OPPOSITE PAGE: Once the dining room and living room were switched, the dining room became a more intimate eating space, with white chairs from Once a Tree Furniture paired with a cozy bench from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, neither of which distract from the view. THIS PAGE: Eyco Building Group opened up the kitchen to the rest of the living space, and then added custom teak cabinetry. “I love the architectural aspect of how it ended up looking,” Victoria McKenney of Enviable Designs says. “Very clean lined and sophisticated, but warm and inviting.”
unobstructed south- and west-facing windows to better views of False Creek, below. The trick with the finishings and the furnishings once the new layout was in place was to take a modern look that the clients asked for, but warm it up to make a cozy space. “They wanted a very contemporary-feeling space. Clean-lined with simple materials, but they also wanted it to feel warm and comfortable,” McKenney says. Achieving this all came down to a well-balanced, neutral color palette. Walls are gray, but they’re a warmer beige-like gray. Icy-blue, gray, and white furniture and accessories are warmed up with rust-colored blankets in the bedroom and wooden art in the living room. And the kitchen cabinets and island have a warm, brown teak veneer with visible
grain for texture, while the dark maple floors, which have a black opaque stain, help ground the entire palette. The use of texture also helped keep the space neutral but interesting. “It’s not all straight and linear, even though some of the components are,” McKenney says. “There’s a mixture of textures and shapes.” The main effect of keeping everything simple was that the focus is on the cloudlike atmosphere created by the overcast Vancouver days and reflections from the creek. Until the couple sells their Ontario home, their new condo is a restful pied-à-terre in the sky for weekend getaways. “We really feel like we are on vacation when we are there,” Joyce says. “Looking out at the water views from all rooms feels like you’re on a boat!”
GRAY ISSUE No. nine
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