Resident: Drew Bowden, 46, makeup artist
Space: Bachelor suite
Location: Bloor-Yorkdale
Price: Rented
Sitting in Drew Bowden’s high-rise, with its sunny ambience, oversized furniture and Hawaiian music lolling in the background, you can easily forget the Toronto skyline of slate and concrete hanging grey outside his window.
“I don’t want to incorporate that when I’m here,” he said, “This is my escape, my own little world.”
Bowden’s world mimics the times he said he feels happiest — traveling. He’s vacationed at resorts and tried backpacking, but found his locale of love on a Hawaiian cruise, taken by the water, hills, colours and people he encountered.
“When I came back, I wanted to incorporate that in my everyday living,” he said, “Wherever you look, it’s all sea and sand, so those are the colours I chose.”
Turquoise, aqua, beige, cream and pale woods colour his apartment, from the furniture, through dishes, to wall fixtures like starfish in the bathroom and seahorse wall brackets, hand painted to match the mirror they surround.
And it’s not just the island aesthetic Bowden aims to appropriate in his space, but the refreshing feeling of returning to a hotel room while traveling. “It’s all glamorous luxury and you can be whoever you want,” he said.
“I decorated my apartment to feel like I was returning to a hotel suite in Hawaii, on South Beach or to my ‘stateroom’ aboard a grand ocean liner bound for Europe!”
Going against the guideline to use small furniture in a small space, Bowden brought in a 31-inch-high queen-sized bed, cruise ship-like bucket chairs and modern chaise lounge chairs — all fashioned or custom upholstered to fit the ‘sea and sand’ theme — to provide a feeling of luxury.
He even heralds hospitality’s attention to detail with neatly folded white towels on metal shelves in the bathroom, an ice bucket with covered glasses in the main room and fresh flowers each week.
“You have to do that for yourself,” he said. “I come home every night and say, ‘I love my place’.”
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• Find Drew and his MAC Cosmetics team weekdays from 7:30 a.m. until 7 p.m. at MAC in Royal Bank Plaza, 200 Bay Street.
• If you think your home has the character for Your Space, tell us why at douglas.dunlop@metronews.ca.
