Western Living Magazine
The Room: 3 Beautiful Home Offices Designed to Make Work Feel Calmer
6 Homes with Custom-Made Dining Tables
The Vancouver Custom Home Builder Crafting Legacy Homes Since 1980
Recipe: Mini Egg-Topped Cream Puffs
Vancouver Chef Vikram Vij’s Indian Chai Tiramisu (A Coffee-Free Twist on the Classic)
9 Dishes That Are Perfect for Date Night at Home
Cowichan Valley Travel Guide: Farms, Wineries and Food on Vancouver Island
5 Reasons to Visit Osoyoos This Spring
Tofino’s Floating Sauna Turned Me Into a Sauna Person
Spring 2026 Shopping List: Western Canada’s Best New Home Arrivals
The Hästens 2000T Is the Bed of All Beds
“Why Don’t Towels Stretch?” Herschel Co-Founder’s New Home Goods Brand Rethinks the Towel
WL Designers of the Year 2026: Meet the Furniture Judges
WL Designers of the Year 2026: Meet the Interior Design Judges
WL Designers of the Year 2026: Meet the Architecture Judges
The trick to this look? Just pretend it's not actually a basement.
Though this open-plan room is windowless and has a typical basement-height ceiling, it feels anything but cramped. Calgary designer Nam Dang-Mitchell installed grasscloth wallpaper to give the space warmth and luxury, used white furniture to keep the room bright and added a gallery wall (a framed collection of pages cut from photography books) to visually break up the expanses of boring drywall. But what really transforms the room is the Edison-bulb chandelier: not something you see in many basements. “Anything that gives variety and adds some depth is a good idea in a blank box like this,” says Dang-Mitchell.
The editorial team at Western Living loves nothing more than a perfectly designed space, place or thing: and we’re here to tell you about it. Email us your pitches at [email protected].
Are you over 18 years of age?
Get the latest headlines delivered to your inbox 3 times a week.