“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. Meanwhile, their traditional, limestone-clad building didn’t offer an express lane. Strict renovation rules—and limits on construction noise—meant existing marble-lining floors had to be quietly chipped away by hand to make way for wood paneling. 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.”
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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.” For the family’s new home, Daviau says she wanted to lean into warm tones, eclecticism, one-of-a-kind art and objects. “Morgan Daviau loves a more old-world aesthetic mixed with modern vibes; she likes intricate details,” says Llaneza. “She would be in Venice and send me a photo, and I would run with it.” The floor in the entry hall, for example, was influenced by one the couple admired in a Milanese boutique.
While the designer and Daviau dove headlong into decisions about finishes, materials, colors, and rare art and objects—custom Venetian plaster walls; a Breccia Pontificia-clad mantel; a custom Murano chandelier by 6:AM; a Pierre Augustin Rose daybed—the husband had his own set of specifications. Given his height, he requested higher wardrobe racks to keep shirttails from pooling, along with a raised kitchen range hood for adequate clearance. As an avid cook and gardener, he wanted heat lamps on the terrace near his grill and herb garden. A frequent traveler, he asked for valet rods and a built-in closet bench outfitted with a shoe polisher and watch winder to streamline packing. And, most critically, a sofa that belonged to his recently deceased father needed a place of prominence in the office.
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From the start, Llaneza and her clients fell into an easy, efficient rhythm, whereby the designer would meet them on site to make final decisions. That wasn’t always the end of the story, however. Often Daviau would push the team to go a bit further. After four rounds of plaster in the primary bathroom, she thought the walls were still missing an old-world depth and patina. To everyone’s relief, the fifth iteration, with a whisper of a darker stain, was the winner. “It’s not about us; they’re living there,” the designer says without a whiff of ego. “I want to maintain the idea and the essence that we were there, but we leave and they live.” For Llaneza, that’s the quiet victory: A home that carries her hand, but ultimately belongs to the family—layered, lived-in, and ready to evolve with them.
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