In its first life, Ethel - 20th Century Living was a serious-minded store on Leslieville’s Retro Row with a focus on mid-century and collector pieces. Since Shauntelle LeBlanc, a former commercial interior designer who describes herself as a “collector at heart,” took over, it’s become a more playful, cluttered store, which migrated to Corktown in 2011.
Shauntelle’s focus is colourful, mid-century modern furniture and lighting that were fashion-forward for the time, and she describes the store as “Mad Men meets your best friend’s basement.” When she buys for the store, she says she always keeps its titular woman in mind. “I always think, would Ethel like it?” she says. “Because it does have to have a sense of humor.”
So who is Ethel?
“I always say, she’s your crazy aunt who travelled in her teens, she’s your grandmother who wears pearls to mow the lawn, she’s your crazy neighbour who swans about in a muumuu,” Shauntelle says. “Ethel is just the crazy lady who would have all this stuff in her house.”
