Condo designed from the floor up
A colourful carpet from Nepal proved to be the perfect inspiration for this cosy home
Some people find inspiration for their home decor while flipping through glossy magazines or watching television shows. Others are captivated by the natural environment and choose to match paint colours to arbutus bark or lime-green moss.
But partners Bryan Hoekstra and Kevin Barnard came up with their home’s colour and design scheme after seeing a luxurious, hand-knotted Nepalese carpet on the Jordans Furniture website.
“We fell in love with the pattern, even though the image was only this big,” Hoekstra said, holding his fingers inches apart.
“We loved the bright colours, especially as all our other homes were brown and beige. It just felt right immediately.”
The owners wanted to try something completely different in their new Duet condo in Victoria’s James Bay. The vibrant tones of the contemporary carpet — teal, magenta, poppy red, gold and off-white — were the perfect inspiration for accents in their suite, from cushions to dining chairs and accessories.
“We are not designers by any means, but we were really inspired by this carpet and wanted to keep things on a light palette, while introducing enough colour accents that it wouldn’t be too sterile.
“We realized we couldn’t fit a normal size carpet here and Jordans offered to have this one custom made in a proportionate size,” Barnard said. “So it was made in Nepal by a company we were told is socially conscious and uses no child labour.”
They completed the look with scaled- down furniture. This is the fourth home they have owned and their smallest by far at just 548 square feet — the smallest in the building is 479 square feet — but neither of them wanted a big house.
“We are getting to be 50-ish and looking at it practically, rather than being mortgage-poor, we wanted to find something small so we could go and explore the world,” Hoekstra said.
“We like things, but things are all they are. We kept a few special items and heirlooms and let the rest go. The bigger the house, the more stuff you collect.”
They were the first purchasers to buy a condo in Duet and knew exactly what they wanted, including lots of light — in their last place, the plants all died — and the ability to walk almost everywhere. The lifestyle is also appealing. “We could have bought a large place for the same price in Langford, but we didn’t want to drive into town every day,” Barnard said.
“We have a country atmosphere here, with lots of greenery and trees, but there is also a feeling of community when you walk in the evenings, whereas downtown, there are bar crowds and it’s noisy.”
They also thoroughly researched Chard Development, “and found they have done several buildings in Victoria and they have a good reputation, so although we bought on paper, we felt safe,” Barnard said.
Initially, the new owners had a hard time finding a store in Victoria that sold smallish furniture that wouldn’t crowd their new space. All the sofas they saw were excessively deep, which they see as a space waster in a confined area, and they wanted pieces with low backs and narrow armrests that wouldn’t block the view.
“Friends in Vancouver have all kinds of access to shops, but there was nothing here a couple of years ago,” Barnard said. “Then suddenly, stores started bringing in smaller pieces and we found the perfect sofa and matching chair.”
After looking for almost two years, they also found a table and chairs at Scan Designs Furniture that didn’t take over the room, and fit in with the carpet-inspired colour scheme. They completed their living room with see-through, glass-topped tables and small white storage units from Ikea.
“We wanted the furniture to disappear so the carpet would be the focal point,” Barnard said.
The kitchen was a big selling point, as the owners’ previous one was so small they couldn’t cook together. Hoekstra likes the full-sized oven — “now we can cook a turkey, he said” — and the generous amount of cupboard space.
For the compact master bedroom, the owners hired Incredible Closets to build custom storage units that fit perfectly, as they couldn’t find suitable small pieces. They now have tailor-made end tables, a narrow bookcase and storage shelf at the foot of the bed, a wood panel headboard with shelf above, and hanging cupboards above the end tables.
The room has the built-in efficiency of a captain’s cabin on a yacht, and they found the cost reasonable — about $2,500 for all of the pieces installed.
Apart from their own condo, the owners’ favourite place to hang out — for yoga in the morning, reading, entertaining or barbecuing in the evenings — is the large rooftop terrace.
“It is like a bonus feature for us,” Hoekstra said, “because it was not even approved when we bought our unit. It’s wonderful. We ended up getting rid of our barbecue and we only use our own small balcony for plants now, because we don’t need a sitting area.”
Barnard said they intend to start growing vegetables, herbs and other edibles on their personal deck, too.