Interior designer Amanda Hamilton creates sumptuous, warm-modern interiors in rich woods and lush colours. The word clinical does not apply. So when her aesthetician Twyla Black, a nurse practitioner who specializes in Botox and injectable fillers, asked her to design a new space for her Calgary clinic, Noir Medical Aesthetics, she was in a bind. “Twyla originally asked for the expected things,” says Hamilton. “She used words like fresh or bright. But to me, every medical space, whether it’s a dentist’s office or a hospital, feels that way. They all feel the same. So, we approached things entirely differently.”
Rather than the standard — maybe an all-white lobby with a stack of ancient Reader’s Digests on a Formica table — Hamilton suggested doing something with more of an edge. “I was thinking along the lines of a hotel lobby,” she says. “I’m a client, too. I wanted it to have a really good vibe.”
Hamilton’s 2,000-sq.-ft. design is more Soho House than nurse’s station, with clubby, walnut-panelled walls, floor-to-ceiling velvet drapes, and a sinuous sofa where clients wait for their appointments. And while it is distinct with its veined marble counters and sculptural lighting, the overall approach is on-trend for similar spaces across the country. These days, hospitality-inspired interiors are giving aesthetics clinics a facelift.
“It’s about strategy,” explains Hamilton. “Medical aesthetics is a very competitive market. It’s a saturated market. The question is: how do the best practitioners set themselves apart? Design is a powerful way to communicate talent and capability, to show your clients that you know what looks good.” After all, it’s a business about appearances. Looking good matters.
Atelier 1618
In Québec City, the lobby of Atelier 1618 is like a set from Mad Men or a curated tableau from a vintage Herman Miller catalogue. Its dark wood panelling, understated earth tones and simple shapes have a playful, mid-century modern vibe. But while it might look like a swanky ad agency or a purveyor of fine furniture, Atelier 1618 is the business of Dr. Gabriel Beauchemin, a plastic surgeon who, alongside a team of nurses and aestheticians, offers services such as neck lifts and nose jobs.
The 3,000-sq.-ft. interiors, by Montréal’s Agence Spatiale, are carefully calibrated. Dr. Beauchemin asked for a space that felt like home: somewhere comfortable that would ease the nerves of potentially knife- and needle-shy patients. Lead designers Marianne Charbonneau and Daniel St-Jean conceived something with the cushiness of a high-end living room but that also functions well as an aesthetic clinic.
Plastic surgery patients often like to keep their procedures a secret. While the lobby has a large window at one end to bring in soothing natural light, the space is portioned with screens made from semi-transparent glass and walnut. The panelling allows sunshine to pass through, without compromising privacy. “The dividers are placed so that there can be four people or four couples in the waiting room,” says St-Jean. “And they won’t see one another, or be seen from outside.”
From the lobby, patients also don’t see into the treatment area. It is hidden behind a solid panelled wall and an ethereal reception desk. The desk is one of the most special features of the room: it’s cloud-white and curvy, custom 3-D printed from white concrete. “The desk looks soft, but it’s quite hard,” says St-Jean. “It took quite a lot of research and development to get the colour of the concrete just right.”
The panelled wall behind the desk is symmetrical, and an intentional attribute. “Our client approaches plastic surgery with the idea that everything should be as balanced and well-proportioned as possible,” says St-Jean. “He believes symmetry is beautiful. It’s what makes a beautiful face.” Behind the wall, the treatment rooms are somewhat more standard, with off-white walls, easy-to-clean faux-bois floors, and tan leather recliners where the procedures take place. But even there, there are singular features, such as Scandi-modern side chairs and art Dr. Beauchemin has collected on his travels.
And one back-of-house space has the sultry personality of an avant-garde jazz club. Just past the lobby, there is a small lounge with deep red walls, red carpeting, a red ceiling, and dim lighting. “After treatments, people might want to decompress a bit before leaving,” says St-Jean. “But they don’t necessarily want to be in a bright room with mirrors where they can see their scars or bandages. This lounge allows people to relax in very flattering light.”
Noir Medical Aesthetics
Like Atelier 1618, Noir Medical Aesthetics by Calgary-based Amanda Hamilton has a focus on privacy. The lobby is lined with two layers of pleated drapes: one is an opaque taupe velvet, the other a natural linen. Both can be drawn over the street-side window to block out views as needed, either partially or completely. Running floor-to-ceiling, the drapes also add luxury and drama, like theatre curtains.
Unlike Atelier 1618, Noir is less mid-century modern, more contemporary. It has peach-coloured, mirror-topped display counters for cosmetics, oxblood-coloured accent tables, and white subway tiles on the face of the marble reception desk. It’s like a boutique hotel, the kind of chic place where someone might spot an A-list celebrity waiting to meet their agent (or, more hush-hush, their Botox technician).
To Hamilton, sourcing the right lighting, such as the flower-shaped Magnolia pendant from Quebéc’s Luminaire Authentik in the lobby, was critical to the atmosphere. “Lighting is like art,” she says. “All the lighting here is sculptural. That’s important because Noir serves both men and women. The lights help strike the right balance. Many of the features have feminine, sculptural lines that complement the darker wood panelling on the wall. Anything dark can sometimes feel a bit masculine.”
The temperature of the lighting was also considered with care. “The tone of the light is warm and cozy,” says Hamilton. “It’s not a car dealership or a jeweller, where you might find cooler lights in the range of 3,500K. We focused more in the 2,700K range, like you might find in a residential setting.” The mood lighting works well in the hallways that lead to the clinic rooms, catching in the texture of the burgundy Venetian plaster walls, creating a gentle glow. In contrast, the clinical spaces are much brighter, with LEDs shining off white and grey walls. “We needed to be thoughtful about the clinicians and aestheticians having adequate lighting to do their work,” says Hamilton. “The difference is a bit like the experience of moving from a hotel lobby, down the hallway, and then entering into a bedroom.”
The Face Institute
In Edmonton, the Wolski Design Group has created several medical aesthetics clinics, each with unique personalities. “They have to be differentiated as part of the branding,” says Wolski principal Michele Roach. For one of the latest efforts — the 4,600-sq.-ft. Face Institute, run by nurse practitioner Julie Wuis — Roach was inspired by high-end day spas. Distinct from Atelier 1618 and Noir, there are bright white walls, but there are also lots of blond wood accents and touches of warm metals. In the lobby, 17-ft. ceilings soar above a long, linear fireplace and comfortable seating. Light floods in through wall-to-wall windows, which are covered with semi-transparent blinds for privacy.
“It was very important to Julie that the Face Institute feel like a holistic place to get care,” says lead interior designer Michele Roach. “The idea was to have a place, like a spa, where people not only come to look better, but feel good throughout the process.”
Core to the concept, as well as the clinic itself, are two centrally located, glass-enclosed meditation rooms. Kitted out with pillows, mats, and candles, their importance is underscored by the approach: they are accessed off the lobby, down a hallway lined with white oak fins, where a herringbone floor points the way with its chevrons. “Those rooms are for clients to calm themselves before and after treatment,” explains Roach. “Julie is a strong believer in building community. Even if clients are not coming for a treatment, they can still come in and sit and meditate.”
The spa-like effect is evident elsewhere. Off the lobby, there is a so-called numbing room. The idea — a place to apply numbing cream to dull the pain of ensuing injections — is common in medical aesthetics clinics. But at the Face Institute, patients sit on plush chairs with electronic massagers that tenderize their muscles from head to toe. The chairs have rests for phones and iPads to help pass the time. “Patients might be sitting there for a while,” says Roach. “For privacy, as well as to add a sense of softness, we separated the chairs with sheer, floor-to-ceiling drapery.”
While the clinic rooms are a bit less spa-like, with drop ceilings and bright task lighting, the corridors between them also have elegant, hospitable touches. The doors are inset with brass. The door numbers, etched on glass, are lit with glass-and-brass wall sconces. “We wanted the space to feel jewel-like and special,” says Roach. “It’s a luxury service, so the space should feel like luxury, too.”
As featured in the November-December 2025 issue of Canadian Interiors magazine.