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From his split-level bungalow in Oakville, Kyle Turpin runs a showcase of vintage furnishings with fearless, declarative style

An origin story: in April 2021, amid another Covid lockdown and a painful break up, Kyle Turpin takes to Instagram and starts selling off pieces from his furniture collection or what he refers to as “the last reminders of a failed relationship.” His first post shows a tangle of tubular chairs and the teaser “coming soon”; a pair of Marcel Breuer Cesca-style stools was among his first sales. Demand leads to more sales, which leads to more sourcing, and now, four years in, to a full-time venture run out of his split-level bungalow in Oakville. With a background in retail and design honed as the former owner of the Queen Street West men’s wear store ACE/FIVE, he had a head start, always drawn to designs that stand out and stand the test of time. “I trust my eye and I know it when I see it,” he says of his visually arresting, occasionally oddball, finds. “I don’t play into any design language, I’m not partial to an era or a decade. For me, it’s a feeling. It might sound corny or cliché, but it is the absolute truth.”

Kyle Turpin, vintage furniture shop owner - Martha's Room
Kyle Turpin, vintage furniture shop owner - Martha's Room

Kyle Turpin, owner of Martha’s Room.

Accordingly, the inventory resists easy description, but it leans into Italian modernism from the 1970s and 1980s, experimental Canadian studio furniture, and light-toned tables and storage cabinets, often in burled wood or blonde maple. Some of the pieces are from hallowed designers like Frank Gehry or Milo Baughman, while others are unattributed. Serpentine sofas from B&B Italia, Roche Bobois, and de Sede are in steady rotation. Remarkably, all of it is found in Ontario. “I look in the same places as you do, I just look longer and harder,” he says. “I’m on Marketplace first thing in the morning, I’m on Kijiji, Max Sold, estate sales, I go to the Aberfoyle market in the summer. I’m just looking at all times. Until I can control the supply, the only way I can sustain any bit of supply or scale, is just by being scrappy. I’m everywhere all at once.”

vintage furniture shop in Oakville
vintage furniture shop in Oakville

“I trust my eye and I know it when I see it. I have a lot of trust and confidence in my taste, in doing things with conviction, and it’s well received.”

As Martha’s Room evolved, so, too, did his relationship to the pieces. At first, he focussed on things that he could flip quickly—“It was strictly arbitrage,” he offers—but as the market unfolded for high impact pieces, he saw value in the restoration side. All of the soft goods are now carefully reupholstered using a network of trusted tradespeople, and leather goods are reconditioned. He also collaborates with designers on special projects, recently working with Montana LaBelle to restore a theatrical Formentera sofa in a buttery brass velvet.

Martha's Room street posters
Martha's Room street posters

A street-style marketing campaign saw posters mounted in neighbourhoods and subways in Milan, New York and Paris.

It’s all still a deeply personal exercise. Martha’s Room is named in tribute to his late grandmother, who lived in his childhood home. Her room was a departure from the rest of the house, he says, and is remembered more as a feeling than a driving aesthetic. “Our house was very bare bones and practical and necessary. My father still has the kitchen table from that house, so we’re going on 30-something years. Needless to say, her room was different. I remember cool lamps. She had an oak bed and an oak side table, nothing too modern for the times, but certainly different from the rest of the home. We didn’t really cross the threshold, but when the door opened, you could peak in and get a glimpse into her life.”

There are parallels at work in his residential showroom. The lower level is organized like a viewing gallery, with current pieces stacked efficiently on floor to ceiling pallet tracks. Upstairs, he removed the wall between the living room and dining room to stage furniture more comfortably for photographing. Everything is for sale, nothing is permanent. His bedroom is his only personal, private space—Martha would approve.

~ As told by Rosemary Poole.

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