Photos: Inside Livingspace’s Whopping $2-Million Expansion

The revamp comes in time for the Vancouver retailer’s 30th anniversary.

Livingspace, one of Vancouver’s leading contemporary design stores and one of our favourite stops to find the latest in furnishings and home decor, has expanded its Armory District digs to include a fifth-floor showroom. It comes in time for its 30th anniversary of business in the city.

Formerly occupied by Vancouver- and Berlin-based designer Omer Arbel and his staff (who have since moved to Railtown), the space houses shop-in-shops for Italian labels Paola Lenti and Molteni&C/Dada, and brings Livingspace’s total retail footprint to a whopping 30,000 square feet. Fresh greenery has been introduced on the floor, and the ceilings have been left unfinished to mimic the environment that Paola Lenti creates during its showcase at the annual Milan Furniture Fair. The space also includes an outdoor area where Paola Lenti’s outdoor products are showcased.

“For the Milan Furniture Fair, Paola Lenti takesover this 40,000-square-foot, old-concrete warehouse and transform it into thisamazing outdoor experience with these trees and plants and all this furnituresurrounding it,” says Ross Bonetti, owner of Livingspace. “So we really wantedto try and replicate that experience.”

The design of the Molteni&C/Dada shop-in-shop follows a similar trajectory: the minimalist space, which is laid out like an apartment to showcase the brand’s kitchen, dining, living, and bedroom offerings, is “in theme” with the Molteni&C/Dada showroom in Milan, says Bonetti.

By relocating this shop-in-shop—as well as the Paola Lenti—products to the fifth floor, Livingspace is now also able to expand and revamp its existing shop-in-shops, offering shoppers more immersive design experiences. The Arclinea showroom on the store’s second floor is set to get a revamp, while additional space acquired next door will become an additional Molteni&C/Dada showroom that will be connected to the one on the second floor through a new staircase.

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A separate building situated just outside Livingspace’s front doors, which was previously used by Arbel as a design-and-production studio, has been converted into what Bonetti calls a “Roda by Livingspace” shop-in-shop. “This whole renovation has been like a domino effect,” he says. “The whole store has been renovated and remerchandised because everything has been shuffled around.”

Check out the images below for peek at Livingspace’s expansion and redesign before you visit IRL.