You’ve likely seen her work grace the pages of House & Home and Style at Home multiple times over the years. We just can’t seem to get enough of her luxe designs, and in this post we’ll show you why.
If you’re unfamiliar with this designer, here’s the brief: Based in Calgary, Nam Dang-Mitchell Design has deservedly earned a spot on the Top Canadian Designers list over the past decade.
Named House & Home’s 2018 Designer of the Year, her work is now admired beyond our borders by design stars like Studio McGee, Jake Arnold, Amber Lewis, and Ashley Stark.
Studio McGee describes her style perfectly in this feature post on Nam:
“The interior designer’s spaces strike a delicate balance between classic and edgy, merging disparate styles into a seamlessly chic and live-able whole. Nam often animates her neutral-toned color palettes with layers of patterns and textures that keep even formal spaces warm and lively.
Natural Materials
Nam expertly combines natural materials like wood, stone, marble, and metal, creating sumptuous, chic interiors. She plays with visual contrast of these materials, such as light and dark, hard and soft, warm and cool. In the above apartment’s kitchen, a warm brass-detailed range is set against richly-veined silver limestone slabs and herringbone wood floors.
Neutral Colours
Bright colours are rare in her interiors. Instead, she relies on a layered neutral palette. This approach enables her to incorporate a really bold accent or dramatic element while still keeping the look elegant.
In the above living room of her own home, Nam’s bold stroke is in the curvy velvet peridot sofa, which picks up on the botanical elements of the fiddle leaf fig tree and the chinoiserie wallpaper.
Mixed Messages
She truly is the queen of the mix. Nam skillfully – and always artfully – combines different eras and aesthetics. In an interview in the blog, The Dolce Vita, Nam describes her style this way:
“I am a classicist at heart but it’s all about mixing genres and eras for me in order to create something fresh. I love a tailored room with a bit of edge or moment of sumptuousness. I’m not a minimalist, but I do like a certain spareness.
In the above custom-built home’s living room, she infuses it with historical and classic architectural elements such as the coffered ceiling and ornate fireplace surround, then zips it up with modern furniture and light fixtures like the Serge Mouille floor lamp and sputnik pendant. Also seen in this space is her fondness for mixing metals such as brass, polished nickel, and stainless steel.
Design Forerunner
Nam’s work is continually at the forefront of the interior design industry in Canada. She’s often onto trend at least five years before others are applying it. For example, she has been incorporating lighter woods such as white oak since 2015—well before it became popular again. The above project was completed in 2016 but looks completely fresh today, especially with that show-stopping marble-clad island.
Commercial Projects
Her commercial work is equally as stunning as the residential. We’re enamoured with every single one of her projects in Calgary, including Distilled Beauty Bar & Coffee House and Meat & Bread.
More recently she completed a gorgeous residential development, The Townhouses by NDM in South Calgary. She thoughtfully designed both the architecture and interiors, and completed the project in partnership with her husband, a developer.
We can’t wait to see what Nam Dang-Mitchell designs next! If we’ve helped you fall in love with her work, follow her @namdangmitchell.
Additional credits: Feature image from “Make Life Beautiful with Nam Dang-Mitchell” by Studio McGee; YouTube video via Renderr.