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Private commission; completed 2018

Interior design, retail space

Vancouver, BC

1500 SF  [139 SM]

Photography: Ema Peter Photography ©

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Out & About is a boutique retail store in Vancouver’s historic Gastown neighborhood. The store’s co-founders, friends: Cecilia, Sheila, and Angela, all share a love for Japanese culture. They exhibit and offer the fruits of their extensive travels throughout Japan, carefully curated with locally sourced products: a plethora of uniquely beautiful objects and wares for everyday life.

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Our approach to the store’s design was to provide a simple backdrop for these objects and future pieces.  The space is rendered with a reduced palette of white walls, wood floors, and wood-finished millwork. The millwork, composed of mobile displays, shelves, and a front counter, is finished in Douglas fir. Moreover, the new solid wood floors, also made of Douglas fir, were a feature of the original historic building.

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The existing stair, which connects to the lower level, was transformed by curving its guard; its bright red colour unites and celebrates the color of the store’s historic front door. As one descends the steps to the lower level, a perfect circle is inscribed into the stair’s sidewall to reveal the building’s masonry foundation from circa 1889; a gesture to the past from the present.