Page 50 - 08_Oct-2025

The streets are buzzing with playoff energy as the
Edmonton Oilers battle the Florida Panthers in
their second straight Stanley Cup final — outcome
still unknown when I meet Lauren Kyle McDavid,
29 and newly married. She’s pared down in low-
rise, wide-leg, cocoa-coloured jeans and a cocoa
tee, her blonde hair swept into a high ponytail. She
appears unfazed by the demands of her husband’s
high-pressure career, even on the morning after
a loss, because it’s been full steam ahead for the
grand opening of her business ventures with
Edmonton design insider Brittany Schulz, 32.
The business partners leased the long-vacant
Canada Permanent Building and refined it as a
three-storey showcase of luxury: design studio
up top, furniture gallery and cocktail bar below.
The concept feels members-only, yet welcomes
anyone who wants — and can afford — a taste
of the elevated lifestyle Kyle McDavid and Schulz
have curated. Kyle McDavid’s six-year-old design
business, Kyle and Co., anchors the top floor,
while the lower levels debut two new ventures:
Trove Living — a high-end furniture showroom
and retail space — and Bar Trove — a 40-seat
restaurant and cocktail bar. Blending luxury
shopping with intimate, small-plate dining,
the concept resembles Restoration Hardware
Restaurants around the world, and offers an
experience more common in Europe.
“What you’re seeing is two things that might
not go together in your head actually go together
really seamlessly — and feed off each other,” says
Kyle McDavid as she welcomes me into the Trove
Living showroom, sipping on a house-brand
Trove coffee. She sits on a curved and cocoon-like
custom-made sofa, Trove’s 1947 “Jean Royère–
inspired Polar Bear reproduction,” Schulz later
tells me — a design favoured by the stars.
The space is clean and clutter-free, styled in a
soft, neutral palette with low-profile marble and
wood coffee tables, pale oak herringbone floors,
sculptural lighting fixtures and exposed white
ducts. It’s a curated juxtaposition to the decorative
crown mouldings and wainscotting, both of which
Kyle McDavid and Schulz added to reinforce the
building’s historic charm.
“When we originally started the business,”
Schulz explains, “the idea was that you would
meet with Lauren for a furniture or design package
upstairs, come down to the furniture showroom
to shop and then have lunch and celebrate after in
the bar on the main floor.” Schulz, dressed in a
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BRITTANY
SCHULZ
sleek black ensemble, is composed and precise, the perfect operational
counterweight to Kyle McDavid’s visionary role.
Their relationship developed organically over the years as Schulz
worked as an external furniture rep for Kyle McDavid’s interior design
business. A solid partnership between the two has proven key in
renovating the Edwardian Baroque building. Billed as Edmonton's
first “fireproof bank,” the building’s structural skeleton is composed
of reinforced concrete framing and detailed stonework, features that
make structural renovations a major challenge.
To overcome this, Kyle McDavid and Schulz had to track down
the original architectural plans and hire an engineer to dissect the
structural slabs. “They're hand drawn and very difficult to read,” says
Kyle McDavid. “There were a lot of hoops to go through.” They also
worked closely with the city’s historic committee to make sure the
signage was appropriate for the building’s grand exterior: soaring
stone columns, ornate carved detailing and an arched, entablature
entrance that once signalled prestige in early 20th-century
Edmonton.
In the name of exclusivity, it was a hurdle they were willing to clear
to create a destination where Edmonton shoppers could access
rare, investment-grade furnishings. While Trove carries some more
accessibly priced furniture pieces, their high-end European imports,
such as the Italian line Tacchini and Collection Particulière from Paris,
start in the low four figures, with hero pieces climbing well into five.
According to the duo, no one else in Western Canada carries the lines,
which they sell alongside a selection of vintage items from antique
hubs in Milan, Texas and North Carolina. “Not everyone can afford
super high-end furniture, and not everyone cares about brand names
when they’re putting their space together,” says Kyle McDavid. “But
there are really passionate design people who want a collectible piece
in their home — something with a rich history.”