetic pace of downtown life.

DON’T MISS INSTAGRAMMING: With super-saturated cocktails and paint-splattered chocolates by Brandon Olsen on the menu, there is no shortage of inspiring props to incorporate into your #nailart shots.

556 King St W  416 546 4991  Mon-Tue 9-8, Wed-Sat 9-10, Sun 10-6


— For fashionable food  —

Leña

The former lobby of downtown’s historic Hudson’s Bay building is reimagined as a grand dining room at Saks Fifth Avenue‘s Leña (176 Yonge St), dreamed up by The Design Agency. The space fuses art deco influences with contemporary restaurant design trends, including orb-shaped lighting. Glass globes hang suspended from arcing brass arms as part of a custom chandelier, built into the room’s central column by the illumination pros at Viso.

DON’T MISS INSTAGRAMMING: That exotic animal print wallpaper you see on the way to the washroom? It’s the same pattern the restaurant’s chef, Anthony Walsh, had in his family home.

176 Yonge St  416 507 3378
Mon-Wed 7:30-11, Thu & Fri 7:30-12, Sat 10-12, Sun 10-3

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Okay, but it clearly is

For the first 16 years of my life, the bat cave at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)—a reconstruction of an actual cave in Jamaica—was among my favourite places in the city. The cave was decorated with cast stalactites and wax bat models, which hung from the ceiling and threw jagged shadows on the walls. A few other features imbued it with spooky verisimilitude: the drip-drip-drip sound effects, the mirrors arranged to create the illusion of infinite depth, the strobe lights strategically placed to make the shadows flutter. When I visited as a five-year-old, the bat cave scared me. When I visited as a stoned fifteen-year-old, it scared me even more. Then came the renovation.

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