Monday 9 July 2012

A peek at Seth's latest venture: the Crown Barber Shop

He's had his own solo-show at the Art Gallery of Ontario, built a scale-model of the fictional city of Dominion out of cardboard, and once designed a float for a parade. So what could be next for the man called Seth?  

As it turns out, for the past few months he's been hard at work designing a barber shop for his wife, Tania Van Spyk. The Crown Barber Shop, which had its grand opening in Guelph, Ontario this past Saturday, is a sleek homage to the traditional two-chair barber shop -- and fits perfectly into his general mission to remake the world around him.

Located at 219 Silvercreek Parkway in a suburban strip mall the monarchist-inspired shop (a portrait of Kind Edward VI hangs inside) is trademark Seth, as can be seen by the monocle-wearing cartoon king that adorns the front window. 
 
According to Seth, he wanted to have a large king's head installed on the roof, but city by-laws prohibited it. Dang.


Inside the two-chair shop is tasteful, crisp - and surprisingly modern. Just look at those globe hanging lamps and blue-and-white linoleum tiles. 



And is that a custom-made King mascot figurine I see on the shelf? 


According to Seth this little fella is "The Secret King of Guelph." On the shop front his royal seal (of course) states "By appointment to his Majesty the Secret King of Guelph."


Nice job refurbishing those old barber chairs, too. 
 

The whole operation is a tasteful homage to the work-a-day, common-man barber shops that I used to go to with my Dad when I was a kid. Sophisticated, but welcoming: the perfect place to spend 15-20 minutes browsing ancient magazines (which raises a question: how old will the periodicals in this place actually be?)

 

Before I sign off, here's a shot of the space before Seth got his hands on it:

Uggggh!

If you're in Guelph, I encourage you to swing by and say Hi to Tania. She's a real swell gall who has been planning for this day for years and I wish her all the best with her new operation. 


2 comments:

John MacLeod said...

Well, Guelph is "The Royal City", after all, so...

My childhood barber shop had, besides magazines, a big stack of old comic books and Sunday-funnies newspaper sections. Word to the wise.

Brad Mackay said...

A-ha -- The Royal City indeed.
I recall my childhood shop having all of that, and a stack of Playboy magazines (that were carefully stashed away in the broom closet).