By Eve Thomas
Photography by Tyler McKeag
Rosalia Fazzari does it all. As the president and lead designer at Tapestry Decor, she heads projects from interior decorating to renovations to project management for new builds and sees them through from the first steps and sketches to the finest finishing touches—right down to the flower arrangements.
“I’m fortunate that clients trust in the process, in me, in my team,” she says from her Mississauga home, where she is, appropriately, transforming a roomful of white orchids and greenery into bouquets for a client’s project—a skill she says she picked up decades ago when she was making arrangements for weddings. “Making bouquets calms me. I get so excited working with clients when I know something’s going to work. They say I should have my own reality TV show. I say: ‘Okay, but it’s a comedy!’”
It’s this balance of lightheartedness and expertise, not to mention flexibility, that works so well in an industry that can be intense. “I try to make it all as stress-free as possible,” she says.
But there is one person Fazzari has to try especially hard to please: herself. She’s been in her Mississauga home for about 28 years, and it has been a work in progress the entire time. And while she has the skills and trusted vendors to transform any of her ideas into reality, she also has to contend with her own whims and desires (as well as those of her husband, who is a landscaper, though she says he leaves interiors up to her—understandably).
Though there’s not a room that’s been left untouched, there is one that she says is close to her heart: the kitchen. “It’s the starting point, the heart of the home.” Her father, a woodworker hailing from Italy, created it by hand some 27 years ago. “I designed it and he built it to perfection, all birch and maple, hardwood finish,” Fazzari says. When he saw its latest incarnation, he was impressed. “He said, ‘I made it timeless, but you gave it new life.’”
The latest revamp includes an island topped by a dark leathered granite slab, two-foot-by-two-foot porcelain tiles (replacing slate floors), warm grey paint, and glass-front cabinets. Though she admits it’s a smaller kitchen than she’d have created were this a new build—“I cook and I bake a lot; I could cook for a group of 50 here with my eyes closed”—it blends seamlessly into the family room it shares space with. “I wanted it to feel like furniture, not sterile,” Fazzari explains.
This includes the fireplace nearby, which was adjusted to complement the kitchen, including swapping out the same slate used previously. Now, individual tiles create an almost optical illusion against the wall, something like greyscale lenticular art. “If I had to describe my taste, it would be very eclectic,” Fazzari says. “Each piece tells a story.” This is confirmed by the dining room, which boasts another testament to her hosting skills (not to mention Italian heritage): a floor-to-ceiling Prosecco wall, with bottles of bubbly gleaming between the glass and the lights.
Steps away, the jewel-box-sized powder room has been a particularly popular site of experimentation for Fazzari. Today, it has a Zen vibe, with a black toilet and sink, and backlit wood slats. But she notes that it has had many previous looks, including whites and florals.
Another favourite change downstairs is the new sitting room, which was once closed off. “I hated the fact that when you walked in, there was a wall.” The space now welcomes guests, including her adult children, for coffee, cake, and perhaps a tune or two on the baby grand piano, which is painted silver.
Upstairs, one of the bedrooms was recently converted into a home office after her son moved out (“They couldn’t believe how quickly we did it,” she says with a laugh.) In the breezy master bedroom, custom wall cabinetry frees up the room from bulky furniture, and one panel hides a secret: a door leading to the ensuite, complete with light marble and a curved white soaker tub.
When asked how long these renovations took, Fazzari cannot offer an exact answer because, to her designer’s eye, every nook and cranny is full of potential. Even as she works, she says she changes as she goes, tweaks ideas, or chooses a new paint. And, while touches of her clients’ homes can be found in her house—and vice versa—because she’s her own client, there’s no set timeline. But there is one thing all her projects share: a mix of form and function. “Everybody uses every space in this house,” she says, once her home tour is done. And with clients? “I listen to their mood and what they want, try to elevate their home but not make it so trendy that it won’t last.”