Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood has welcomed the Watson, a cocktail-forward dining destination founded by restaurateur Michael Gayman and designed by his sister, Erica Colpitts.
Colpitts’ interior design concept draws inspiration from European libraries and apothecary shops, as well as Victorian manors, creating a space that is both visually striking and intimate.
Materiality in the Watson
A welcoming ambiance is achieved in the main dining and bar area through the pairing of delicate, refined items with warm woodwork, wools, and tweeds. “The seemingly aged woodwork plays beautifully with the gilt mirrors and burnished brass arch, and the chains from the chandeliers feel like necklaces draped above the tweed barstools,” says Colpitts. “The result is a mixture of unexpected materials working seamlessly together.”
A mezzanine, which overlooks the restaurant, features velvet drapes, custom lighting sconces, and creamy marble tables. This area offers a moodier, more sultry ambiance in contrast to the brighter main floor.
A design grounded by green tones and antiques
Throughout the Watson, a deep green color palette is employed via rich hunter green paneling, dark sage wool, army green leather upholstery, and olive velvet drapes.
Several antiques ground the restaurant, including a vintage secretary desk used as a hostess stand, back bar shelves filled with vintage books and found objects, and gilt mirrors from the Hotel Vancouver. A horse feeding trough repurposed as a planter by the mezzanine adds a unique touch.
Creating an intimate setting
The restaurant’s footprint is small relative to its ceiling height, so the layout was devised to create a lively atmosphere, without feeling too cavernous.
To balance out the scale of the space, Colpitts designed a 16-foot tiered bar with a bronze arch, flanked by bookcase-like shelving and detailed woodwork. On the opposite wall is oversized artwork by Rene Botha that is a “modern take on traditional Victorian still lifes, portraits, and stiffly poised pieces of art typically found in private halls and libraries,” she explains. “I wanted something dramatic and moody, romantic but with an edge.”
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