Inside a Toronto Apartment Where Getting the Plaster Right Took 5 Tries

""It almost killed me," laughs Toronto-based interior designer Clarisa Llaneza, reflecting on her recent overhaul of a full-floor apartment for Morgan Daviau in the city's Yorkville neighborhood. With her clients-a fashion and art enthusiast and her financier husband-expecting a child, the project came with a hard deadline: just one year to deliver a bespoke residence that embodied the well-traveled homeowners' discerning tastes."

""Fortunately, everyone involved was passionately invested in the aesthetic endgame. It also helped that Llaneza, who was introduced to the couple through art advisor Laura Mann, had already worked with them on their previous Toronto apartment and Muskoka lake house. A foundational sense for the clients' lifestyle and stylistic preferences not only obviated the need for cumbersome introductory design meetings, but it also allowed Daviau to take a deep breath and a back seat.""

"'I'll never do anything else ever without Clarisa,' she explains. 'On top of the fact it's been such a joy and pleasure, I trust her implicitly.' That mutual trust was invaluable as the clients proposed new ideas that Llaneza would consider before embracing, recasting, or delicately vetoing them. 'We are very concept focused, and yes, we pivot, but staying within the same direction,' the designer says. 'We want to stick to a thought because there's always going to be new, bright, shiny things.'"

Clarisa Llaneza completed a full-floor overhaul of a Yorkville apartment for longtime clients, delivering a bespoke residence within a one-year deadline while the couple prepared for a child. Strict building renovation rules required manual removal of marble floors to install wood paneling. Prior collaborations and an introduction via art advisor Laura Mann provided deep knowledge of the clients' lifestyle and aesthetic, reducing preliminary meetings. Mutual trust allowed the clients to propose ideas that Llaneza evaluated, recast, or vetoed. The project emphasized patient, concept-focused iteration, warm tones, eclecticism, and curated one-of-a-kind art and objects.

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