A top-floor condo levels up its family-sized rooms with a view.
By David Lennam | Photos by Dasha Armstrong
In a city where condo towers are rising like crops, finding one that will accommodate two adults, children and a big dog is still a rarity.
So, when a three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bathroom penthouse unit appeared, it was something one Manitoba family couldn’t pass up. They wanted room to move around without getting in each other’s way. They wanted a new build. And they wanted a view.
What they got was more.
Wrapping around the top floor of one of Victoria’s tallest buildings, with over-height windows at every turn, this condo offers sweeping, 180-degree perspectives of the city and its surrounding wilds — Mount Baker, the Olympic Peninsula, Sooke Hills, the Inner Harbour and even an eagle’s aerie perch over the city.
But that remarkable view came with some sacrifices. Namely, inside the 1,761-square-foot vantage point.
The homeowner’s lament had to do with a particularly long interior wall that ran from the kitchen through the dining room, living room and on to the entrance of the primary suite. This, along with the uninspired white that was ubiquitous throughout the home — interrupted only by a steel panel covering the HVAC unit as well as an awkward double-door closet and a trio of very basic heating vents.
“I called it my ugly wall,” says the homeowner, who asked to remain unnamed. “The view is where you want to face, but you’re trying to configure the room and you just want to avoid it because there was nothing.”
Megan McKeage of Merge Design Studio admits she was a little shocked by the wall on her first visit to the penthouse and knew that’s where the biggest splash was needed.
“In this space, that’s their only wall to put anything on, and the rest is all glass,” says McKeage.
Her Merge partner, Evan Eunson, understood the complexities of the next steps — taming an out-of-control white-out.
“You’ve got the white columns, the white walls. The windows let all that light in and everything becomes really white,” he says. “Then that theme was carried through every room. White, white, white.”
Built in 2021, the 20th-floor condo features some high-end elements: three bedrooms, all with their own ensuites, a kitchen full of Sub-Zero, Wolf and Fisher & Paykel appliances, a generous laundry room, solid quartz countertops, walk-in closets and 250 square feet of premium outdoor space over two balconies.
The homeowner, who had some background in interior design, worked alongside the team of Merge, JMEL Interior Design Team and builder Maxwell Developments. Their discreet redo put heated floors in two of the bedrooms and solid oak doors throughout. There’s textured wood wallpaper in the half-bath. Closets were upgraded, custom millwork fashioned hidden storage spaces and, impressively, a feature-wall-sized headboard in the primary bedroom. These features wouldn’t be complete without dramatic dimmable LED strip lighting — all while navigating existing HVAC and fire-suppression systems that had to be worked around.
It is, of course, the main living space interior wall that’s the star of the show. What started off as 20 feet of uncreative drywall was given new life with a finish of white oak slats that sensuously curve around a mood-enhancing electric fireplace set in elegant Cambria quartz. At one end, the unwieldy French closet doors were replaced by a space-saving barn door. At the other end, the door to the primary suite rests hidden behind a continuation of those wooden slats.
“You have the foyer closet, the dining room, the TV and a bedroom access point all on that wall,” explains Eunson. “That’s why we kept the slats going right across, to not have all these breaks in the wall.”
And to play with something vertical against the wall’s long horizontal line. The designers managed to hide the HVAC system behind black mesh panels and make air grills disappear behind millwork. Subtle LED lighting just below the ceiling, and along the length of the wall, provides subtle ambience, day or night.
Reflecting on how the wall transitioned, Eunson says, before the changes, the wall felt too narrow and far too bright.
“Now the room feels bigger and way warmer and softer,” he says.
The homeowner loves the trendy, mid-century vibe of the slat wood style and the way it personalizes the room.
“Adding wood was something we wanted to do just to bring some warmth in here,” she says. “And a bit acoustically, too. It’s a long, rectangular building and you could get a lot of sound bouncing around before.”
Eunson says one of the difficulties was finding a space for everything.
“It’s not a very wide room, so how do we put in a fireplace, give some depth to the wall, but not encroach into the living space? You have to fit in a couch and chairs. It’s always a challenge to make things look seamless and fit in,” he says.
The homeowner says the design process was her favourite part of the undertaking.
“Sitting down [with the builder and designers] and going through all the different iterations… what are we going to do with this wall, for instance?”
The homeowner was aware of the limitations faced when carrying out condo renovations.
“You can’t put an addition on. It has to be an electric fireplace, we couldn’t do gas. You can’t move the HVAC or the sprinklers,” she says. “But, maybe, that ends up giving you better solutions because you just end up being more tightly focused.”
RESOURCE LIST
Contractor: Maxwell Developments
Interior styling: JOMEL Interior Design
Interior millwork design: Merge Design Studio
Millwork: Thomas Philips Woodworking
Electrical: Pacific Heights Electric
Paint/wallpaper: Brock Solid Paint Co.
Finishing/hardware: High Tide Interiors
Mechanical: Avalon Mechanical Consultants, Pinnacle Fire Protection
Plumbing: Oceanview Mechanical
Tiling: YMI Tiling Ltd.
Drywall: Alliston Interiors
