Welcome to Corktown!

We apologize for the lack of posts in the last month as we’ve been unimaginably busy! It’s been three weeks since we moved from Leslieville to Corktown and in that time, we’ve turned an abandoned cellphone store

(Storefront BEFORE)

(Front room BEFORE) 

into Ethel’s glamorous new home. We’ve been putting in 10-12 hour days to get it ready for our customers and we’re finally open for business. 

With the help of our contractor, our dear hubby, about 50 gallons of paint and lots of trial and error, we did the following:

• Removed the t-bar ceiling in the front part of the store, installed outlets for our big plastic ball light fixtures, and sprayed the ceiling a clean fresh white.
  
  (Spraying the ceiling took an entire day and over 10 gallons of paint!)
  
  
• We hung more of our favourite vintage wallpaper to give the front room some colour and we plan on using the scraps to use as pricecards (still trying to figure out the best way to do that)
• We removed part of the back wall and door to the back room, and cut and framed out three long narrow windows into the remaining wall to mimic the blocking on the logo. This opens up the whole space to retail and gives us lots of room for fabulous furniture.

• 
  (This wall used to be orange...now it's super cool!)
  
  
• We painted the front room back wall with a combination of stripes in the store colours and stained wood veneer, again, to mimic the logo.
• We removed all the cellphone poster brackets and screws from the walls, patched and sanded them and painted mostly everything white.
• We painted the side walls in the back room white, and the back wall a dark charcoal grey (Benjamim Moore Raccoon Fur). We also covered up a faux tuscan tile themed painted concrete floor in the back room with Glidden’s Slate Grey Porch Floor paint. We even threw in some sparkles for fun!
  
  
  

(hubby Dave painting the back wall)


• We installed a brand new (to us) marble cash counter with the help of some piano movers. The desk was from a closing condo sales office and we’re so happy to give it a new home!
• We hung our three vintage Swedish cased glass light fixtures (conveniently in the store colours) over the cash desk and hung them in the same staggered positions as the windows behind them.

(look at that sexy desk!)


• We painted and installed three high shelves in the front room to display lots of goodies
  
  
  
• We painted an existing plaster flower to match the wallpaper.
  
  
  
• We painted the exterior a combination of the same dark charcoal grey from the back wall, and Ethel’s very favourite colour, Tropicana Cabana by Benjamin Moore. We also had a new sign made by Leslieville’s legendary Ralston Bennett (the same fellow who painted our sign at our old store.

• 
    (The oval is gone but it's still Ethel!)
  
  
  Finally, we cleaned and merchandised the heck out of the new store, with some stuff from our old location and lots more vintage finds. We still have a few projects to tackle before the store is completely finished but for now, we’re excited to finally be open.

We think Ethel will be very happy here!

So come visit us at our new location, at 327 Queen St. East, between Parliament and Berkeley street.

See you at the store!