Award-winning transformation of Yaletown penthouse suite

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Designer Laurel James integrated quite a few twists alongside the best way

Printed Oct 17, 2024 • Final up to date 4 days in the past • 4 minute learn

On this Parisian-style apartment, the owners’ furniture–in white and cream with touches of royal blue–add a regal contact to the trendy setting. Trim particulars run behind a set of floating cabinets, breaking design guidelines so as to add an surprising twist. Photograph by MK Photograph/Media

Designer Laurel James sums up the combo of recent and conventional ending on a latest apartment undertaking as “cheeky”—with design twists that defy conference. Owners Ioana and Matt Hastings view the fashion extra as Paris-inspired.

However each agree it feels distinctly theirs. “We needed to make the area extra ‘us,’ in order that whenever you stroll in, you are feeling such as you’re transported some other place,” Ioana says. “Slightly than a builder-basic Yaletown apartment, we needed it to really feel like a recent Parisian condo…with a juxtaposition between the outdated and the brand new, which may be very a lot what Parisian inside design is all about proper now.”

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James, director and principal of Novell Design Construct, had overseen renovation of the couple’s earlier dwelling—one other Yaletown apartment—so she knew their tastes getting into. “These are younger professionals, they usually’re form of self-described outdated souls. They actually needed a designer to understand that about them, and work with the constraint of this actually fashionable shell, however try to give them one thing distinctive inside,” she says.

Off the highest, that meant trying critically on the apartment’s format. “It was lots of asking: ‘What does the area need to be? What does the structure say?’” she provides.

In the kitchen, cabinets painted Farrow & Ball Card Room Green with slim trim add a pop of colour against back-lit glass cabinets, and a Caesarstone quartz backsplash with recessed circular Bocci outlets. A matching quartz-topped island gives the illusion of a heavy slab, but is made out of five pieces with mitred corners. — Within the kitchen, cupboards painted Farrow & Ball Card Room Inexperienced with slim trim add a pop of color towards back-lit glass cupboards, and a Caesarstone quartz backsplash with recessed round Bocci shops. An identical quartz-topped island offers the phantasm of a heavy slab, however is made out of 5 items with mitred corners. Photograph by MK Photograph/Media

One less-than-ideal trait of the outdated floorplan was its tight hallways. “The primary time we walked the area, there was a really distinct hallway with doorways to all of the non-public areas—a hallway filled with doorways,” she recollects. To deal with this as a part of the redesign, James reoriented the entire area, giving as a lot sq. footage as attainable to the primary rooms.

Entry to a secondary bed room moved to off the eating room, as an example, and a bed room closet opened as much as enable extra direct entry to the first suite. “It grew to become a problem of turning over hallway area to usable area, and decreasing the variety of doorways,” James says.

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However there have been nonetheless a number of doorways off the entry corridor that they needed to downplay. James and her staff managed this by “forgetting the doorways had been there”—visually talking—and working trim and baseboards proper over prime.

“We’re not attempting to trick anybody that the door is just not there. We simply didn’t need to draw consideration to [them]. So we form of ignored conventional conventions,” James says.

With access relocated off the home's dining room via full-height reeded glass doors, a second bedroom became a flex-office space with a Murphy bed to sleep guests. — With entry relocated off the house’s eating room through full-height reeded glass doorways, a second bed room grew to become a flex-office area with a Murphy mattress to sleep visitors. Photograph by MK Photograph/Media

The result’s surprisingly subdued and gallery-like. “Whenever you stroll in with all these hidden doorways, and it’s very minimalistic and there’s a few artwork items on the wall, it form of has a moody gallery impact,” says Ioana. “I believe that’s in all probability my favorite design side.”

Equally, in the lounge, ornamental wall trim runs behind a set of floating cabinets, breaking with conventional conference within the identify of expression. “It virtually offers it this little pinstripe, a bit refinement to the sting,” says James.

One other cheeky twist is a ceiling alcove within the entry, initially sq. and utilitarian. James and her staff reworked it right into a round point of interest with a disc-shaped mild fixture, then performed off the form with an orb-shaped chrome wall sconce. Streamlined mechanical methods additionally allowed for increased ceilings and cleaner traces all through the condo.

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Now situated off the eating room, the house’s second bed room is a mixed workplace and visitor room, with a double-wide desk, a Murphy mattress to sleep visitors and full-height reeded glass doorways. New motorized shades drop down within the workplace and lounge to filter direct daylight that pours in by way of floor-to-ceiling home windows on the unit’s southern and japanese exposures.

The owners imagined a contemporary Parisian apartment when they planned their home renovation. — The homeowners imagined a recent Parisian condo after they deliberate their dwelling renovation. Photograph by MK Photograph/Media

In the condo's bathrooms, modern smoked glass and LED strip lighting complement back-lit mirrors and ribbed cabinet panels chosen for dramatic effect. — Within the apartment’s bogs, fashionable smoked glass and LED strip lighting complement back-lit mirrors and ribbed cupboard panels chosen for dramatic impact. Photograph by MK Photograph/Media

A modernized kitchen retains most of its unique footprint, with cupboards in Farrow & Ball Card Room Inexperienced including a playful punch of color towards backlit glass cupboards. James labored with Pacific Rim Cupboards so as to add a slim trim element, in an offbeat fusing of recent and conventional fashion.

And the place most open-plan kitchen designs would incorporate a waterfall-style island, the owners needed one thing chunky. So James and her staff went for a Caesarstone quartz field prime that offers the phantasm of a heavy slab, however is definitely made out of 5 items with precision-mitred corners. “We had been a bit nervous about potential deficiencies, nevertheless it turned out flawlessly as a result of our vendor did an incredible job,” James says.

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The couple moved in shortly after building wrapped up in 2022, and the undertaking has since received a Homebuilders Affiliation Vancouver award for Greatest Townhouse or Condominium Renovation underneath $300,000. It’s a degree of delight for Novell.

However so are the blissful purchasers. When James returned to the area for a photograph shoot, she was flattered to see a souvenir e book Novell had created to commemorate the couple’s earlier renovation on their bookshelf. “It was a proud second,” says James. “We had been simply tickled that they’d carry that with them.”

Design and building: Novell Design Construct

Millwork: Pacific Rim Cupboards

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