DECOR & DESIGN
It’s time to celebrate the glam room
The man cave is commonly recognized as the male sanctuary in a home, and now the glam room is quickly becoming the place where women enjoy a space of their own. A glamorous dressing room designed to be a sanctuary for its (usually female) owner, the glam room is a place to relax, reflect (on both life and one’s literal reflection in the mirror) and get ready to face the world — like a celebrity, no less.
“We’re obsessed with stars and how they live, and I think everybody wants to have their own stardom — their own moment of glory,” said Richard Ouellette, a designer and the co-owner of Les Ensembliers, the Montrealand Toronto-based business which combines a design agency, an architectural firm and a construction company.
“And you need that special place that makes you feel special.”
Ouellette and fellow co-owner and architect, Maxime Vandal, were chosen to design a glamorous dressing room as part of the 44th Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse project where, each year, renowned interior designers are selected to transform a luxurious home in Manhattan in order to raise funds for disadvantaged youth in the city of New York.
“Instead of the traditional dressing room with hanging closets, what we created was an antichambre with a boudoir,” Ouellette said. “We wanted the owner to feel like she was in a jewel box and could do whatever she wanted — get dressed, read a book or relax — because it was her sanctuary.”
Interior designer Victoria HayEllis partially credits celebrities like the Kardashians — whose million-dollar mansions have extremely large, and luxurious, glam rooms — for their rise in popularity, but said they’ve actually been around — off and on — for hundreds of years. With more women working, they ’ve simply come back into favour again.
“For women with hectic lives, having your own glam room is like having a sanctuary,” Hay-Ellis said. “Every day starts off right when your favourite clothing and makeup are perfectly organized, and a comfortable chair awaits you.”
While organization is definitely a big appeal, the owner of Simplespace, a custom-closet design and manufacturing company, says glamorous dressing rooms are actually more about making things look beautiful than they are about maximizing space.
“Instead of downsizing, we’re seeing a lot of empty nesters converting their extra bedroom into that dream walk-in closet that they always wanted,” Cynthia Hyde said. “It’s a time to enjoy their things, instead of squish them all away.”
For a glam room to work, Maxime Vandal said one has to design it as if it were a real room, not just an upscale closet.
“Though the main purpose of the space is storage, it’s still a multifunctional room,” he said.
“Using a Pax system from Ikea, installing it to size, and adding some really nice fixtures from somewhere like Anthropologie can give you the feel of a custom design,” Vandal added. “The right hardware can make anything feel luxurious.”
Some of Hay-Ellis’s essentials for a glamorous dressing room include good lighting, marble floors and/or
countertops, comfortable seating, luxurious wallpaper, and mirrors — lots of mirrors.
“Avoid overhead lighting above mirrors, which will cast unwanted shadows, and remember that sapphire glass mirrors are used in the most luxurious of glam rooms because they ensure a flawless reflection,” she said.
Hay-Ellis also suggests using fabrics like velvet, faux-fur and tufted upholstery to add a luxurious feel,
as well as a cosy carpet.
Ouellette, meanwhile, said it’s all about the shine.
“Finishes in lacquer, in black and white, as well as gold and pink gold are really trendy right now, and they definitely add the glitz and glamour.”
“The first step is to have a custom closet designer come to your home and help you figure out what you need,” Hyde said, in describing the process of creating a glam room; she also recommends using LED lighting, glass shelves, crown mouldings and an island to help create the sanctuary.
With a lot of new condo developments including closets that act as passageways to master bathrooms, the time for the glam room has never been better, said Hyde, and Vandal agrees.
“In terms of space planning, we do a lot of projects where the closet is used as the antichambre,” he said. “It acts as a nice buffer between the private and public spaces.
“If you think about condos, it’s a great way of pushing the bedroom towards the exterior wall, where the windows are — and using a part of the space where the ceilings are lower and there’s less natural light as transitional.
“It can really contribute to the space.”
Finishes in lacquer, in black and white, as well as gold and pink gold are really trendy right now, and they definitely add the glitz and glamour. RICHARD OUELLETTE