Connected by Design

Late last week, I spent a chilly (but thankfully dry!) winter’s night wandering around Vancouver’s Armoury District with a colleague. Dozens of stores in the neighbourhood were hosting a block party—complete with flutes of sparkling at tile store Ann Sacks, spicy chai at East India Carpets and goblets of red wine at Provide Design Gallery—and as we made our way from place to place, I was struck both by how reliably Vancouver’s design community turns up to support each other, and by just how much the neighbourhood has transformed over the last decade. And East India Carpets founder Ravi Sidhoo is the visionary who spearheaded the rebirth of that area into a true design destination—and a vibrant, lively community of independent businesses that we in the West are lucky to have.

You’ll find those shops, along with more than 100 others, in our first semi-annual WL Design Guide (page 45). It’s an all-in-one-place directory of the best design shops in Western Canada, from the top spots for sourcing a Maax bathtub to the savviest stores to get your smart home set up, stat. Whether you’re mid-renovation, planning a complete new build or still just dreaming of ways to update some small corner of your current home, the WL Design Guide is the perfect source to keep at your fingertips.

That Armoury District block party was also an excellent vantage point for seeing some real-world examples of the 2023 design trends we’ve highlighted in this issue (“Come Together,” page 25). Writer Barb Sligl spotlights the coolest ideas coming out of the world’s biggest furniture fairs, finally back in person again. My personal favourite? That would have to be the comfy “soft launch” look—and anyone who, like me, had the chance to take a block-party break in one of Brougham Interiors’ incredibly cozy sheepskin-covered lounge chairs would understand exactly why.