Breakfast at the Manulife Centre

The weekly micro-decorating newsletter * Issue 1 of 13, F23 *
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September is when the Great Indoors beckons. The imminent drop in temperature and earlier nightfall mean our days of carefree living under the open sky are almost at an end.

It's hard not to dread the looming confinement, especially with the pandemic's housebound endurance test barely in the rearview mirror. If you live in a small space like I do, the feeling of resistance can be especially acute.

Thankfully, I've discovered a trick for overcoming that autumnal sense of entrapment. It's possible to adopt a room in your home's vicinity and consider it your own. Your environment is teeming with underloved spaces that are waiting for you to take them under your wing.

For a few years now, the room that's become an extension of my studio apartment is the south end of the Manulife Centre, where café tables congregate around a set of escalators, and the essentials of life are within reach – coffee, books, booze, movies, groceries, flowers, and a whirling array of Torontonians in their finery.

Giant billboards around the shopping concourse mask vacant spaces with seeming come-ons to teen-aged influencers, but the actual population here is far more diverse. You're more likely to find older adults gliding along with walkers and perfectly-coiffed pets, making excursions from the apartment tower above.

On weekend mornings, it's become my routine to sit here with a coffee, a breakfast sandwich, and a newspaper, and slowly inhale the sensation of being alive. It's an hour of perfection that makes my week. While present, I'm convinced the space adjoins my kitchen, forgetting there's three blocks in between.

There's something about the proximity of luxury objects, like three-hundred-dollar jeans at Over The Rainbow, that give me a fleeting sense that nothing could possibly go wrong here.

And then there's the bookstore, a fantasy home library, presided over by a black-and-white goddess whose gleaming eyes demand a moment of genuflection:

Thank you, Heather, for your beneficent choices. Your interior design section is my final stop for some last-minute mind expansion before heading to my actual home:

Thinking about adopting a room yourself? Here are three rules I suggest you abide by to get it right.

Make it aspirational

What's missing in your home? What space would you add if you had the renovation budget? Let your answers to these questions be your guide in adopting a room that's just right for you.

Select from nearby

It's fine to say I. M. Pei's Pyramid at The Louvre is part of your living room, but if you hardly ever visit Paris, it's more of a theoretical addition. Choose something within walking distance and you'll be likelier to succeed in truly enlarging your home.

Keep it a secret

Yep, I'm breaking this rule by writing this newsletter – but if you're reading this, you're one of a special few. Staying silent about the room you've adopted, and why, is sure to make the bond of affection more powerful. Enjoy the extra space without boasting about it and you'll appreciate it even more.

From the archives

My hometown Toronto is often the spark for new editions of guy with an eye. Check out these back issues, now available to subscribers only:

• Public transit doesn't have to be a snooze. Find out how this TTC entrance can transform your interior.
• As a downtown pedestrian, all you need to do for excitement is look up. Discover how to bring architecture home.
• Want to steal some interior inspo from condo lobbies? Learn how in this article in praise of mystery living rooms.

Also, in case you missed it, I wrote about the grocery store in the Manulife Centre back in July. Explore why choosing the slow lane is a good idea.

Thank you for reading.