Showcase for efficiency and luxury
Mary Frances Hill Units feature plenty of kitchen, bathroom storage for those used to more space
City views from North Vancouver’s Promenade at the Quay highrise community may well convince empty nesters to consider the attractions of condo living, while Celia Dawson and the design team from Polygon Homes have created interiors that cater to their needs for practicality and safety within a luxurious space.
In considering the needs of a demographic accustomed to a good amount of space for their belongings, Dawson and her team offered ample storage in the kitchen and bathrooms.
The designers also took special care to craft spa-like bathrooms, which have bench seating and builtin niches in the showers, lighting around the bathroom vanities and medicine cabinets behind the mirrors.
“Soft glow lighting is important for night bathroom use,” says Dawson, the developer’s senior vice-president of design. Dawson says she and her designers listened to past buyers before drafting plans for the bathrooms.
“Customer feedback was, in part, why we created such a luxurious shower in our homes,” she says. “We have created a spa-inspired shower with the ceiling shower head, plus a hand-held shower wand. We incorporated bench seating for comfort and shower niches for storing bath products. Using the same marble for the floor and walls also adds to the luxurious spa experience.”
Much like other display suites it has designed, Dawson’s team transformed a wall into a stellar highlight of the open-concept area; it isn’t so much a canvas for decorative pieces as it is a decorative piece itself. In the living room, tall, narrow shelves bookend a large TV screen, which takes a prominent position in the room. Dawson says the key here is to create a focal point defined by the symmetry of the side bookshelves, while the lighting adds softness.
“The LED light strips underneath each bookshelf highlight the accessories on the shelf, as well as add a soft ambient glow to the room,” Dawson says.
Polygon has built a pure white kitchen that’s a clean canvas, free of adornments and artifice, inviting visitors to look closer at the details and finishes. Dawson says the integrated cabinet door panels housing the fridge, a pullout pantry and a dishwasher add to the uniformity in this contemporary look.
The marble backsplash adds warmth and contrast to the white finishes, so the kitchen doesn’t look like it interrupts the open-concept space. Rather, it’s part of a continuous flow in the room, taking on the look of millwork to fit seamlessly with the living room.
“The white kitchen cabinets lend themselves to clean millwork that does not compete with living areas, but works and lives with them,” Dawson says.
“It is important to keep the kitchen clean, simple and uncluttered so that it becomes furniture and millwork that works with formality of living space.”