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An office and an oasis

story HARRIET ANN DY    photos STEVE UHRANEY As workspaces go, Cobi Ladner’s home office is easily a cottage disguised as a cubicle. The former editor of Canadian House and Home magazine and respected design expert, Cobi clocks in at a butter yellow Summerwood prefab building in her backyard. Commuting to work means walking out of her Port Credit home, up a flagstone path lined with solar lights tucked into tin watering cans, into the winterized studio. This touch of whimsy is a gentle introduction to what Cobi describes as her “fresh approach to life at home.” Inside her home office, whitewashed pine walls, cork flooring (“Better than tile; it never gets cold,” she says), a skylight, and built-in shelves reinforce the cottage feel. Old porch furniture –a white wicker loveseat– is spruced up with blue and white cotton and terrycloth throw pillows. A rattan tray with a vintage vacuum flask and crochet-wrapped glasses is set atop a marble-topped table crafted by a First Nation artist. An old wooden kitchen table salvaged from a flea market shopping trip doubles as her worktable. Underneath, an enamelled porcelain baby bathtub is reincarnated as an organizer. “Nothing is brand new,” she says of her office’s interiors. Nothing, that is, except for a large map of the world that covers a wall (an Ikea find) and Cobi’s many suggestions on how to infuse energy into common stuff. Her website, COBI, an acronym for a Collection of Beautiful Ideas www.cobistyle.com, is replete with advice on how to elevate everyday stuff to something special and surprising. Like the time she blogs about about mixing framed images of her kids’ artwork with family photos, salon-style, on her wall. Or, the Thanksgiving when she and her daughter, Charlotte, wrote guests’ names on maple leaves and used them as dinner place cards. Cobi uses old airline dishes as mini-organizers, and resurrects picnic baskets as containers to store paper bric-a-brac. Brightly coloured tear sheets and images fill up the inspiration boards that line the walls of her office. She is a big fan of adding splashes of colour to the home. “We’ve been beiged to death,” she has been quoted in a blog interview. She will spread this design philosophy in the upcoming fall launch of decorative accessories she developed with several companies. “Sometimes I feel like I am walking in a maze with a blindfold on,” she says with a laugh of her reinvention as a design consultant and entrepreneur. “My head is just spinning with ideas and details most of the time.” This is why having a professional home merely steps away from home is godsend. “The studio is a haven on the property,” she says. “My husband Bob and I come here when we need quiet time for work.” Though this has been mostly Cobi in the last three years, the studio was also where Bob spent many hours co-writing Relentless: True Story Of Man Behind Rogers Communications, the 2008 autobiography of the late media giant, Ted Rogers. These days, a photograph of Jack Nicklaus at St. Andrews, a gift to Bob from Ted, is a lone testament to days when Bob shared the office. Creative cave aside, working at the studio also allows Cobi to multitask work and being mom to Aidan and Charlotte. The main window looks out on the family’s 20 x 40 foott pool. She can watch the kids when they are in the water. Sometimes, the kids retire to the studio to do their homework with her. But the building is just one of the many elements that make the couple’s heavily treed backyard an urban getaway. In 2008, Cobi talked about her family’s big outdoor renovation project and had it featured in H & H magazine. Another building houses the pool house-slash-sauna. An old reclaimed window, backed with a mirror, is set against its front wall - a strong focal point especially if one walks out of the three-season porch area across it. The couple entertains a lot outdoors and a slate-topped, built-in barbeque, a fire pit and an outdoor ping-pong table reflect this passion. Indeed, for Cobi and her family, getting work done, or getting away from it all amidst an inspired environment is never too far away.  GL

ABOVE: Former editor of Canadian House and Home Magazine, Cobi Ladner is seen in her home office - a butter yellow, Summerwood prefab (below) in her backyard.