Vancouver’s brilliant Robert Ledingham is the first Canadian designer to win the International Interior Design Association Leadership Award, and has collected scores of other honours during his 30 years at the top of the interior design field. He was recently entrusted to create a visionary kitchen for a super-luxury condominium development at the University of British Columbia.
We know, this isn’t a kitchen makeover, but we believe Ledingham’s ideas are well worth stealing.
The residences at Intracorp’s exclusive Stirling House, just 10 in all and priced from $1.15 million to $3.6 million, are thought to define contemporary interior design in Vancouver.
In an interview, Ledingham explained, “I’m looking for the sort of materials that will have a timeless quality, that 15 years from now will still look good in the space.”
Kitchen makeover
This is the same concept that savvy homeowners should carry into their own kitchen renovations.
The first thing you notice in the sleek Stirling kitchen is that the refrigerator has disappeared in the open floor plan. The 36-inch Sub-Zero is hidden within the Varenna custom-designed flat panel kitchen cabinets.
Such top-of-the-line appliances define Ledingham’s desire for timeless quality. These include a Miele 27-inch stainless steel wall oven and stainless steel warming drawer, each with Profi handles. A Fisher & Paykel DishDrawer dishwasher tucks discreetly into the entertainment-style wet island, while a large Panasonic Genius Prestige Invertor stainless steel microwave oven is built into the cabinets. The range hood is a Cristal by Faber, a high-powered, three-speed model.
Kitchen makeover
All of the countertops are Quarella quartz composite stone, which wears extremely well and will not stain. The backsplash is a tempered glass panel that reaches to the underside of the cabinets.
The message from the master designer: design your makeover for the future with quality and clarity as your guides.