One of the first things Keenlyside and Attard did to make this Milan apartment their own was update the kitchen’s old cabinetry and moldy dishwasher. They installed black modular units under a stainless steel countertop from an aptly named company called Very Simple: Kitchen in Bologna. The rest of their address created a strong foundation that allowed Keenlyside to find connections between their budding Italian lives and all they left on the other side of the ocean.
“We changed every light fixture, which presented a very exciting opportunity for me to collect ones like Venini, Flos, and Mazzega from Facebook Marketplace, eBay, vintage stores, and the Navigli antiques market,” Keenlyside says. “It’s rare to find these sorts of fixtures back in Canada, and never so cheaply.”
Keenlyside positioned a vintage Poliform dining table in the large living space, beside the French Art Deco bar they found in Montreal that served as the site of their engagement. Their bedroom is large enough for a king-size bed, an armoire, and a rounded table where Keenlyside is getting her own creative production and design studio called Casa Yaya off the ground, while the den has a sectional that can turn into a bed. There’s color in nearly every corner, and history in nearly every thing—even if their distinct pasts don’t necessarily belong to Keenlyside.
“My favorite places to shop are antiques markets, and I’m lucky to live near one of the best, which happens on the last Sunday of every month along the Navigli canals,” she says. “I occasionally buy new items, like the Gae Aulenti coffee table and Bi-Rite rug in the living room, and the green sofa in the TV room. But almost everything else was accumulated from vintage sources.” A papier-mâché banana on the table next to the bookcase in the living room is from her former food-industry life in Toronto, while the brown plastic chairs in the primary bedroom are from the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Keenlyside gravitates toward color and interesting shapes, as well as objects that may have an interesting story or can be used in ways beyond what was perhaps originally intended. Long ago, before she even met Attard, Keenlyside lived in a beige home and vowed to never again. There’s so much more fun to be had in the kaleidoscope she’s created now.
“Interestingly, the dialogue between these pieces from both sides of the Atlantic somehow culminates in the form of the desk under the window in the living room, which I discovered was designed by Italian architecture collaborative BBPR, a company that also designed the Canadian pavilion at the Venice Biennale,” Keenlyside says. “It’s those sorts of quirky poetic collisions that give me real joy. In fact, I’d say that creating visual poetry between disparate objects and art is my design philosophy.”
