This Moody, Masculine Calgary Home Takes Inspiration From an Unlikely Source

If this remodelled midcentury Calgary bungalow looks familiar, think back to your last shopping spree.

“I asked my clients about the dream vibe for the space, and they said, ‘loosely, we want it to look like a Tom Ford store,’” laughs interior designer Louis Duncan-He. Though it was a request delivered with the homeowners’ notorious dry wit, Duncan-He didn’t bat an eye: he took the retail inspo and ran with it into a sleek, chic masculine renovation that’s now a perfect home for the male couple living here.  

The brief itself wasn’t necessarily challenging, but bringing the vision to life in an existing space did put a little constriction on Duncan-He. “If you’re doing a renovation, you want to work with the inherent design of the home… otherwise, you may as well demo it,” he explains. “So the difficulty was: how do we work with the original elements and add to them or change them?” 

Duncan-He went through an audit with the homeowners to see just what big ticket features could stay and what needed to go. The brick? That stayed, but was painted black to match the walls. The existing flooring? Swapped out for light hardwood boards to create a light foundation for the dark elements that anchored the home. Walnut cladding in the foyer bridges the contrast at play here. “We’re always trying to create transition, to connect things together, even when they’re distinct or varied in style,” says Duncan-He. 

That walnut detail was inspired by the wood-clad den, which Duncan-He barely touched (save for the decor). “I thought having a part of the home that was part of the original design was a nice tie in that honours the heritage,” says the designer.

The living room featured a tricky sloped ceiling, but Duncan-He saw the “strange wall” as an opportunity to create something custom for the space. He installed walnut millwork shelving with backlighting that reaches right to the top for the couple’s spirit collection (complete with a rolling library ladder to reach those top-shelf bottles), and a handsome, reed-fronted black bar. (“The homeowners know how to drink,” laughs Duncan-He.) The space was now entertaining ready—and a lovely complement to the large, closed-off prep kitchen they’d installed specifically to accommodate catering and hosting large affairs.  

Book-matched porcelain tile now clads the existing fireplace, the veins in the marble creating a dramatic design. “I think she looks like a sloth,” says Duncan-He. “Some people love it, some people don’t know what to think, but we wanted to establish that there was going to be some drama.” 

Drama is the name of the game here, after all, and Duncan-He has employed a number of moves to ensure each space is bold and beautiful. “The secret to any dramatic room is tone on tone,” says Duncan-He. “Even with neutrals, you don’t want the same colour flat on every wall.” In the kitchen, this trick is demonstrated with a handsome black matte slab cabinetry paired against the sheen of a quartz countertop (that same quartz clads the hood vent).  

That countertop is finished with a waterfall edge and the same reed detailing from the bar. “When there’s a large home, I try to have materials show up somewhere else so there’s a flow,” says Duncan-He. For instance, the light fixture hanging over the spiral staircase and the one in the guest bath are the same design at different scales, and the wood tone in the chairs is meant to match the walnut cladding on the walls.  

In the primary ensuite, the high-contrast palette softens a bit. Here, dark charcoal cabinets and a freestanding tub are lit by oversized windows. A beautiful warm-grey countertop features an integrated sink in a similar charcoal tone. Mirrors run all the way to the ceiling. It’s a look that would surely appeal to a certain menswear designer.  

Though some would view the restrictions of a renovation as a challenge for achieving a bespoke look, Duncan-He ultimately has a ‘lean in’ attitude towards not just quirky requests (like the Tom Ford store wish), but quirky architecture, too.

“If there’s a structural post, I say, let’s clad it and make it part of the look, if it’s a weird shape, let’s figured out a clever way to make it work,” he says. “Here, that really fits with the spirit of the clients. You go into this home and you know these aren’t people who are knitting on a Tuesday night. We’ve leaned into the essence of who they are.”