The City of Lougheed 9855 Austin Road Burnaby 500 homes in Tower One a 55-storey highrise by Shape Properties


Thursday, January 1st, 1970

Colour schemes include warm and sultry, dark and sexy or white and bright

Mary Frances Hill
The Province

The City of Lougheed

Project Address: 9855 Austin Road, Burnaby

What: 500-plus one-, two- and three-bedroom homes contained in Tower One, a 55-storey concrete highrise sited in the community’s first neighbourhood

Developer and builder: Shape Properties

Prices: Starting at $329,900 for one-bedroom homes

Sales centre: 9850 Austin Road, Burnaby

Centre hours: 10 a.m. — 6 p.m., daily

In the homes at The City of Lougheed, an enormous master-planned community to be built in Burnaby, designer Merike Lainevool has embraced the idea of the kitchen and dining space as the heart of the home and the hub of family life.

Lainevool has made her mark on the three kitchens in the huge display space in the Burnaby presentation centre, with two dominated by warm, sultry tones and one that’s bright and white.
Lighting and mirrors punctuate one kitchen that illustrates Shape’s “Cashmere Grey” colour scheme. Lainevool took her cues from a classic fashion piece for this look.

“When I think of cashmere, I imagine a perfect kitten-soft classic grey or beige cashmere sweater from France,” says Lainevool, design director who speaks on behalf of the Shape Living interior design team.

“We selected a uniform shade of the perfect warm grey for the floors and cabinetry, and then played with contrasting textures in both the architectural materials and the decor to create visual interest.”

In another kitchen, defined by the “Jet Black” colour scheme, the mood is even darker; the intent here, says Lainevool, was to give the room a sexy edge, but not without what she calls the kitchen’s “nerdy side.”

The shine that gives this dark room its appeal can be credited to the quality of the finishes, a super opaque laminate from Italy; the surface is opaque, anti-fingerprint and soft to the touch.

“It significantly reduces the bacterial load making its surface hygienic and easy to clean, all this making it both sexy and smart.”
Lainevool says going bold with a dominant dark shade was the right choice, as she introduced some touches of bronze, mirror and marble to temper the effect. Without these softer touches, the look could have come off as more severe.

“There is little risk in using one dominant colour when decorating a home – depending on the colour, it can be a bold or gentle approach,” she says.
“We used bronze mirror, marble with a lot of movement, silvery fabrics and hints of light and smoky lilac colours to create that sultriness and to soften and mix things up.”

The third kitchen, an all-white version labelled “Pearl White”, offers a palette ready to be transformed. “It will [act as a complement] to different décor styles from modern to traditional.”

Again, Lainevool is inspired by timeless fashion.
“In some ways, what we provide is the decor equivalent of the little black dress, something that can be accessorized a multitude of different ways and always look stylish.”

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