Dr. Paula Meyler is no stranger to gruelling 24-hour shifts. When she’s finally home, the Vancouver anesthesiologist goes straight to her cozy bedroom, crawls into bed, draws up the indigo sheets and looks at her travel photos on the wall. “You can get very focused in medicine and forget that there’s a whole world out there,” says Paula, who lives in a 1,600-square-foot condo in Gastown. “I’m so thankful to have invested in myself and my home; it’s a place where I can relax and unwind after the chaos of the hospital. You can’t put a price on that.”
After renting the condo for three years, Paula bought it from her landlord — she loved its wraparound gardens and terraces, especially the private courtyard with fountains, trees and zen vegetation out front. She asked her friend Ben Leavitt of Vancouver design studio PlaidFox to make the interior feel equally tranquil. “She wanted it to be bright and calming — very minimal with not a lot of color,” says Ben. “But because she spends her whole day in a hospital, I didn’t want it to be clinical.”
Details such as new arched doorways and handmade Moroccan tiles on the walls reflect Paula’s travels and her time working as a volunteer doctor abroad. “This house is influenced by Morocco and India, but mixing in modern pieces keeps it from feeling too theme-y,” says Ben.
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