Hi, I’m Ayanna, pronounced I-anna.
I’m a Blogger and Designer. My work focuses on empathizing with everyday people to create the things they need, love, and use repeatably. I pay attention to everything from the objects they use, what they do with them, and what it all means when it’s brought together.
I’m passionate about architecture, interior design, sustainable living, good food, art, and people watching while I eat brunch. I’m also a part-time artist, photographer, and chef (wink, wink) – when I’m not watching an unhealthy amount of Netflix. When I’m not strategizing and designing, I’m searching for unique homes that buck traditional living trends, creating new recipes in my kitchen, painting, reading, running around Toronto trying the latest eats, admiring what remains of our historic architecture while scouting the latest finds with my Shiba Inu, Nahla.
Like many people, I love beautiful things, but everything in this world comes with a price. With the rise of fast fashion and fast design, we’ve been taught that value for money is equal to the lowest possible price. It’s easy to forget that we end up paying a higher price later; affects on our environment, the people who make the things we use are paid below a fair living wage, we push architects, builders, and designers to cut costs for pretty things rather than safe, solid designs, and we purchase cheap clothes and furniture that fall apart only to purchase them again – just to name a few. In the end, cheap is expensive.
I’m not perfect, and I don’t expect you to be either, but we can make a difference. It’s essential to push ourselves to do things differently, and that’s what I aim to do with the content we share on Roost & Frill. We share humorous take on serious home design, interior design, fashion, and lifestyle to help you create the life you want based on who you are now and who you want to become all while keeping sustainability and community in mind. We want to help you strive for progress, not perfection. After all, you can’t be all the good in the world, but the world needs all the good you can do. Be true to you, choose well, and make it last.
Sebastian is the principal owner of Clovis & Co. Contracting, the host of HGTV Canada’s Save My Reno, and public speaker who regularly appears on The Marilyn Denis Show and the Canadian home show circuit. With his list of ever-growing projects, we’re fortunate to have on our team.
Sebastian believes everyone should strive to understand the mechanics of their home, tackle home improvement projects, and understand when its necessary to call in the professionals. He is passionate about helping people understand the intricacies of home renovation and its affect on the environment, so they can make informed decisions and build homes that fit their lifestyle and needs. His charismatic smile, passion for building, corny jokes, and love of a flower-patterned t-shits help him engage and inform the audiences around the world.
Robyn is our editor, history buff, and book aficionado. By trade, she’s a Design Researcher and Ethnographer who spends her time deeply understating people. At Roost and Frill, she uses her love of history and human-centred design to help us connect the dots between the way people think and how they use their spaces in their day-to-day lives.
When she’s not dissecting how humans behave and live, she can be found taking long walks with her dog, Sol, reading a good book accompanied by a flavourful glass of Malbec and some very stinky cheese – like a true Montrealer, or binge-watching the latest Netflix series. She is passionate about traveling the world, exploring everything from food and history to architecture, and sharing that knowledge with others.
Article is a small design company based in our home city, Toronto. They create tailored online experiences and are the creative brains that helped me develop the Roost & Frill website. If you love what you see here, feel free to send them a shout out on Twitter, and if you bump into any bugs, you know who to blame.