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The client’s request was simple, says designer Stephen Lamoureux of ADI group: “Pimp my basement.”
Inspired by a vintage Crown Royal rye whiskey bag, Lamoureux worked with lush materials, a rich purple and gold palette and some ring-a-ding Rat Pack attitude to create a party palace in an unassuming Winnipeg home that mixes fabulous excess and fun.
The 1,800-square-foot space is anchored by a bar, not such an unusual basement perk. But add a roulette-wheel-patterned terrazzo dance floor, a karaoke stage and a VIP area, and it’s clear you’ve gone way beyond the standard rec-room template.
“It’s like going out, but staying in,” says the owner, who regularly flies to Las Vegas and wanted to bring its spirit home. Bar chairs and high curving tables ring the dance floor, and the nearby VIP area—“Everyone’s a VIP,” says the owner—is upholstered in faux-ostrich and deep purple velvet, flanked by creamy curtains. The DJ booth, like many of the tables in the space, was custom-crafted to look like a stack of poker chips. “From here we can control the music,” says the owner, “the lights and the fog machine.”
Yes, the fog machine. Fog rolls across a stage and a dance floor, sliced by coloured lasers. Hypnotic patterns on the room’s built-in LED light panel screens pulse to the music, which is currently sampling the owner’s 1970s retro-night mix. “I wanted that atmosphere,” he explains, “so that people can cut loose and enjoy themselves.”
The poker room resembles a swanky salon in ochre, white and chocolate brown with hits of purple. Lamoureux designed four custom poker tables, along with chairs whose embroidered covers feature playing-card motifs (52 of them, of course). Backlit panel walls open up the space and dispel any sense of basement claustrophobia.
The owner uses the space a couple of times a month (more during the holiday season), often hosting 50 or 60 guests, though 100 have piled in. With numbers like these, it made sense to invest in separate men’s and women’s bathrooms, with statues of Michelangelo’s David and the Venus
de Milo to point the way. The ladies get three stalls in a cocoon of flocked damask walls, button-tufted quilted doors and mother-of-pearl floor tiles. The gentlemen get a posh men’s club feel with oxblood-stained wood and burgundy snakeskin walls.
According to Lamoureux, it was crucial that these exuberant, outsize design ideas be immaculately executed. The craftsmanship, from the millwork to the upholstery, is carefully detailed, and the materials are rich and textured, with lots of sparkle and shine. Close consultation with an acoustic engineer and extensive soundproofing mean that the owner can crank the music to a sternum-vibrating 11 without worrying about the neighbours. What happens in the basement, stays in the basement.
That’s the real appeal of this plush, pleasure-loving, high-energy space. Once you get past the padded door, you could be anywhere: Vegas, Monaco or, just maybe, suburban Winnipeg. “You feel like you’re somewhere else,” says the owner. “But at the end of the night, you get to go upstairs to bed.”
See SOURCES.
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Anatomy of a Room:
Televisions around the room run off one central computer: they can run lyrics to the karaoke machine, a slide show of party guests, music videos—whatever suits the occasion.
The chairs are designed by Accro furniture in Winnipeg, which also happens to provide casino chairs to clubs in Vegas.
Like the oversize ceiling details and the housing for the lights, the carpet mimics the look of poker chips.
The four dance floor tables are removable—perfect for when the owner’s young son wants to rip around the room with his friends.
Each colour of this replica roulette wheel terrazzo dance floor was painstakingly poured on a different day.
Tracer lights run around the custom Vegas-style sign, which spells out the owner’s name.
Four strobe lights and four spotlights crank up the light show, while a laser light projector contributes to an authentic dance floor feel.
The DJ booth is housed in a stack of poker chips, which total $412 in their betting value—a nod to the owner’s son’s birthday, April 12.
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