Old Hollywood. Those two words helped Peter Brooks focus his mind for the challenging project ahead. He and his team had 45 days to design and decorate a 1,200-square-foot condo, which was a bare white box with minimal amenities.
The condo in question was in the King Edward Hotel, which opened in 1903, and is rich with celebrity lore and early- and mid-century elegance. “I grew up in Toronto. I knew the King Edward,” says Brooks, the owner of BedfordBrooks Design, who, like many Torontonians was relieved when the storied monument was saved from the wrecking ball…
The building has many stories to tell, including the one about the bed-in staged by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1969. It now has 143 condos that share the building with the hotel’s 300 guest suites.
Brooks was lucky that this project, completed in March, 2013, was for Janice Rushford, a friend who had bought a condo suite in the building. He had worked on her previous home in the Beaches and she trusted him so implicitly that she decided not to get involved in his design process. There was no consultation, no swatches, no vetoes. “I could not see myself intervening. I would just be in the way,” says Janice, who works as a real estate agent in Toronto…
But she wanted a surprise. […] Janice says she would never have chosen such design elements as pink ceilings and is relieved that she left herself out of the planning to trust Brooks and his team to do what they do best. “I feel so privileged to live in this hotel and in this great building,” she says.
As for Brooks, he’s happy that the old Hollywood feel is still alive, not only in the King Edward Hotel, but in one of its condos.
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PHOTOGRAPHY: LARRY ARNAL / STYLING: PETER BROOKS
