Trove: A New Toronto Treasure to Add to Your Wellness Routine

It may look like I’m donning a bulky space from my midriff down, but the rhythmic air compression pulsing and expanding in the oversized bottoms is more comforting (almost like repeated hugs to my legs) than anything else—even if the pants are a bit restrictive. These high-tech bottoms use compression technology to work on lymphatic drainage, which I know my tired runner’s legs will appreciate. I feel my eyelids getting heavy as the compression does its work so I focus on the IV lounge, where a handful of women surround a modern floating fireplace as free-radical-fighting glutathione drips into their bloodstream as part of their IV drip therapy session.

This dimly lit space we’ve all escaped to for a few hours is Trove, Toronto’s newest wellness destination, which offers a wide range of modalities. As well as IV drips and compression therapy, there’s massage therapy, osteopathy, reiki, and naturopathy. The entire space is shockingly quiet, considering its location on busy Adelaide Street West near Spadina Avenue, and the deep-charcoal walls, cozy fireplace, and minimalist aesthetic make it feel more like a cocoon than a clinic. As you step deeper into Trove, which is almost disorienting, its darkness and serenity in contrast to downtown buzz just outside, you’ll stumble upon a red-light therapy room, a private sauna and ice bath in another, and a cozy salt cave.

Founded by two women who’ve known each other since high school, Tanya Kololian and Zoë Paliare, Trove came to be after their own wellness experiences over the past few years as the now-business partners found themselves dashing around the city to get their treatments. Then, two and a half years ago, the two friends chatted and realized they had the same vision of creating a peaceful retreat in the city and offering a broad range of treatments under one roof. “We wanted to create a space for people to access all of it and to help make it easy for people to make wellness a priority for themselves,” Kololian says.

The services, they insist, shouldn’t be mistaken as trend-driven, though. “One of our mottos is ‘It’s a place where science meets magic,’” Kololian says. “There’s science behind everything that we do—it’s important to us that there’s research behind everything that you would come into Trove to experience.”

Launching with what they feel is a conservative footprint of 5,000 square feet (“with all of our offerings, our footprint could probably be closer to 10,000 square feet,” Kololian says), they worked with Future Studio to bring the brand vision to life in the design of the space. “We really wanted people to feel like they’d left the city and entered another space where every element plays into regulating the nervous system,” she says. The design is meant to feel gender neutral compared to the plethora of wellness spaces that skew feminine.

The result? From the moment you step into Trove, the design diverges from a typical health and wellness experience. With no formal reception desk, for example, the conventional receptionist and patient boundaries are dissolved, says Ali McQuaid of Future Studio. The designer focused on using organic forms and a natural palette to enhance a sense of tranquility and serenity, from the darkness of the meditation room to the radial seating surrounding a floating fireplace in the IV lounge.

For the lounge, Future Studio worked with Trove to custom design the chairs, focusing on ergonomics to create the most comfortable IV experience possible while also addressing privacy. “Each set of IV lounge chairs is enveloped in custom curved drapery extending floor to ceiling to allow for privacy within the communal space,” she says. For the meditation room, the design team chose a soft muted black for the walls and ceiling “to allow guests to be completely present in their bodies, undistracted from the surrounding environment,” McQuaid says. Another subtle feature making the treatment rooms feel warm and welcoming, while also being functional, was enveloping them with warm acoustical drapery, which not only helps muffle sound but also adds softness.

Although Trove’s doors just opened last month, both Kololian and Paliere are already thinking ahead to expanding with more locations. “It’s our intention to scale and open many more locations, but not with each location being a cookie cutter of the location before it,” Paliere says. “One of the things that’s special is the magic that each practitioner brings. We recognize that and want to let them each do what they do best and help people unlock the hidden gems within.”

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