About Our Company
At Trellis Interior Concepts, we bring thoughtful design and quality furnishings to the shared spaces where multi-residential communities come together — lobbies, lounges, courtyards, and amenity areas alike.
Our Story
Trellis Interior Concepts was born in 2020, in response to a fundamental rethinking of floorplans and multifunctional furniture brought on by the rise of remote work and evolving employee needs. But our roots go back further — for years, we served the condominium sector as trusted consultants to Interior Design and Refurbishment firms.
That experience put us right at the center of a real challenge. When the City of Toronto updated its fire code in 2016, lobbies without sprinklers were suddenly required to replace their soft furnishings with either hard furniture or upholstered seating certified to CAL-TB-133 and/or ASTM-E1537 fire safety standards. It was this kind of hands-on problem-solving — helping buildings adapt without sacrificing style or comfort — that shaped who we are today.
About Trellis Contract — Our Custom Furniture Line
At the heart of our offering is Trellis Contract, our line of custom, exclusive furniture made in Canada by select manufacturers in the GTA, each selected for their specific strengths in commercial-grade craftsmanship. Trellis Contract is the place to find the biggest selection of furniture that's CAL-TB-133 Fire Lab tested, giving you complete confidence and compliance without compromising on design.
Only certain frames are tested with certain fabrics, but we are adding to that list, testing more designs every year. In the shop you can see which ones are tested in combination and are safe to purchase in order to pass TB-133. Read on to learn more about how it works
About Fire Ratings on Furniture
Only certain furniture pieces are tested with certain fabrics, but we are adding to that list, testing more designs every year. In the shop you can see which ones are tested in combination and are safe to order to pass TB-133.
To pass the CAL TB-133 or ASTM-E1536 flammability test, the entire piece must be burned, not simply its components. In order to pass the test, the pieces must be constructed in a special way, with flame-proof upholstery thread, a flame-proof barrier that encases the foam.
When upholstery foam burns, it can release highly toxic gases and greatly increase the heat and speed of flame spread, causing toxic and fatal hydrogen cyanide gas.
All of our pieces are manufactured using flame-retardant fabrics and solid frames, however this is not enough. We have tested our pieces in various combinations in controlled lab settings, and the only ones that pass are constructed in the specific way.
The additional components required for the TB-133 compliance add to the cost of each piece and that cost needs to be estimated separately.
All of our pieces are made with Fabrics rated to CAL TB-117, (Or in Canada, ULC-S109) however the fabric alone is not enough to make a piece non-flammable. In fact, just to prove this point and to see it with our own eyes, Trellis burned one of our pieces without the additional TB-133 construction protocols and it quickly overheated and burned with toxic flames before quickly receiving a “FAIL”!
Low flame-spread rated fabrics are NOT enough to protect residents in the case of a fire. Walking or running past a piece of upholstered furniture in active flames on the way out of the building can cause serious injury or worse.
The ratings for fabrics only are sufficient for drapery or non-upholstered fabric items. Additionally, chair and sofa frames must be made of solid wood or plywood, not particle board.
About Our Decor and Accessories
We offer full decorating services for your common areas, curating beautiful and stylish products that work together to elevate your space, including:
Rugs
Lighting
Art
Decorative accessories
Accent furniture
Outdoor decor and furniture
About the Founder
Samantha Angel has always believed that good design should meaningfully support the ecosystem of the people living around it — that it should add vitality and a sense of place. She got her start in the 1990s importing and designing home products through Echohome, a company she started with her then-fiance, when she was still in design school at OCAD in Toronto. Their eco-friendly, simple style was featured in magazines across the country, and they supplied thousands of retailers over the years. In 2012, she started Trellis Concepts to offer consulting services to the broader design business community, and that led to a specialty in the condo sector, supporting refurbishment and other multi-residential businesses.
Since then, Samantha served on boards of the Mississauga Arts Council and the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy land trust/ As a founding partner of Folio Interiors, she spent years immersed in the condominium world on the execution side, before deciding to come back to what started it all: designing and curating beautiful, functional pieces. The next chapter incorporates principles of biophilic design, which she believes is the future direction of interiors, encouraging well-being through natural elements.
