The 2025 winners are here—meet the new guard shaping Western Canadian design across interior design, fashion and jewellery, industrial design, furniture design, architecture and one-of-a-kind maker.
44
WL DESIGN ICONS
Vancouver’s Patkau Architects and Calgary designer Paul Lavoie join our Design Hall of Fame as icons.
66
WL PEOPLE’S CHOICE
Edmonton designer Brianna Hughes: three tiles, one luxe tub-in-shower— no choosing required.
Squishy carafes. Sculptural lamps. ’70s dining chairs. The fall home edit.
Klein blue, back and bolder than ever. Here’s how to bring it home.
Your guide to design month’s main event: trends, talks, must-see booths.
You voted. The West decided. Every finalist had one standout project in the running for this prize—and these are the winners across each of our award categories.
70 FINALISTS
The longlist: Western Canadian designers who missed the podium but not the mark.
72 JUDGES
Meet the creative powerhouses who crowned 2025’s best in design.
ENTERTAINING
74 GETTING COMFORTABLE
Bloody Mary minestrone, sweet potato bisque, mustard fish curry and ricotta gnudi: cozy is served.
GETAWAYS
91
A tech-free remote Island escape minutes from Tofino. 94
Preserved like a secret, Yellow Point Lodge is worth the chase.
Granite shores. Vinyl tales. Walks with Buff. A designer’s spark list.
photography by Andrea Ferrari
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Daenna Van Mulligen
Labour of Love
Just as we were putting the finishing touches on this issue, I ran into architect Marianne Amodio of MA+HG at Vancouver’s Prototype Coffee. (I’d heard a hot tip that their bottled iced oat milk latte was excellent—rumour confirmed: it is.) As we chatted, she reminded me that we had first met back in 2007, when she was still working for Bricault Design and I was profiling one of their projects in Regina. We laughed as we remembered how we were both early enough in our careers that there was a mutual admiration society happening between us (along with a little dose of mutual intimidation).
Nearly 20 years later, my admiration for the work that Marianne and her husband Harley Grusko do out of their office at MA+HG has grown exponentially. One of the greatest benefits of spending so much of my career here at Western Living is being able to witness the cumulative successes of local designers as they build and develop their careers—and that benefit is particularly evident when it’s time to put together our annual Designers of the Year issue. MA+HG were selected as our Architects of the Year for 2025, standing alongside a mostly female roster of winners.
Western Living Designers of the Year is tradition that’s now 18 years in the making: it’s our annual celebration of the best design in Western Canada. Design leaders from across the country and around the world make up our judging panels (read all about them on page 72), who together pore over hundreds of entries in eight categories, from architecture to interiors to one-of-a-kind makers. They debate, they vote—and the results are the eight winners you’ll see celebrated in these pages.
But that’s not all: you might have been among the thousands who voted for our People’s Choice winners this year, which we revealed on stage at our awards party on September 11 and which you’ll find here on page 66. And to continue the celebration, we’ve also inducted three more incredible designers and architects into our Hall of Fame (page 44).
These awards may have a long history, but the history of Western Living is even longer: the magazine has been elevating Western Canadian design for 50-plus years now. It’s such a privilege to have been a part of that work for more than two decades—and counting. I’m as thrilled today to be helping to provide a platform for the culture-shaping work these folks do as I was back in 2007 with Marianne. I can’t wait to see where their work takes us over the years to come.
Anicka Quin portrait: Evaan Kheraj; styling by Luisa Rino at LizBell Agency, styling assistance by
Cheyenne Hoffman; makeup by Melanie Neufeld at LizBell Agency; outfit courtesy Mine and Yours, mineandyours.com
Rotating Library + Bed
The LGM library with built-in desk rotates 180° to reveal a queen sized bed and retractable nightstands. Décor stays in place for an effortless day-to-night transformation.
The LGM Revolving Wall Bed & Home Office System
Smart Planning Meets Timeless Style
Smart Planning Meets Timeless Style
by Cindy Li
A well-designed kitchen shapes the way you live. It sets the tone for busy mornings, relaxed evenings, and every moment in between. Thoughtful planning brings beauty and function together, creating a space that works as well as it looks. With decades of experience, Merit Kitchens helps bring those ideas to life through cabinetry designed for the way you live.
Room Design by Samantha Saran | Photography
Smart Strategies for Planning a Kitchen That Works
Start with How You Live
Think beyond finishes. Consider how you move, cook, and gather in your kitchen. Do you host dinner parties? Need a homework nook for the kids? These lifestyle cues should guide your layout and storage choices.
Work With Trusted Experts
Merit Kitchens partners with experienced designers and dealers who can translate your vision into a practical, stunning space, guiding you from the first sketch to the final installation.
Personalize the Details
Merit Kitchens’ semi-custom cabinetry gives you design freedom where it counts, from door styles and finishes to storage solutions, while keeping the process streamlined. This means your kitchen reflects your personality without blowing the budget or timeline.
Insist on Lasting Quality
Proudly made in Canada, Merit Kitchens cabinets are built with precision craftsmanship and durable materials. The result is a kitchen that looks beautiful on day one and still feels solid years later.
Think Ahead
Good design anticipates change. Adjustable shelves, adaptable layouts, and resilient finishes keep your kitchen functional for years, whether your family grows, your cooking style evolves, or you eventually list your home.
Your Tailored Kitchen Awaits
Find inspiration, explore styles, and connect with your local design partner at merit-kitchens.com.
Proudly Canadian for Over 50 Years
Merit Kitchens has been crafting semi-custom cabinetry since 1971, combining time-honoured techniques with modern innovations. Every cabinet is made locally, ensuring exceptional quality, faster delivery, and a more personalized experience for your space.
HOMES+DESIGN>
Spotlighting the best of architecture and design in Western Canada.
TRADE SECRETS
Designed by BRIANNA HUGHES , BRIANNA HUGHES INTERIORS , Edmonton
The Look: Triple Threat
Can’t decide on the right tile for your ensuite? Follow the lead of interior designer Brianna Hughes (our 2024 Robert Ledingham Memorial Award winner) and incorporate three different options. In this spa-like shower room in Edmonton’s Laurier neighbourhood, dramatic, oversized “fragmented” Venistone tiles line the walls and floors, underneath rows of textured white squares. Purple-andgold Viola marble tops the bench seat and frames the enclosure (which also houses a soaker tub), a beautiful additional layer in an already sumptuous space. The Viola also ties the room back to the rest of the house—you’ll find the swirled stone used for the kitchen backsplash and for the powder room vanity, too.
Floor Show
The hand-tufted Romo Ezra wool rug ($2,850) adds a hit of captivating texture and pattern underfoot. bloomfurniturestudio.com
Drink Up
How did the wizards at Home Studyo create a carafe ($150) that looks so soft and squishy? We’ll pour a drink and think it over. cocomain.ca
It’s a Slice
It’s not often in life that you get to describe a toaster as having “timeless appeal,” but there’s no other way to talk about the chic, streamlined Bernadotte toaster ($299) by Georg Jensen. atkinsonsofvancouver.com
Chair Apparent
The Giuseppe Bavuso-designed Wabi chair ($1,275)—part of Rimadesio’s first-ever foray into seating—hits that on-trend sweet spot between Japanese and Nordic design with its airy, artful form. inform.ca
Noteworthy New in stores across the West.
By Stacey McLachlan
Rack It Up
This compact Steel Pipe storage rack ($50) from Muji is the perfect size for that awkward nook in the kitchen or bathroom—and it’s industrial-cool, to boot. muji.ca
Bright Ideas
The principals of Patkau Studio are taking home an Icon award this year for their decades of impact on the design scene (page 44)—but the studio’s sculptural new Minima lamp (from $950), made from a proprietary paper pulp, proves that they’re not ready for retirement any time soon. lightformshop.com
At Attention
Standing desks make a home work station all the more functional—Rove Concept’s Athena transforming desk ($1,639) makes it beautiful, too. roveconcepts.com
PORT COQUITLAM
RICHMOND
VICTORIA
Balancing Act
Minotti’s new collection includes the ’70s-chic Libra dining chair (from $6,220), which balances pleasingly plump volumes atop sleek, spindly legs. livingspace.com
Block Party
Even if you’re not moving into one of Synthesis Design’s innovative laneway houses anytime soon, you can still enjoy the architecture with this limited edition tealight holder ($153) collab with Konzuk. konzukshop.com
Hot Stuff
Pool season may be over, but schvitz season is just heating up. Vancouver Islandbased Forest Cooperage crafts elevated, barrel-style cedar saunas ($13,465) that are beloved by architects. forestcooperage.com
Nap Time
Chill Out
These slouchy, grapefruit-pink Good Beast glasses ($50) are made in Vancouver from recycled glass and keep the summer patio party spirit alive all year ’round. gatley.ca
Structured sofas are out, floppable, nappable sofas are in. King Living proves it got the memo with the curvaceous, modular and oh-so-cushy Aura sofa (from $2,790). kingliving.ca
FOR FINE FLOORING
Burritt
Bros. Carpet and Floors
The family-owned flooring business is nearly 120 years old—so, yeah, they know their stuff. Between the pro-grade hardwood and the artist-collab designs (painter Zoë Pawlak partnered with the team on some of their bestsellers), you’ll find everything you need. 60–8385 Fraser St., Vancouver burrittfloors.com
FOR TOP-NOTCH
TUBS
Royal Flush
Source a modern Kast concrete basin, a contemporary Graff wall-mounted faucet or a truly decadent marble soaker tub from Kreoo, all under the same roof. 5077 11 St. SE, Calgary royalflushboutique.ca
FOR TRANSFORMING FURNITURE Duo Concepts
The new Lower Mainland furniture shop specializes in pieces that can do double-duty, whether that’s wall beds, fold-out foam sofas or side tables that expand to host a full-on dinner party. 15–13520 Crestwood Pl., Richmond duoconcepts.com
BÉZIER DESIGN MARCIO KOGAN / STUDIO MK27
True
(Klein) Blue
French artist Yves Klein’s eponymous ultramarine hue from the ’50s never went out of style; it’s simply wildly cool again. Klein believed this fiercely saturated shade defied dimensions, serving as a gateway to the infinite—now that’s a powerful pigment.
By Katie Nanton
Doftbräken vase by Ikea in dark blue ($19.99), ikea.ca
Luzy light by Ingo Maurer ($1,494), informinteriors.ca
Elli chair by Baxter in Nabuck Electric ($13,915), livingspace.com
Penco Carry-Tite case by Hightide in dark blue (from $34), outnaboutboutique.com
Tube Top table lamp by Pablo in cobalt blue ($290), grshop.com
Heller Vignelli bench in blue (from $1,100), grshop.com
Cangrejo de Noche by Marina García Fernández art print for the Poster Club ($99.95), oldfaithfulshop.com
Pellizco Mexican rug in indigo blue ($475), obakki.com
Trendlux dining chair in blue fabric ($695), inspirationfurniture.ca
Colour block cup by Franca NYC in cobalt ($56), thecoastgoods.ca
BEST IN SHOW
Our picks for the best of IDS Vancouver.
By Anicka Quin
September is unofficially design month in Vancouver—it’s firmly anchored on two sides with our own design awards on September 11 and, of course, the biggest design show in Western Canada: IDS Vancouver. The show is well worth the visit: you’ll spot trends from the floor while you take in talks on big-picture thinking in the design world—along with some inspiration for your next home project.
Stay a While
The central feature this year, Night and Day, takes a dive into the hard-working field of hotel design, with designers creating on-floor activations that capture what makes these hospitality spaces so compelling. Watch for WL Design 25 winner Capella Design’s take on the accessible hotel room— the firm has made its name with design-forward mobility products: beautiful, functional pieces like side tables and shower stools that work for everybody. “Anyone can use a side table that’s more comfortable,” Capella Design cofounder Kaly Ryan told Vancouver magazine earlier this year. “[Cofounder Patrick Glinski’s] 13-yearold daughter uses his shower seat more than anyone in the house. We think about accessibility as being a binary, but it’s not.”
Western Living Saturday
We’re back on stage again this year, hosting talks with Vancouver designer and Netflix star Karin Bohn (top) on designing a life—and business—with purpose, and Toronto designer Paolo Ferrari (above), who’s forecasting how hospitality spaces might evolve in a time of uncertainty: how can designscapes provide hope, reassurance and an essential dose of awe? Plus, don’t miss fan-favourite Kelly Deck of Kelly Deck Design, live from the main stage on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Paolo Ferrari
Karin Bohn
Light the Way
Get into lighting trends this year—literally. “Illuminate” features 10-metre-long tunnels of architectural scaffolding that will be an immersive experience to tour and will spotlight releases from 10 different brands; watch for the latest from Vancouver-based A-N-D —whose team sits on our Designers of the Year judging panel this year—as well as Tom Dixon, Kuzco and more.
Live from Vancouver, It’s Aly Velji!
You’ll spot Calgary designer Alykhan Velji in a sound booth by Bureau on the show floor, capturing live interviews with IDS Vancouver speakers for the second season of his Inspire podcast. (If you haven’t listened yet, get into season 1 now: Velji has smart discussions with very cool people that explore and celebrate the creative process.)
And Don’t Miss These Booths
If there’s one exhibitor you should always look out for, it’s Lock and Mortice . The Abbotsford-based furniture designer has long been at the forefront of sustainable booth design (every piece of their space is reclaimed after the show, often being incorporated into furniture designs). Last year, their display was interactive, too, with a build-your-own miniature set of their latest designs. And for an Instagramready experience, head to Montauk : they’ll have something bold and colourful, perfect for a selfie or three.
IDS Vancouver runs September 25 to 28 at the Vancouver Convention Centre West .
Lock and Mortice
A-N-D Pace series by Caine Heintzman
Montauk Sofa and IDS Team 2024
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From a duo rethinking what accessible architecture means to a ceramicist turning personal turmoil into inspiring work, the winners of our 18th annual Designers of the Year awards showcase the exceptional creativity behind the spaces, places and designs that are shaping the way we live today.
DESIGN AS AN OPEN QUESTION
Architects Marianne Amodio and Harley Grusko, the duo behind MA+HG, refuse to give in to preconceived notions of what a building must be.
By Neal McLennan / Portraits by Pooya Nabei / Additional
photos by Janis Nicolay
WHAT IS ARCHITECTURE?
It seems
In Living Colour
A home for the family of a prominent local shoemaker, the Fluevog House is an expression of the family’s unabashed love of colour. Striking geometric windows and rooflines have made the home a much-buzzed about property in East Vancouver.
Wthat a magazine that’s been covering the topic for six decades should have a ready answer to such a foundational question, but it’s just this type of mental gymnastics that one undergoes after encountering the genredefying work of MA+HG.
It’s a question the duo who head the eponymous firm—Marianne Amodio and Harley Grusko—think about, a lot. They met while attending the University of Manitoba and have been, as Grusko puts it, “having the world’s longest conversation about architecture ever since.” And while that conversation may have started in Winnipeg, it found fertile ground when the couple moved to preOlympics Vancouver and interned with some heavy-hitting West Coasters.
For Amodio it was the experimental Bricault Design followed by Hotson Bakker (now Dialog) and for Grusko it was the behemoth of Perkins and Will (where his first project was working on the high-profile Van Dusen Gardens Visitors Centre). And while they continued their philosophical musings, both were busy absorbing the less esoteric but equally important facets of the profession:
Marianne and Harley ON DESIGN
Who’s a Western Canadian designer whose work you admire?
MA: David Penner.
HG : Daniel Evan White.
What are you listening to right now, music wise?
MA: Bella Roces.
HG : Delicate Steve.
If you weren’t a designer, what job would you be doing?
MA: An artist or a lawyer—oh, wait!
HG : Baking bread.
What do you think is the most perfectly designed object?
MA: The Eames House Bird.
HG : The AL6003 watch by Achille Castiglioni for Alessi.
scheduling, zoning, building technology and the like. And by 2016 they were poised to make a go out of it together: Amodio had already hung her own shingle in 2009 (winning our Arthur Erickson Memorial Award for an emerging architect in 2015) and Grusko was confident about leaving the big firm job security.
As with any new venture, it was a hustle, but they promised each other that they would continue to be guided by some of the principles their longstanding conversation had spawned. For starters, making something special wouldn’t mean making something expensive. They would refuse to give in to preconceived notions of what a building must be. Colour would be the most affordable tool in their arsenal.
What do people often get wrong about design?
MA: That it is unserious.
HG : That it’s simply about making something fashionable.
Is there a famous project or object you would have loved to have been a part of?
MA: SESC Pompéia by Lina Bo Bardi.
HG : Sendai Mediatheque by Toyo Ito.
And above all, architecture would be for everyone, full stop. That form of idealism is so often ground down by the everyday, lost in the lure of building oceanfront mansions with ample budgets (and the attendant paying of mortgages). But not for these two, and bit by bit they found their people: clients who appreciate a pair a scrappy Prairie kids refusing to buy into doctrinaire ideas about the craft, or about luxury, and gravitating to the transformative goal of bringing the best design to the biggest number of people.
It’s the application of these ideals that’s bringing some hope to a society mired in an ongoing housing crisis. And it’s translated into genre-bending work that is radically exuberant in its approach to fusing the functionality of multiresidence living with the draw of joyful beauty.
Take their co-housing achievement, Tomo House— on the one hand, it’s a striking post-modern structure bringing steel cladding and brickwork into a playful interaction. But below the surface beauty is something deeper, a treatise on living in proximity with others: walkways and stairs fostering community, shared spaces being emphasized while units simultaneously enjoy maximum light and respite. It’s an achievement marvelled at by judge
The name refers not just to its East Vancouver locale but also to the sculptural joining of the old and new, with infill and historic housing merging to create a solution for the “missing middle,” MA+HG’s sweet spot for the housing that highlights affordability without sacrificing imagination and individuality.
Smart Density
The Union project restored a 100-plus-yearold heritage home, with the addition of an infill building, which transformed the site from a single-family dwelling to a five-unit development for the homeowner, her aging mother and her extended family. It’s a great example of a “Missing Middle” project: saving a character building while promoting densification and increased affordability.
Marianne and Harley’s LOCAL FAVOURITES
For Breakfast
HG : Marulilu Café, an unassuming and delicious authentic Japanese café.
MA: Livia Forno e Vino delicious, simultaneously modern and old-school.
For Cocktails
HG : Hashigo, for truly unique Japanese small plates and great sake.
MA: Grapes and Soda: go for the daily soda cocktail and warm, moody space.
For Design Shopping
HG : Vancouver Special, for the city’s best collection of design books.
MA: Walrus Design has impeccable service; you will leave with a beautiful object and a wonderful feeling.
For Local Flavour
HG : Renzullo Food Market, for the houseroast coffee from Napoli, and time with Franco.
MA: Bamboo Village in Chinatown: go to get lost in the maze of beautiful plants and objects.
For a Design Getaway
MA+HG : Mere Hotel in Winnipeg is designed by David Penner Architect: visit for contextual fit in a natural setting, on account of its use of colour.
ARCHITECTS OF THE YEAR 2025
All in the Family Tomo House, MA+HG’s co-housing project, features a sun-filled courtyard for all residents, while the generous walkways, social stairs and patios off the walkways increase the likelihood of more frequent, casual interaction between neighbours. Windows in the building were sourced from Euroline Windows.
Matt McLeod of McLeod Bovell: “Tomo House brings this engagement to a busy and otherwise overlooked location, by offering appropriate scale and engagement with its immediate context—and lucky occupants!”
And while their Union project may have started with a more traditional foundation, beneath the century-old heritage home facade is a one-time single-family dwelling transformed through innovation into five units to create harmony for the homeowner, her aging mother and extended family. The name refers not just to its
East Vancouver locale but also to the sculptural joining of the old and new, with infill and historic housing merging to create a solution for the “missing middle,” MA+HG’s sweet spot for the housing that highlights affordability without sacrificing imagination and individuality.
And finally there’s Fluevog House, the net-zero showstopper for the famed Vancouver family (of the designer shoe empire) that’s become one of the defining buildings on Vancouver’s east side. It’s an explosion of colour that would make architect Luis Barragán proud, married to the clean lines and compact footprint that melds it into its neighbourhood, save for the gaggle of Instagrammers frequently parked out front, snapping away.
It’s a diverse body of work celebrated by judge Heather Dubbeldam of Dubbeldam Architecture and Design: “MA+HG are redefining what multi-unit housing can be, infusing affordability-focused projects with playfulness, craft and social purpose. Their work demonstrates a clear commitment to tackling the housing crisis through design that is both pragmatic and poetic—offering dense, shared-living models that still feel deeply personal.”
Nearly a decade in and an impressive body of work behind them hasn’t quelled their innate curiosity about the power of design to transform—or their desire to continue their ongoing conversation about what architecture is.
WE BELIEVE IN EXCEEDING PERFORMANCE STANDARDS
And so do our building partners.
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MEANT TO BE
Kyla Bidgood—principal of Victoria interior design studio Bidgood—fulfills her design destiny.
By Stacey
McLachlan / Portraits by Lillie Louise Major / Additional photos by Mary McNeill Knowles
WWE’D LIKE TO GO AHEAD and dedicate our 2025 Interior Designer of the Year award to a former guidance counsellor at Stelly’s Secondary School in Brentwood Bay, B.C. Without them, Kyla Bidgood might have never taken an aptitude test as a high schooler—and might have never learned that “interior decorator” was a career at all.
She was always a creative kid, dancing “every day of the week” and collaging her bedroom walls. But it wasn’t until she saw that career suggestion on a dot-matrix printout that she found her ideal path.
Almost 20 years into her career and still exceedingly humble, our Interior Designer of the Year might not refer to her practice as a calling (in fact, she is more likely to focus on praising her team of eight for their important contributions to her practice), but one look at the rich, captivating spaces she’s brought to life in Victoria and beyond and it’s undeniable that she was meant for this work.
Art and Architecture
Since completing her education at Vancouver Island University and racking up experience under the region’s busiest designers (Axis Design, Kimberly Williams Interiors, the Interior Design Group and then some), she’s had a
“A good designer is like being an actor,” says Bidgood. “You have to slip on the shoes of another person and think: What do I want? What would I like?” While designing a series of guest houses for some international owners (Grove Guest House, top and above) she opted to bring West Coast elements into the space— from Canadian art to vintage books on Emily Carr—to really create a sense of place for any visiting American residents.
Kyla Bidgood ON DESIGN
What books are on your nightstand?
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin lives at my bedside. I love that I can flip to any page and get a dose of creative fuel and perspective. And to keep things from getting too existential, I’m also currently reading Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe, which is turning out to be hilariously life-affirming.
If you weren’t a designer, what job would you be doing? Probably something in the world of perfumery. It’s my side obsession—as a collector, I’m fascinated by the artistry behind it: the chemistry, the perfumers (a.k.a. “noses”), the history, the storytelling. It’s such a sensory and emotional form of design—just in a different medium.
What are your design pet peeves? When the impulse is to spread a budget thin across a wide scope instead of focusing in and doing fewer things really well. A smaller footprint with beautiful, lasting materials always feels better to live with in the long run.
prolific run with her own eponymous design studio, crafting everything from restaurants (the Parisian-coded Flute and Fromage) to hotels (the sumptuous Brentwood Bay Resort) to tech offices with an art deco vibe, and has tackled a wide range of residential projects—modernist condos, heritage house revamps, remote cabins, guesthouses steeped in quiet luxury.
Though she has her own aesthetic preferences (“I love colour, I love pattern, I love playfulness”), Bidgood’s talents lie not in prescription but in conversation. As a result, her portfolio covers a wide range of styles—a subtly elegant guest suite that embodies the beauty of the West Coast; a dollhouselike heritage home, repurposed for a young couple; a fir-clad tiny home in the woods with storage galore. No matter the theme, says judge and interior designer Nam Dang-Mitchell, “there is a beautiful tactile and artisanal quality to Bidgood’s work. One can feel that every detail has been lovingly considered.”
Over the past two decades, plenty has changed for Bidgood: personally, professionally, aesthetically. “I have a five-year-old and three teenage stepdaughters and I just get durability on such a personal level,” she says with a laugh. “And I want to be surrounded by great memories and pieces that are meaningful.” It’s this sentimental thread that ties her work from yesteryear to the present. “I want places to feel friendly and comfortable, and varied and textured and interesting and, ultimately, an extension of the homeowners.”
Vintage Charm In the kitchen of the Pinecrest Residence (above), two brick columns frame the space with quiet drama and symmetry. The contrast between smooth oak and rough brick offers a tactile push and pull.
These diverse spaces are all elevated and grounded, rooted in thoughtful transformation and personal storytelling. Judge Craig Stanghetta, principal of Ste. Marie Design, praises Bidgood’s “fearless design ethos that resists trends in favour of timeless emotionality.” Bidgood describes her work as “emotional architecture,” and her collaborative process—with clients, team members and a carefully chosen cohort of tradespeople—ensures that every material choice, design detail and gesture helps create an environment that’s character-rich and distinctly human. Palettes are warm, honest and textured, highlighting local craft and layered living. “If someone’s got a gorgeous character home and wants to go full-on traditional, I roll up my sleeves. If they have a very modern aesthetic, I’m like, yes, let’s go, I love it all,” says the designer.
Her studio’s Grove Guest House project took a handful of 1950s bungalows located on a rural island property and turned them into decidedly luxe private accommodations, with the rugged West Coast wilderness as the background. Elsewhere on Vancouver Island, the team renovated a charming 1920s home rooted in the nostalgia of Grandma’s house: dubbed Willows Fable, the interior celebrates the lived-in, the handed-down and the beautifully imperfect. Here, you’ll find feathered-in floorboards that match the refinished existing hardwood, classic floral wallpaper, mismatched china, and the comforting presence of objects that have stood the test of time.
Going for Gold
From the beginning, the vision for Bidgood’s Willows Fable project (right) “was less about aesthetics than atmosphere,” she says. Wallpaper features soft, nostalgic patterns; natural woods in honeyed tones call to mind the craftsmanship of yesteryear.
Kyla Bidgood’s LOCAL FAVOURITES
For Dinner
Rudi—bias admitted. We had the joy of designing the space, and it’s such a pleasure to now experience it from the other side of the table. The food is thoughtful and delicious, the atmosphere is rich and layered and there’s something really special about watching people gather and connect in a space we helped shape.
For Wine Tourist. It’s everything a wine bar should be— thoughtfully curated and beautifully unfussy. The atmosphere feels easy in the best way. And the scale is just right for a cozy catch-up or spontaneous night out.
For Design Shopping Hoxton Home in Nanaimo is a mid-Island gem. The shop’s aesthetic is beautifully curated and unhurried: a reflection of Island life. They prioritize lasting, locally and ethically sourced items—we work with them frequently and love every line they carry.
For Shopping Local
So many of the shops, studios and cafés are run by people who are genuinely invested—not just in what they’re offering, but also in the fabric of our community. If I had to pick one standout, I’d say Vic West’s The Market Garden. The space itself is an experience. Every corner feels carefully considered (because it is—handcrafted by the owner himself), and the atmosphere is just as thoughtfully curated as the shelves.
For a client who wanted to capture the magic of his own childhood cabin experience, Bidgood created a compact, cozy bunkhouse on Jade Lake that took inspiration from boat interiors—clever pullouts, integrated shelving and abundant hidden cabinets allow the modest structure to shift from gathering space to quiet time. For her Dollhouse project, a 1930s home in Victoria got a seven-foot extension to serve a growing family—but it’s almost impossible to detect what’s new and what was existing. Curved forms unify the rooms throughout the project, appearing in the credenza, the banquette and playful pulls.
“If someone’s got a gorgeous character home and wants to go full-on traditional, I roll up my sleeves. If they have a very modern aesthetic, I’m like, yes, let’s go, I love it all.”
Her team’s new builds involve just as much care and thought as their renovations. The Pinecrest Residence is one beautiful example, featuring mid-century influences interpreted through a contemporary lens. There are sleek, clean lines and a familiar low profile, but there’s a softness here, too, thanks to bronzes, an off-white palette and warm white oak cabinetry.
A guidance counsellor set her on her path originally—so it’s a nice full-circle moment to see that Bidgood is now offering guidance of her own every day. “I work with my clients to really dig out meaning. What are your memories? What are you drawn to? There’s nothing better than showing a client your design package and having them cry.”
In the Woods
“The cabins are not precious or pristine—they are made to be used, to be lived in, to gather wear with grace,” Bidgood says of her Jade Lake Cabin project, above.
Soft Footprint
The Grove Guest House’s bathroom (right) features local white marble from Vancouver Island Marble Quarries.
A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE
Laura Killam Architecture brings thoughtful design to remote properties on the West Coast.
By Anicka Quin /
WHEN ARCHITECT
WLaura Killam starts iterating on a design in a remote location, there will be the expected challenges she needs to consider: the natural materials best suited to the site, the complex topography and where best to site the home, the need to design limited concrete foundations due to due to the weight of that material and the resulting difficulty in transporting it. But for Killam, it’s as much about these practical requirements as it is about more poetic needs: when the homeowner approaches the place, how will they arrive from the beach? Which forested trail needs to wind its way to which doorway in the home?
Those careful considerations have culminated in the stunning portfolio of work from this year’s winner of our Arthur Erickson Memorial Award for an emerging architect. Thoughtful, 360-degree designs that had judge Heather Dubbeldam of Dubbeldam Architecture and Design enthuse, “This is an emerging practice that is deeply attuned to site and atmosphere, offering a fresh and resonant voice in Canadian architecture.”
Portraits by Pooya Nabei / Additional photos by Andrew Latreille
Killam opened her architecture practice in 2017, though she traversed her own winding, though perhaps not always forested, route to get there. “If I’d listened to my nine-year-old self, I would have gotten into architecture right away,” she says with a laugh. Her mother is renowned artist Sherry Killam, and her father Larry is a developer who was central in revitalizing Vancouver’s Gastown—art and architecture were predominant tenets in her childhood.
She studied fine arts at Concordia, and worked for eight years as a set decorator on film productions, but always felt there was something “unfinished” in her career and education. And so, at the age of 30, she went back to school for her master’s in architecture at Yale, with summer gigs at local iconic firms Patkau Architects (this year’s Design Icons, page 44) and AldrichPears.
One of her professors was the inimitable Frank Gehry, who invited her to work with his firm once she’d graduated. “It couldn’t be more different from what I’m doing now,” she says. But it’s where she honed her skills about iterating and thinking through a design with dozens and dozens of physical models and hand drawings, a process that’s as central to her practice now as it is to his. And, like her experience in film, her time with Gehry informed how she thinks about storytelling in architecture. “I really
Low-Impact Living
In addition to finding the perfect siting for Home for an Artist (above), Killam creates big magic in the design, too—work that judge Jordan Rice of Omar Gandhi Architects applauds for its “rich textures and materials aging gracefully over time, revealing a story about place.” The Armadillo rug is from Provide; appliances are from Midland Appliance.
Laura Killam ON DESIGN
What was your first design project?
My first project was a small cabin addition for a friend, followed by my Home for an Artist project, which included a small cabin and an artist studio accessed by a boardwalk.
Was there a childhood moment that hinted design was in your future?
I insisted on taking a carpentry course when I was nine because I wanted to build homes!
What are your design pet peeves?
The use of too many materials and discordant formal moves—and insensitivity to the site. By contrast, restraint, simplicity and a refined material palette always win in my books.
became enchanted with how the spaces we surround ourselves with are a reflection of our character.”
Killam’s first project—a guest cabin and an artist’s studio on an off-the-grid island in B.C.’s Desolation Sound— would lead to somewhat of a specialty for the firm: remote projects on wild sites. And while she’s primarily a residential designer, she has projects in the works in Ucluelet for a bed and breakfast with a spa and a thermal circuit, and has her sights set on building wellness retreats, island restaurants and field schools in wilderness settings.
Regular readers of Western Living will no doubt be already familiar with Killam’s off-the-grid work: a project known as “the Ranch Outpost” appeared in our March/ April issue last year. Designed for a family that had spent the previous summer camping on the property, it features social spaces that seamlessly transition indoors and out, with a design meant to embrace a summer spent
Natural Beauties
There’s a seamless transition between indoors and out in the Ranch Outpost (right), reflected in the careful choice of materials: clad in rough sawn cedar boards left to silver, the home features the same boards inside, stained a natural weathered grey. The bathroom in the Writer’s Retreat (below) features a pebble floor tile from Daltile, Newport Brass fixtures from Cantu and soapstone counters from Margranite.
predominantly outside. Each bedroom, for example, is accessed through its own door from the outside—no internal hallways or connections—and the shower and bath are also in the great outdoors, offering a true immersion in nature that’s a benefit from its wild location. Killam balances these private moments with social spaces meant to naturally bring people together, indoors or out. Notes judge Matt McLeod of McLeod Bovell: “Even when sited as solitary buildings, it is easy to imagine that these simple, wellarticulated forms could aggregate into convivial groupings, forming the same kind of relaxed but meaningful connections with each other that they share with the landscape.”
The ease with which each project rests on its wild site—Writer’s Retreat, positioned on a hilltop to take in both late afternoon summer sun and winter storm watching; Home for an Artist, set at the edge of both a meadow and a sandy beach—belies the effort that Killam takes to truly understand both the needs of the homeowners and the innate charms of the property itself. “So often we get a site like the Ranch, which was a totally wild site—it was actually impenetrable when we first got there,” says Killam. “We had to take the time to know the site, to read the site and respond to it, and to figure out where the building should be situated in there to find the opportunities there. I love that stage of design, where you don’t even know what the architecture is yet.”
For Brunch
Livia is a great brunch spot for a weekend meetup. They also have a perfect happy hour with a variety of house negronis.
For Lunch
Caffè la Tana is such an intimate room, perfect for a lunch catch-up with a friend. The menu is simple and the food is delicious—faves are the kale salad and the burrata, and, of course, the pasta is always great!
For Dinner
The food at The Lunch Lady is fantastic and the room is lively for lunch or dinner. I love eating at the bar or perched on their patio on a warm evening. Anh and Chi is the best Vietnamese food in town, with wonderful sharing plates of fresh food. Be sure to order the bánh xèo turmeric crêpe.
For a DesignForward Hotel
Kitoki Inn on Bowen Island is perfectly designed and so relaxing! The Japanese onsen is a dream.
For an
“Undiscovered” Spot
Iona Beach Regional Park: walking the wild and semi-industrial North Arm beach is a favourite, as are the birdwatching spots.
Laura Killam’s LOCAL FAVOURITES
Time Warp
Emma Sims (left) and Darcy Hanna in their Sumac project. The original vaulted ceiling and stone fireplace were treated as anchor points in the mid-century renovation, with consistent details throughout like soapstone kitchen counters and brick quarry tile kitchen floors. The firm used Intempo Millwork and contractor Braybrook Projects for the project.
PRODIGAL DAUGHTERS
This year’s Emerging Interior Designers of the Year, Vancouver design studio &Daughters, build on an unassuming family legacy.
By Stacey McLachlan / Portraits by Pooya Nabei / Additional photos by Ema Peter and Tomasz Wagner
DDESIGN AND entrepreneurship were part of Emma Sims and Darcy Hanna’s DNA long before they started at UBC’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. When Sims was a kid, she’d go down to Vancouver’s Point Grey neighbourhood to watch the fireworks from her carpenter father’s job sites. “He owned a construction company. He always smelled like sawdust,” recalls Sims. “Building was just a backdrop of my childhood.” (Dad was even a friend and collaborator of the late interior designer Robert Ledingham, the namesake of this award.)
Lofty Ambitions
The Loft project—a renovated 938-squarefoot double-height unit—was renovated with the help of Marino General Contracting and Ingrain Millwork (above and right). Pine elements add hits of warmth through the light-filled space. A built-in dining nook, deep storage cabinets and custom kitty litter conform to the underside of the stair, turning a space that had been difficult to use into one that serves multiple necessary functions.
At the same time, Hanna was growing up in Toronto, watching her parents run their computer services business. Though her father was a tech entrepreneur, he was also highly artistic, and cultivated a beautiful home for the family. “Subconsciously, design percolated into me at a young age,” Hanna says. When she got her driver’s licence, she’d drive around the suburbs just to look at houses. “There was something about it I was really interested in, but just didn’t know how to wedge my way in.”
They both took a roundabout route to architecture school—Sims studied languages and history for her undergrad and moved to Paris after school; Hanna focused on political science and sociology and spent her free time on the ski hill before starting her masters in architecture. But once the two women arrived on campus and struck up a friendship, it became clear that they, too, were creative, clever entrepreneurs, like their parents before them.
The duo grew close through the semesters, co-founding a student design collective called Evenings and Weekends and enrolling in a design-build studio in Naramata under the instruction of architect Michael Green. Even as they both took gigs at other design studios in town, they each had it in somewhere in their mind that they’d make their way back together. “We really enjoyed working together and had developed a strong creative discourse, but felt like we needed to gain some experience at other offices first,” says Hanna.
So Hanna built up her residential skill set under Scott Posno (who won a Designer of the Year title in 2022), while Sims honed her skills doing restaurant design with Ste. Marie. Eventually, with just two clients of their own lined up, they left their steady gigs, and in 2017, &Daughters was born. “I don’t know how we made it all work,” laughs Sims. “But it was cool to come back together.”
The brand name alludes, of course, to their lineage as children of business owners, but it also takes a familiar small-business suffix—“& Sons”—and turns it on its head, a nod to the designers’ own practice of looking at traditional concepts with a fresh perspective. “It’s a simple shift that makes it radical,” says Sims. The ambiguousness is attractive, too: it doesn’t tie Sims and Hanna to one particular stream of design. “It allows us the freedom to grow and evolve as the office matures,” she explains.
The deep care and intention behind the studio name reflects the dedication the principals bring to the details in their varied projects—a dedication that earned the firm this year’s Robert Ledingham Memorial Award for an emerging interior designer. While their work covers a wide range of styles and scale—from a minimalist loft apartment for a work-from-home couple to Vancouver’s moody, sumptuous Ama Raw Bar—every project is rooted in what Sims calls “clarity of concept.” From an early point, everything gets a framework that guides each decision they make: the concept could be related to the siting or heritage of a building, or to an inspiring film. Constraints, whether they be budgetary, geographic or regulatory, often become the generative backbone of the studio’s projects. “There’s a narrative we focus in on that I think is discernable in each work,” says Sims.
Darcy and Emma ON DESIGN
What was your first design project?
ES: Our first project outside of school was to design elements for The Cheaper Show for its 10th edition the summer after our first year of architecture school. The show was an event in Vancouver created by Graeme Berglund that took place on a single day; it showcased the work of 200 artists and all artwork was sold for a uniform, affordable price, specifically $200. We designed a bar out of CMU blocks, an entry screen made of shipping pallets and some furniture for the space.
What do people often get wrong about design?
DH : I think that people often make the mistake of trying to do more than they can or should in one project. In my experience, design is most successful when a project is edited to a few key elements that are really well executed.
ES: It’s what people often get wrong in life in general, I think: just lacking the confidence to like what you like. A concern about what others think. It ends up resulting in spaces that feel sterile and lack personality and all look the same.
Tomasz Wagner
Golden Hour
“Sexy” is the only way to describe the design of Ama Raw Bar, a moodily lit, velvet-lined treasure of a room on Fraser Street in Vancouver. Semi-transparent golden
It was certainly noticeable to judge Mitchell Freedland, principal of Vancouver’s Mitchell Freedland Design, who praises &Daughters’ “consistent thread of quality and resolution in each project.” Another judge, Nam Dang-Mitchell, principal of Calgary’s Nam Dang-Mitchell Design, describes &Daughters’ work as “confidant, considered and elegant,” adding that “they have a cinematic approach to interiors that is beguiling.”
For a young couple (and their two cats), Hanna and Sims reinvigorated a circa-1996 loft with new interiors to bring calm and clarity to their work-live space. Most of the home is bright and airy, aside from a new studio area on a curved platform, clad in warm, welcoming maple plywood. It’s a cozy environment for client meetings and photo editing, separated from the light-filled, cream-and-wood living area by a concealed sliding door.
In total contrast, there’s the Sumac project, nestled at the base of Grouse Mountain near Vancouver. The split-level house had been stripped of its original character, but the designers dove deep into the history of local architects like Ron Thom and Fred Hollingsworth to reintegrate the spirit of West Coast Modernism into the home—with plenty of current-day touches, of course.
For their design of Vancouver’s Ama Raw Bar, Sims and Hanna took inspiration from the post-apocalyptic golden haze of Bladerunner 2049. There are no windows here: instead, light emanates from a recessed cove that runs over the perimeter of the room, creating what the design team calls “an infinite dusk.” Walls are cloaked in velvet curtains or warm, orange plaster.
Whatever the project (upcoming: the completion of their third newbuild house), the duo’s academic training has stayed with them, all these years after graduating. Residences, retail spaces and restaurants alike all receive an integrative, multidisciplinary approach. “We’re always working toward design that is thoughtful and not arbitrary,” says Sims.
Problems are solved practically, but there is also plenty of poetry in their work. For the friends and business partners, inspiration comes from a wide range of sources—the shaggy texture of the ceiling of a yoga studio, a colour combination spotted at a dentist office, water trickling down a mossy rock on a North Shore trail, vintage issues of this very magazine. It’s a magpie collection of textures and treasures, perfect for building a nest (or a cafe or a condo) on an unshakable foundation: the family craft.
Darcy and Emma’s
LOCAL FAVOURITES
For Breakfast
DH : Cindys Palace for dim sum or Honeybee Bruncheonette for the ricotta pancakes.
ES: Maxine’s (perfect brunch) or Siegel’s! We spend a lot of time at Granville Island because my daughter goes to Arts Umbrella and the postclass bagel is a tradition.
For Design Shopping
ES: Vancouver Special is a longtime favourite, Coco et Olive on Main Street always has gorgeous stuff and, if you’re on Salt Spring Island, Rhubarb is amazing!
For a Getaway
DH : The Gulf Islands. All of them are amazing and delight in their own way, but Dionisio Point on Galiano Island is a particularly special place for our family. The beaches have sunny, shallow entries and relatively warm waters.
mirror lines the plaster walls and allows guests to catch glimpses of movement and activity around the room.
Ama Raw Bar: Ema Peter
THE FOREST AND THE TREES
John and Patricia Patkau of Patkau Architects are Western Canada’s quiet—and prolific—design geniuses.
By Neal McLennan / Portrait by Martin Tessler
IIT’S BEYOND QUESTION that the Patkaus are the West’s most lauded architects. The accolades are so plentiful that if you took the individual principals, John and Patricia, and gave them each half the awards they have received, they’d each still respectively top the list. But we’d also like to put forward the proposition that, international reputation aside, they’re also our most Western Canadian architects
Geographically, they’ve got it covered. They started in the late 1960s as undergrads at the University of Manitoba. John, an arts and environmental science grad, stuck around for a masters in architecture. Patricia, an interior design grad tired of fixing architects’ mistakes, headed to Yale for her M.Arch.
Next, a move to booming Edmonton, where the two young practitioners knock that city on its architectural ear with a series of houses (back in the early 2000s, Western Living chose their 1984 McGregor House as one of the best homes ever designed in Western Canada) and commercial projects (the Galleria condominium building, with its interior balconies) that reimagined the design possibilities of the previously staid city. Finally, Vancouver: their home since 1984 and spiritual base, from where their reputation expanded exponentially and where, ultimately, clients from all over North America (and Ontario in particular) would make the pilgrimage so as to share in their vision.
Then the materials. Has anyone showed more reverence for wood than the Patkaus? In an age where Mies-ian steel and Erickson-ian concrete were the de rigueur starting point, the duo embraced the natural bounty surrounding them like only a pair of Prairie kids could. Wood, wood, everywhere. Celebrated, contorted, used for beauty but also for untapped strength; the Patkaus helped make high design that came from forest.
They also embraced the natural light, harnessing it and treasuring it in a way only someone who’s lived through a West Coast winter can
(one of their classics is an ashram in the Kootenays, fittingly called the Temple of Light). And they gravitated toward the craggy, rocky sites that would repel many a less bold designer (their Audain Art Museum in Whistler literally straddles a flood plain). Outcroppings were their sweet spot, incorporated into the plan as if they were a cooperating partner. Even in their most urban projects, nature always comes along for the ride.
And, at last, the people. Not just John and Patricia, who in any business-sense scenario would have left Vancouver decades ago for a bigger centre and higher-profile projects, but also the people they’ve surrounded themselves with. Together they created a firm that eschews the great visionary model in favour of a collective approach to problem solving and material research, as well as sustainability long before it became an expected buzzword. It’s an approach embodied by their website: past the accolades, the books about them (three and counting) and their furniture designs is a tab called people. Not only does it list the 20 odd individuals who now make up the firm, it also includes the well over 100 additional names of everyone who’s ever worked at the firm and helped make Patkau Architects what it is. It’s an amalgam of gratitude, modesty and community that’s impossible not to respect.
So this honour, our 2025 Western Living Design Icons, goes not just to Patkau Architects, but also to John and Pat, the geniuses next door.
Bold and Beautiful Design
Patricia and John Patkau, photographed outside of their award-winning Polygon Gallery.
THE NATURAL
Calgary designer Paul Lavoie’s boldly colourful spaces have been bringing joy to both his clients and Western Living readers for over 40 years.
By Anicka Quin / Portrait by Phil Crozier
DDESIGNER PAUL LAVOIE was just a few years out of design school when he first appeared in Western Living : he won our legendary “Search for Style” contest for his own home back in 1991. “At that age I had gone to every flea market and every second-hand store,” he says. “I didn’t have any money, but my house was still going to be amazing—there was nothing really going to stop me.”
It’s fair to say that nothing did. Lavoie’s work has appeared in the pages of this magazine for over four decades now—and here he is once more, being deservedly celebrated as a 2025 Western Living Design Icon.
Born and raised in Calgary, Lavoie spent his teenage years helping his dad build houses all over the city. “He taught me a lot about being a trade,” he says. “How to shingle a house, wire a house, frame a house.”
He was taking a few electives at Mount Royal University when he met folks in the interior design program. “And I thought, I can do this,” he says. A summer internship at Cridland and Associates (led by Douglas Cridland, our 2024 Design Icon) in 1986 kickstarted his career. “What was amazing about Paul,” says Cridland, “is that he was a good designer but he was a great decorator, too. He was charming, a guy in the industry, which was unusual—and he could close a deal. He was pretty much perfect.”
Lavoie would spend 12 years with Cridland before creating his own firm in 1998, albeit with a suitable amount of nervous anticipation. “I bought a rent-to-own computer at the Brick,” he says with a laugh. “I wasn’t very confident. But from the moment I started I had three to eight clients a day. I’ve been very lucky.”
Nearly 28 years later, that one-man show has grown into a team of 11 with over 100 projects a month, designing spaces that range from restaurants (Luca and Fleetwood are more recent projects) to personal yachts and private planes. But
always, residential design is at the heart of his business. In recent years in Western Living, we’ve spotlighted a mere fraction of his boldly colourful spaces, like a house wildly inspired by Alice in Wonderland, and his own home in Calgary’s Bel-Aire neighbourhood (seen below), the latter a California-meets-Calgary eclectic melding of mid-century and antique pieces. (“I like a mix—I like something that makes you scratch your head and think, why?” he says.)
In his most memorable designs, you’ll see bold statements like a cobalt-blue desk or sectional in the living room, or teal velvet Platner chairs in the salon. But you’ll always find quieter moments: neutral wall coverings that showcase the homeowners’ impressive art collection, for example, as seen in a Mount Royal project. “There’s nothing better than a room that’s been executed with colour that’s thoughtful, and the colour itself provides the texture in the room,” he told us back in 2022. “It’s bold, but not overwhelming.”
Ultimately, Lavoie is a gifted designer whose goal, he says, is to help his clients live their best life. “As a designer, if you can do more than just give somebody the right sofa, but teach them how to live in their house in a different way—that’s the most incredible thing.”
Living room: Martin Tessler
Iconic Style Designer Paul Lavoie’s own home (below) was featured in Western Living in 2015—and again in our 50th anniversary issue, as one of our 50 favourite designs and designers.
MOODY ELEMENTS
Designer Andrea Blais’s fine metal and stone pieces truly say something about each of their wearers—and it’s that emotional attunement to her clients that makes her pieces stand out.
By Kristi Alexandra / Portraits
by Jon Adrian
MMINIMALISM IN DESIGN
is typically defined by the old maxim that less is more. But for Kelowna-based jewellery designer Andrea Blais, her love of minimalism allows more to be more—thicker, sculpted metal for rings, fewer but larger stones, high-grade polish for high-contrast shine.
“I’ve always been drawn to minimalism—just generally as an aesthetic—but when it comes to jewellery, I think it really comes down to the materials,” says our 2025 Fashion and Jewellery Designer of the Year, who works mainly with gold, sterling silver, freshwater pearls and gemstones.
The Kelowna-via-Calgary designer developed her practice after taking night classes in jewellery making at Alberta College of Art and Design. “I just fell madly in love with it... I didn’t necessarily go into it with that intention, but it grew into that as I was able to,” says Blais, who soon decided to pursue a four-year bachelor of fine arts in the discipline. “It feels organic. My whole life, I’ve just gone with the flow and I see what takes me where.”
Still, there was an echo from childhood that hinted at the designer’s eventual life’s work. “As a little girl, I was always making little beaded jewellery,” she says. “It was always tiny, always three-dimensional. I dabbled in painting and more 2D stuff, but I was drawn to sculpture.”
The jewellery she designs for her clients—among them Canadian music icon Jann Arden—indeed are wearable sculptures, in the form of statement pieces and cocktail rings that inspire (nay, demand) conversation. Take the Stasia, a custom aquamarine, freshwater pearl, diamond and platinum ring made for Alberta photographer Stasia Schmidt. The toi et moi ring features a large-cut aquamarine set opposite a giant freshwater pearl, and the band (which features two settings and doesn’t make a complete circle) is sprinkled with small diamonds for an “iced” effect.
Mighty Gemstones
“It’s like a little universe inside that stone,” Blais says of the Stasia ring’s large aquamarine gem, made for a close friend.
“I really appreciated the storytelling,” says judge Irina Flore of Studio Flore of this custom-made piece for Jann Arden. “Every detail felt personal and intentional.”
Andrea Blais ON DESIGN
What was your first design project?
I don’t think this was my first project, but it was early on in my education and left a big impact on me. One of the classes that I took at Alberta College of Art and Design (now AUArts) was a jewellery drawing class. I drew a simple line drawing of a dandelion gone to seed with some of the seeds dispersed and floating away. I later used the same design in a wide silver cuff bracelet, which was the first piece of jewellery I ever sold—and the person who purchased the bracelet loved the design so much she ended up getting a tattoo of it on her arm. The fact that someone connected to something that I designed and created so much they wanted it on their body forever was such an honour to me— and still is.
What are you listening to?
Lately, I’m all about the nostalgia. Depeche Mode, The Cure, I will always love The Talking Heads—the songs that you went through your formative years with will always hit you in a way like nothing else.
Is there a famous project or object you wish you’d designed?
I remember being so inspired when I first saw the bone cuff designed by Elsa Peretti. It looks like liquid metal flowing over the wrist. A simple but brilliant idea executed perfectly.
Luminous Heirloom
FASHION AND JEWELLERY DESIGNER OF THE YEAR 2025
“It’s a bit heavy, but it’s not an everyday ring. It’s a cocktail ring, a statement piece. It’s okay that it’s got some weight to it,” says Blais. “Being able to bring in those icy elements with the diamonds—it brought it all together.”
Blais taps into the power of emotion to create her one-of-a-kind pieces for her clients, and that’s especially evident in the ring she created for Arden. The custom 14K white and yellow gold ring, featuring diamonds and a single peridot, is modelled on a first ring by Blais that was crafted using Arden’s mother’s heirloom diamonds. At the time of making the original, Arden’s mom Joan was suffering from dementia. When Arden lost the original, the designer did a custom remake, with enough tweaks that it felt new.
“That was such an emotional roller coaster, that piece,” Blais says. “She wanted something similar, but not exactly the same. She had asked if we could have her mom’s name written on the ring somehow and I was having a hard time visualizing how that would look on the outside of the ring, so I suggested just engraving it on the inside of the ring with her mom’s birthstone. There’s something nice about having something on the inside of the ring, too, because it’s against your skin.”
Blais is a designer who takes inspiration from nature and emotion—and when her client Rita approached her to create a “bold but feminine” 14K recycled yellow gold ring with Akoya saltwater pearls, she was thrilled to make something for a fellow pearl-lover. The result was a shiny, thick and melty gold band with three pearls graduating in size, wide enough that they cover the top of the finger. “There’s such a simple beauty with playing around with sizes and repetition. I refer to it as a pulse of light expressed in pearls. It’s like a burst, just getting bigger,” Blais says.
The simplicity of minimalist design allows the materials to shine when contrasted with a maximalist approach. “Minimalism really lets
those materials sing and, having that nice big surface of high-polish metal, you get the reflective nature of it and you get all those beautiful curves that are highlighted by that reflection.”
Our judges can agree that Blais’s designs are both reflective and bold in their simplicity. “She knows how to make a piece feel personal without overworking it,” write Pyrrha’s Wade and Danielle Papin, while Irina Flore of Studio Flore notes that the designs are “quietly powerful, beautifully made and full of meaning.”
That quiet power lies in Blais’s ability to take seemingly simple elements—like pearls—and make them bigger, shinier and, well, more
For Dinner
Humo Izakaya in Kelowna—it’s incredible. It’s a blend of Asian and Latin cuisine, with very unique dishes and an incredible cocktail and wine menu. Humo also just opened a new cocktail bar that I’ve been dying to try called Ask Pablo.
For Design Shopping I would have to say Chinook Optical in Calgary. It’s a family-run business that was established over 100 years ago—now run by Anna Niemczewski, who has incredible taste. They always have the most beautiful, interesting and stylish frames. She also collaborates with local artists and designers on projects and donates the proceeds to local charities. We collaborated on a monocle pendant a few years ago.
For Shopping Local I might be a bit biased because they carry my work, but Alchemy Fine Goods in Kelowna is such a treasure. They recently downsized and are more focused on fine jewellery and less on home goods. They have a lot of incredible vintage and antique pieces as well as contemporary jewellery. I always love it when I have a reason to visit.
Andrea Blais’s LOCAL FAVOURITES
Pearly Brights
High-contrast shine and graduating pearls “sing” in the Rita ring.
MORE THAN MODERN: HOW
BOSCH KITCHEN APPLIANCES ENHANCE
FORM AND FUNCTION
IN A WHISTLER HOME
Bosch’s smart appliances elevate the functionality of this modern kitchen while seamlessly integrating into a Whistler home design by LRD Studio
Harmony with nature, clean lines and seamless connection between the outdoors and indoors—these are the West Coast Modern principles that formed the basis of Panorama, a Whistler home design by Lauren Ritz of LRD Studio.
“We aimed to create a home deeply connected to its surroundings, where architecture and landscape work together to form a unified, immersive experience,” says Ritz, principal interior designer and owner of LRD Studio.
Ritz and her team took inspiration from Whistler’s natural surroundings. The mountains, forest and austere rock face are reflected in the kitchen’s oak and honed stone—along with an abundance of natural light to frame the views.
“The warm, earthy colour palette of wood and stone creates a calm, cohesive atmosphere,” says Ritz.
This welcoming and elevated modern kitchen is more than just beautiful. It’s highly
functional, with appliances to match—a necessity for a family home. “Bosch appliances suit the client’s lifestyle by combining ease of use, efficiency and consistent performance,” says Ritz.
The kitchen features the Bosch 800 Series Combination Oven 30’’, a dual-oven that seamlessly incorporates smart technology and the Bosch 500 Series Gas Cooktop 36’’ Stainless steel with five high-efficiency burners.
“These appliances stood out for their advanced technology, precise flame control and versatile cooking modes,” Ritz notes. “They support quick, everyday meals as well as more elaborate cooking, allowing the client to spend less time managing appliances and more time enjoying their home.”
Ritz and the team at LRD Studio thoughtfully considered these appliances as part of the overall design process for Panorama in order to elevate the space’s performance without over-
shadowing the architectural beauty and interior design. “Technology is integrated discreetly to enhance function without disrupting the clean, modern aesthetic,” says Ritz. The oak millwork, for example, was custom crafted to fit around the appliances, so they fit seamlessly into the cabinetry.
“At LRD Studio, we emphasize thoughtful, lasting design inspired by our connection to the Sea to Sky region,” notes Ritz. Bosch’s commitment to quality, sustainability and timeless design closely aligns with LRD Studio's design values. Bosch’s reliable reputation was a big plus for their clients.
For Ritz, Bosch’s reliable performance, sleek aesthetics and sustainability make them the perfect fit for LRD Studio design projects which focus on high standards and design values.
Experience Bosch’s designs in person by booking a personalized product consultation at one of the Bosch Canada showrooms in Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver: bosch-home.ca/en/ kitchen-planning/showrooms.
@boschhomecanada
bosch-home.ca/en/
PHOTOS BY EMA PETER
IN PURSUIT OF JOY
Through translucent forms and thoughtful function, Annaka Hoelk designs pieces that gently invite beauty— and joy—into the rituals of daily life.
By Kerri Donaldson / Portraits by Pooya Nabei
Light Bright
The interactive Bor table lamp (below) invites users to swap coloured glass discs to customize the feeling of a space. The Nui floor lamp (right) takes the familiar cone lamp shade silhouette and modernizes it with industrial stainless steel and a shard of acrylic to alter the lighting in the space. “Lighting that creates mood and atmosphere is really important,” says Hoelk.
SCloud Coverage
SOMETIMES , if you want something done right—or at least the way you want it done —you’ve got to do it yourself. Since graduating from Emily Carr University in 2023, Annaka Hoelk has mastered that DIY ethos, quietly turning everyday objects into poetic statements. Her refined furniture, elegant lighting and artful home pieces are proof that, as she says, “good design connects us more deeply to our environment.”
As a designer, Hoelk believes the perfect piece of home decor— whether it’s a vase, lamp or even her Blue Sky incense holder—should be all about love. The right objects are “luxuries... the little cherry on top of your life,” she says. “The things you don’t need but you really, truly, deeply want.”
That pursuit of delight defines her design: clean lines, translucent materials, punchy colours and bold forms combine functionality with emotional impact. Rooted in personal necessity—many pieces began life in her small Vancouver apartment—Hoelk’s work is guided by one philosophy: design should enrich daily rituals, making the ordinary feel extraordinary.
Take the Blank coffee table, for instance—crafted from dual sheets of tempered glass floating in a white oak frame, it’s simple, practical and serene. At the time, she needed a coffee table “that had some amount of... not storage, but layers,” she says. “You can have things on the lower level and still eat or have coffee on the top level.”
The Paynes vase plays with translucency to display everyday items in fogged acrylic, transforming the mundane—office supplies, tools, makeup brushes—into sculptural objects instead of clutter in a drawer.
Annaka
Hoelk
ON DESIGN
Any podcasts you follow?
I follow many, many podcasts, but my favourites are The Sporkful, Gastropod, Radiolab, Unexplainable, 99 Percent Invisible and Ologies with Alie Ward—all great for weird and wonderful factoids alongside thoughtprovoking journalism.
What is the most perfectly designed object?
Although it’s perhaps an expected answer, the Eames moulded plywood lounge (not the same as the famous upholstered one with the ottoman) is truly masterful. How a piece of hard plywood could feel so perfectly comfortable and supportive is beyond me.
What are your design pet peeves?
I really don’t like materials masquerading as other materials. Fake distressing, thin veneers or “faux” anything. If you want your wood to look aged, buy vintage or wait until it ages, and if you’re not going to have a piece of furniture long enough to see that happen, we have other problems to contend with. I understand that some materials are expensive and out of reach, which is why we try to imitate, but personally I’d rather work with something attainable and use it creatively than mimic something I can’t afford. Great pieces can come from humble materials just as much as terrible things can be made from the most beautiful marble.
“I love flowers. I grew up with that in our household. I always thought vases could do more than just hold water.”
Table Rasa
Handmade in Vancouver, the Blank coffee table layers two sheets of glass within a white oak frame— serving as both an entertaining surface and a display for treasures.
“I needed a coffee table for my place,” says Hoelk. “It’s designed to be a blank (yet beautiful) slate for your life.” Her love of translucency also shines in the Nook vase (top), which subtly obscures and reveals blooms like a living work of art.
Annaka’s LOCAL FAVOURITES
For Breakfast
Hunnybee Bruncheonette in Vancouver’s Chinatown is great from breakfast to lunch. It’s casual order-at-thecounter with seating inside and out. The breakfast sandwich with their homemade sourdough and green hot sauce on a sunny day cannot be beat.
For Dinner
The Lunch Lady on Commercial Drive is my favourite restaurant in Vancouver, hands down. It’s phenomenal Vietnamese food with a contemporary edge; they also have great cocktails, and it’s always busy, which I find really important for the feel of a restaurant. It’s got a buzz, but not in a pretentious cool-kids-club kind of way.
For Cocktails
The Keefer Bar has really unique creations and unmatched happy hour deals on weekdays, so it’s great for after-work drinks.
For Design Shopping
I quite like Old Faithful Shop in Gastown. They stock a lot of Japanese design and crafted objects, and they have a great art/design book section, which for me is the biggest draw—design books are the definition of two birds, one stone: they’re decor, education and inspiration all in one (so, three birds).
The glass, of course, keeps beautiful things visible, without cluttering the surface, “like museum specimens,” explains Hoelk. Hoelk has since expanded the table line to include clear or smoked glass and oak or black frames—it’s even available in longer formats built from her clean, layered aesthetic.
Hoelk’s fascination with translucency shines brightest in the ethereal Nook vase, a concept she developed after returning to the acrylic experiments of her school days. (It also captured the attention of judge Caine Heintzman of A-N-D, who praised Hoelk’s work for its “refined finishing, sensitive use of colour and evocative play of translucency,” as well as its “mature aesthetic sensibility and iterative evolution.”)
She traces the origins of Nook’s design back to the work of her floral-artist mother. “I love flowers. I grew up with that in our household,” she says. “I always thought vases could do more than just hold water.” With three enclosed translucent sides and an open front, the vase adds a layer of the hidden to otherwise showy blooms. The frosted acrylic walls blur floral compositions, evoking Impressionist brushstrokes and gently guiding how we perceive each stem. “A good vase influences how you style flowers,” says Hoelk, “enhancing their beauty by strategically obscuring or revealing their form.”
ONE TO WATCH: INDUSTRIAL
SUPERMARKET STUDIO
At Supermarket Studio, weaving is more than a technique. Founded by Chantel and Ryan Ness, the Vancouver-based studio blends backgrounds in interior design, fine art, filmmaking and family rugmaking roots (roots that run deep: Ryan is a fourth-generation carpet merchant). Their custom rugs feel both rooted and modern, grounded by a human-centred approach.
“Each one of our rugs passes through the hands of about 90 people from start to finish, starting from the person in the field who’s tending to the sheep,” says Chantel. The studio works with longstanding weaving partners in India, supporting endangered techniques like khadi (handspun yarn) and providing fair-wage employment for elder women no longer able to weave.
But their work isn’t just technical. “Listening is a tactile exchange in its own way,” adds Chantel. That means understanding the client, the space, the materials and the insights of their weavers. This approach lets the studio create rugs that are both practical and personal.
Judge Mischa Couvrette of Hollis and Morris celebrated the design, noting that Hoelk’s use of translucency is “particularly captivating” for how it creates an experience that turns a simple stem into an artistic moment.
Hoelk continues this exploration with the Paynes vase, crafted from milky acrylic and repurposing the visual language of corrugated packaging into something more sculptural. The piece is purposefully multipurpose yet avoids the trap of over-engineering: its compartmental design is a nod to ikebana and encourages deliberate placement, not clutter. After all, she says, “Why hide beauty inside drawers?” Judge Fiete Schlüter of Vitra noted the “unexpected shades” that arise from the piece’s layered composition.
Lighting was where Hoelk’s practice began, though she admits that manufacturing and regulatory complexities have limited its role in her more recent collections. Still, the sculptural Nui floor lamp, first developed at Emily Carr, captures her lighting philosophy: it’s “a physical presence and something ephemeral that transforms an entire space,” she says. Its stainless-steel cone and acrylic accent bridge form and atmosphere, even when the light is off.
With her understated creativity, Annaka Hoelk proves that good design doesn’t just fill space—it enriches our experience. And, just two years into her career, she’s only getting started.
In Figure Triptych, for example, three rugs were developed from the same core design (featuring a stoic sentinel figure) but achieved through distinct methods: a flatweave, a Moroccan Berber shag and a hand-knotted piece with varied pile heights and carving.
Judge Mischa Couvrette of Hollis and Morris praises the studio for “the connection to history with the pieces yet bold geometries and colours explored.” Vivian Chong
Three on the Floor
Beginning with the same core design, each carpet in the Figure Triptych series was brought to life by different hands and techniques. Individually, they offer something unique — in texture, in weight, in relief. Together, they form a quiet balance.
Instant Click
Lauren Bugliarisi
and Tanja
of Marrimor Objects, photographed at Livingspace in Vancouver. After connecting via a Craigslist ad in 2017, they found an instant creative chemistry that quickly grew into a lasting partnership, fuelling Marrimor Objects’ intuitive design process.
OBJECT LESSONS
When you find your creative match—like the duo behind Marrimor Objects—the result is furniture in which playful meets practical, and good design becomes something greater.
By Kerri Donaldson / Portraits by Pooya Nabei
(left)
Breadner
Paper Trail
Taking a page—literally— from the frustration of writer’s block, Marrimor’s Draft rug (a 2025 WL Design 25 winner) transforms crumpled-paper chaos into an elegant silk-and-wool statement piece.
WWHEN SWISS-BORN
Tanja Breadner, already running Marrimor Interiors since 2013, hired Torontoraised design grad Lauren Bugliarisi via Craigslist in 2017, neither could have imagined it would be the beginning of something extraordinary. Initially, the arrangement was straightforward: mentor meets protege. But after two years, countless late-night site visits and one particularly stubborn design challenge, the professional hierarchy had dissolved into a creative duet.
Their turning point came in 2019 while they were struggling to source the perfect dining table for a residential client. Determined to solve the puzzle themselves, the pair headed to La Mezcaleria on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive for brainstorming fuel—margaritas and queso. Soon, napkins filled with rapid sketches, each designer effortlessly finishing the other’s thoughts, as if sharing one mind. It was that electrifying “if we can’t find it, we’ll build it” moment that gave rise to Marrimor Objects, the product-focused arm now turning heads in the global design community.
Tanja and Lauren ON DESIGN
What was your first design project?
TB: A big house on the water in Belcarra. I was way out of my league then, but the clients still loved it.
LB: A furnishing project on the west side of Vancouver. We did a lot of custom furniture in the house and I designed my first dining table for the project—it was a big aha moment for me.
Was there a childhood moment that hinted design was in your future?
Pop Art
Inspired by the humble soda-can tab, the Toof table pairs a sculptural steel frame with a plush, removable pouf—transforming an everyday shape into clever seating or a cozy place to rest your feet.
TB: It wasn’t so much a moment, but rather I always liked building things with my hands, and I liked looking at beautiful objects and art when I was a kid. They gave me joy!
LB: As cliché as it sounds, I was always moving my furniture around as a child. Even as an adult I love the feeling of falling asleep in a bed that’s in a different spot than it was yesterday.
What do people often get wrong about design?
TB+LB: Proportions (in synchrony).
What are your design pet peeves?
TB+LB: The fear of not committing to a design or holding back in order to appeal to everyone. We really believe that fully and wholeheartedly committing to a design aesthetic or a concept is crucial for a successful outcome.
FURNITURE DESIGNER
“It totally caught me by surprise,” remembers Bugliarisi about their design chemistry. “But once it happened, there was no denying it.”
By 2020, their partnership had evolved into a distinct furniture brand, blending rigorous design principles with playful experimentation, luxurious materials and everyday livability.
Their synergy is both remarkable and intuitive. “We’re very different yet very similar,” explains Breadner. “It’s less about what you communicate and more about how you communicate.” Bugliarisi jokes: “Honestly, divorcing my husband would probably be easier than divorcing Tanja.”
Their intuitive collaboration shines through clearly in their standout piece, the elegant Drape sofa. Inspired by Old Hollywood glamour, it features the distinctive Marrimor “wiggle” that emerges from a dynamic handcrafted and digital design process. Bugliarisi initially visualized the sofa and iterated early prototypes with Tanja. Yet something felt off. Breadner stepped in, hand-drawing dozens of flowing lines until the sofa achieved its perfectly fluid, organic rhythm, just like the curtains it was inspired by. “Good drapery brings layering, luxury and, honestly, sex appeal,” says Bugliarisi. Breadner laughs, “I’m tired of drawing wiggles—next one’s square and simple.”
Tanja
and
Lauren’s
LOCAL FAVOURITES
For Lunch
Superbaba! It’s right around the corner from our office and is a favourite for our whole team.
For Dinner
La Mezcaleria on Commercial Drive. We were sitting at the bar there in 2019 having margaritas and queso when we decided to launch a furniture brand.
For Cocktails
Dachi on Hastings. We love their innovative wine list and cocktail menu, the ambiance is great and it’s close to home, which is always a plus after a couple of cocktails.
For Shopping Local
Fluid Design
Inspired by Old Hollywood glamour, the Drape sofa’s fluid shape emerged from meticulous collaboration: Bugliarisi’s vision sparked the concept, while Breadner’s countless handdrawn “wiggles” perfected its elegant curves.
We love Livingspace for furniture (including our own!) and Provide for decorative objects and art. Both are such a hub for our local design community and are a dream to collaborate with whenever we get the chance.
For a Longer Getaway
TB: For me it’s still Tofino I don’t get out there as often as I’d like but whenever I go, I love the ruggedness and raw beauty of British Columbia. LB: Hornby Island. It’s one of the most magical places in all of B.C.; such a fun and quirky small town with the best beach in the whole province.
FURNITURE DESIGNER OF THE YEAR 2025
Similarly, their Toof table—“sleek, sexy and surprising,” according to Bugliarisi—exemplifies their practical yet stylish ethos. Created to fulfill an interior design project’s need for a discreet footstool, its concept was inspired by a soda-can pull tab. The resulting plush pouf nestled within a sleek powder-coated steel frame allows it to act as either a side table or ottoman.
Their award-winning Draft rug—named one of Western Living ’s Design 25 best designs of 2025—is another demonstration of their creative ingenuity. Crafted in wool and silk, its three-dimensional pattern mirrors the peaks and valleys of crumpled paper, transforming creative frustration into tactile beauty. “Creating beauty feels especially meaningful now, given how difficult the world can feel,” says Breadner. The Draft rug is both an “ode to writer’s block” and a tangible testament to the Marrimor team’s skill at turning obstacles into inspiration.
ONE TO WATCH: FURNITURE
“It’s less about what you communicate and more about how you communicate.” Bugliarisi jokes:
“Honestly, divorcing my husband would probably be easier than divorcing Tanja.”
Ultimately, as Bugliarisi notes, Marrimor Objects designs pieces meant to be lived with and loved. “It’s magical when people live daily with your creations,” she says. Judge and acclaimed furniture designer Christian Woo commended Marrimor Objects for its “consistent brand appeal” and “exceptional clarity,” noting the duo’s thoughtful creativity. A partnership sparked by chance, fuelled by margaritas and sustained through mutual respect and playful creativity has evolved into an internationally acclaimed design brand: the Drape sofa and Toof table appeared at Milan Design Week in 2024 and 2025. It’s proof that great design isn’t just about function; when done well, it’s art woven into everyday life.
KERFWORK FURNITURE , BRENDAN HARRINGTON
Brendan Harrington didn’t think he wanted to be a furniture designer. “Back in high school, I never took woodworking as a course because I didn’t like the idea of cutting down trees,” says the Victoria-based designer with a laugh.
But, years later, he and his partner were struggling to find an affordable yet stylish dining table for their home. “We were both pretty broke, so I just started buying construction lumber, finding things in alleyways and then buying some really, really terrible tools from Canadian Tire and Home Depot,” he says. “I started making a table and a bench for myself—and it just sort of kept going from there.”
Thirteen years later, Harrington’s furniture brand, Kerfwork, is celebrating its second anniversary. The brand’s collection now includes six substantial pieces—two chairs, three tables and a media console. While these works are often large and heavy (his recent Crush dining table weighs nearly 500 pounds), Harrington skillfully creates a sense of lightness with design features like floating tops and tapered leg ends.
While Harrington has plans to expand Kerfwork into a small team of craftspeople, he doesn’t plan to stop doing the work himself. “I don’t ever want to hand off the reins and only handle the business,” he says. “To me, woodworking is the reason for Kerfwork.”
Xiao Qing Wan
Solid State
Kerfwork’s Crush dining table is one of six pieces in its latest collection.
CRACKED VESSELS
By
Ceramicist Andrea Copp celebrates resilience and change through her sculptural work.
Kristi Alexandra / Portraits by Pooya Nabei
TTWO YEARS AGO, Andrea Copp felt like she was in the midst of some pretty big life turmoil. She was “navigating a period of profound personal change,” she says, including the sudden loss of her home and the aftermath of a shattering divorce.
“I was in the middle of being, in an unpleasant way, kicked out of my house, and I was feeling really—let’s just say—bullied,” says the Lions Bay-born artist. “I had a lot of loss; I know it’s not uncommon: your kids leave home, your mom [passes away], your husband... you know, different problems. I felt like, oh, I overcame stuff.”
So perhaps it’s no surprise that our 2025 Maker of the Year finds a theme of resilience in both her work and life. As she found herself coming through the other side of it all, Copp held fast to the idea of impermanence and coming-of-age, with those themes reflected in the materials she selected for her creations. She’d long worked with clay, but as she approached her 50th birthday, she decided it was time to treat herself to some porcelain.
“The porcelain was very creamy and buttery and beautiful. I remember feeling like, wow, I found my clay,” she says. She used the material to create Golden Hour, a light sculpture made from maple wood treated in shou sugi ban (a traditional Japanese method for preserving wood by charring its surface), porcelain forms and polished brass.
“A box of porcelain is around $100, compared to [other clay], which ranges around $30. So, it’s special,” she says. “It’s pretty precious and I felt like I earned it, because I did.”
Created for Milan Design Week in 2023 for the Milanese art gallery Studio Rö, Golden Hour represents the mountains and reflective waters of Howe Sound—and, on a deeper level, tells a story of endurance through forest fires (the gnarled maple), resilience (porcelain “blackened by hardship”) and, ultimately, coming to life through light (beeswax candles illuminate the sculpture, reflecting off of highshine polished brass).
Andrea Copp ON DESIGN
What classic object is most in need of a redesign?
The doorknob. It’s a humble object we often overlook, yet we touch it every time we move from one space to another.
Like putting on shoes, it’s a small ritual—a moment to pause. I think there’s room for a redesign that brings more awareness to that transition, inviting a bit of mindfulness into the everyday.
What are you listening to right now?
I’m eclectic, listening to everything, depending on if I have the space for lyrics: I move from Nils Frahm to Malcolm McLaren to Tom Misch and Zaho de Sagazan.
Breaking Open
Copp’s vessels have no shortage of yearning. Both The Lost Kiss (top) and Cloud Never Dies (middle) are open-mouthed vessels, as if waiting to be filled. Says Copp of the former: “One shoulder is a woman’s—it’s more soft and rounded—and one square because it’s a male, and it folds in a little bit like an embrace.”
What’s on your nightstand right now?
The Daily Stoic, Stealing Dad, photo albums, sketchbook.
Favourite Western Canadian artist?
David Burns—for his honesty and his connection to place. There’s a freedom in the way he works, a playful expression that stays true to his voice and environment. He holds his truth and speaks from the heart, and that kind of integrity really matters to me.
Andrea Copp’s LOCAL FAVOURITES MAKER
Time Capsule
“The Accental collec tion feels so connected to a time and place in her life and to see the pieces photographed in this environment is so compelling,” writes judge David Keeler of Provide.
For Breakfast
Orto Pasta in North Vancouver is my secret hideaway. It’s a quiet spot for either breakfast or lunch: a mushroom omelette or a bowl of soup, always from clean, fresh food in their garden among the raised beds of vegetables and flowers. I feel at peace and private there. And, if I’m lucky, Brigitte, the owner, will sit with me for a chat.
For Coffee
Isetta in West Vancouver is absolutely my coffee spot; it’s a perfectly designed space, and it’s always a treat to chat with staff and with Thomas Eleizegui, the GM. But If I’m passing through Vancouver, I’ll stop at La Tana for a coffee or cocktail to meet a friend. Both places are beautifully designed, thoughtful and full of character.
For Design Shopping
Provide is the place to get it all: candles, bedding, the best rugs and my favourite solid brass book page opener thing by Henry Wilson.
For a Local Getaway
Celebratory Clay
During a huge turning point in her life, Copp treated herself to precious porcelain, which she used in Golden Hour (left).
Swimming from my childhood seaside at Lions Bay to feel engulfed and held by the mystery of the sea or to disappear into the forest is my version of getting away; it’s more of a coming to my senses and a reminder of what’s important.
Bottom photo: Jacob Brinth
“It’s about the end of the day, where you have a reflection of your day,” says Copp, “and you’re grateful for your life and whatever this day might have been.”
Her work often explores the changing nature of life—and one’s ability to embrace both change and impermanence. Cloud
Never Dies, for example, is an open-mouthed ceramic vessel incorporating sky blue and swirls of cloud-like white. The name of the piece adapts a quote from Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, which says, “Sooner or later, the cloud will change into rain or snow or ice. If you look deeply into the rain, you can see the cloud. The cloud is not lost; it is transformed into rain.”
“I feel that we’re all cracked and we can be restored and renewed. And I love gold. I like highlighting our flaws, recording imperfections, just getting real with stuff.”
ONE TO WATCH: MAKER
SFOSSILS
Mike Seymour of Sfossils isn’t interested in creating with a fixed destination in mind. “I try to go in with the most naivety as possible,” he says. “It’s anti-research, in a way.”
Eagle-eyed readers might recognize Seymour’s work from a profile in our January/February issue earlier this year—hot on the heels of his debut collections in Milan and Vancouver. Since then, he’s been exploring new glazes and materials, building a new studio and preparing for exhibitions in London and Moscow.
Seymour’s design ethos remains rooted in experimentation, not repetition. “It’s learning and pushing boundaries,” he says, “and trying to figure out what new things we can make.” His organic, sculptural pieces blend ceramics, light and textured finishes. “I go in only with questions, not with preconceived ideas,” Seymour adds, noting that much of his learning comes through collaboration with other makers.
His recent light installation at Vancouver’s Burdock and Co draws from West Coast geography and ingredients from the restaurant’s menu. Like a chef plating a dish, Seymour assembled and hung a palette of pieces in situ, creating a layered composition that echoed its surroundings.
Judge Carla Sorrell of Design Victoria praises his approach: “Throughout the projects, a curiosity and reverence for the material (clay) and its potential to speak to the context (from an ancient villa in Italy to a restaurant in Vancouver) is exciting, relevant and captivating.” Vivian Chong
And with embracing change also comes accepting imperfection, which Copp celebrates with another vaselike vessel that incorporates the use of kintsugi, in which gold lacquer is used to repair broken pottery.
“I feel that we’re all cracked and we can be restored and renewed,” Copp explains of her decision to use the Japanese art form. “And I love gold. I like highlighting our flaws, recording imperfections, just getting real with stuff.”
Copp speaks as if she was simply born to create art, and the judges agree. “Andrea’s work demonstrates a profound process of introspection, of both self and place,” says Sumer Singh of Mercedes and Singh. “Each piece carries a rich narrative quality, coming from a deep personal memory.”
From Copp’s perspective, she’s just as much a part of the artwork as she creates it. “Whether it’s how I’m dressing the house or arranging flowers; whether it’s raising a family or preparing the food on the table, it’s all design and I’m in the art of it,” she says.
Experimental Glow
Drawing on West Coast geography, this experimental light fixture from Sfossils hangs at Vancouver’s Burdock and Co.
THE WL PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS
Now in its second year, the Western Living People’s Choice Awards are voted on by our readers: every finalist has one dynamic project in the running to take home the top prize—and here are your winners.
FINALISTS: ARCHITECTURE
Alpine Meadows Residence, Frits de Vries Architect Ltd.
Fluevog House, MA+HG
Pontoon Cove Eco House, One Seed Architecture and Interiors
Ranch Outpost, Laura Killam Architecture
Shoreline House, Splyce Design
The Farm, Scott Posno Design
WINNER
Kings Residence
Synthesis Design Inc.
Designed to incorporate both a public office and a private space, the Vancouver home embodies the relaxed, easygoing ethos of its owners.
FINALIST:
EMERGING ARCHITECTURE OR RESIDENTIAL DESIGN
Pontoon Cove Eco House, One Seed Architecture and Interiors
WINNER
Ranch Outpost
Laura Killam Architecture
Perched above a windswept bluff in Desolation Sound, the home embraces informal summer living with sheltered spaces that allow guests to seamlessly transition between indoors and out.
FINALISTS: INTERIOR DESIGN
A Minimalist Urban Sanctuary, DWK Interiors Inc.
Alpine Meadows Residence, Frits de Vries Architect Ltd.
Eagle Harbour, Amanda Evans Interiors Inc.
Jade Lake Cabins, Bidgood
Kits Point, Stephanie Brown Inc.
Madison House, Mera Studio Architects
Modern Eclectic, Kelly Deck Design
Parkhill, Alykhan Velji Designs
Rosebery Residence, Gillian Segal Design
Thormanby Island, Project 22 Design Inc.
WINNER
East Elbow Residence
Amanda Hamilton
Interior Design
Brimming with personality and bold design choices, this custom home in Calgary fearlessly blends modernity with timeless charm.
FINALISTS: EMERGING INTERIOR DESIGN
Archē, Schédio Spaces
Balancing Act, Ashley de Boer Interiors
Classy A-Frame, Hillary Rutherford Interiors
Eclectic Mid-Century Revival, Louis Duncan-He Designs
Evergreen Abode, Smiddy Stegman
Loft, &Daughters
Madison House, Mera Studio Architects
Parkside Elegance, Formwerks Interiors
WINNER
Lakeview Village
Renovation
Studio Felix
A combination of bold colour and textural and earthy elements brings timeless sophistication to this Calgary home.
FINALISTS: FASHION AND JEWELLERY
Coral Candy Reef, E.V. Stenroos
Jann Ring, Andrea Blais
Mielikki Goddess Earrings, Scandinavia Wolf
WINNER
Diamond Halo Abundance 8
Affirmation Love Note
The Sonja Picard Collection
Incorporating eight symbols meant to inspire transformation and abundance, the piece is made in 14K gold surrounded by a diamond halo.
FINALISTS: FURNITURE
Drape, Marrimor Objects
Getty Side Table, Gillian Segal
Nieves Bench, Autonomous Furniture
Sculpted Sligo Chair, Kerfwork
Sutil Table, Shipway Living Design
Oak Bar, Caliper Studio
World’s Cutest Step Stool, Buckshee Workshop
FINALISTS: INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
Friedman House, Supermarket Studio
Mood Sectional, KLC Kreativ
Nook Vase, Annaka Hoelk Studio
Sculptural Artworks, Mike Randall Design Ltd.
WINNER
Flight
Wayne Halabourda
Inspired by seabirds amusing themselves by playing on the wind, the striking table design features elegant curves and fine finishing.
WINNER
Hackney Chair
Alykhan Velji Designs
With a swivel base and gracefully curved finished back, the chair brings a hint of British sophistication to the living room.
FINALISTS: MAKER/ONE OF A KIND
First Light, Sfossils
Hot Pink Passion Love, The Sonja Picard Collection
Linear, Studio Brovhn
Melanie Auld Wall Sconces, Danica Kaspar
Torch Free Weights, Heft
WINNER
Cloud Never Dies
Andrea Copp Ceramics
Coil built and layered with a coloured porcelain slip, the vessel has a painterly look that’s inspired by the ever-changing sky and sea.
Food styling by Lawren Moneta; photos by Seth Stevenson; prop styling by Ryan Louis
Furniture
Autonomous Furniture
Buckshee Woodshop
Caliper Studio
Gillian Segal Design
Kerfwork
Marrimor Objects
Romney Shipway
Wayne Halabourda
Architecture
Frits de Vries Architect Ltd.
Laura Killam Architecture
MA+HG Architects
One Seed Architecture and Interiors
Scott Posno Design
Splyce Design
Synthesis Design Inc.
Arthur Erickson Memorial Award for an Emerging Architect or Residential Designer
Laura Killam Architecture
One Seed Architecture and Interiors
Fashion and Jewellery
Andrea Blais
E.V. Stenroos
Scandinavia Wolf
The Sonja Picard Collection
Industrial Design
Alykhan Velji Designs
Annaka Hoelk Studio
KLC Kreativ
Mike Randall Design Ltd.
Supermarket Studio
The Sonja Picard Collection
Scott Posno Design
E.V. Stenroos
Frits de Vries Architect Ltd.
Mike Randall Design Ltd.
Sama Jim Canzian Andrew Latreille
Interior Design
Alykhan Velji Designs
Amanda Evans Interiors Inc.
Amanda Hamilton Interior Design
Bidgood
DWK Interiors Inc.
Frits de Vries Architect Ltd.
Gillian Segal Design
Kelly Deck Design
Mera Studio Architects
Project 22 Design Inc.
Stephanie Brown Inc.
Robert Ledingham
Memorial Award for an Emerging Interior Designer &Daughters
Ashley de Boer Interiors Formwerks Interiors
Hillary Rutherford Interiors
Louis Duncan-He Designs
Mera Studio Architects Inc.
Schédio Spaces
Smiddy Stegman
Studio Felix
Maker/One of a Kind
Andrea Copp Ceramics
Danica Kaspar
Heft
Sfossils
Studio Brovhn
The Sonja Picard Collection
Danica Kaspar
Louis Duncan-He Designs
Gillian Segal Design
One Seed Architecture and Interiors
Heft
Alykhan Velji Designs
Buckshee Woodshop
Brent Comber creates storied works reflective of the Pacific Northwest’s ephemeral landscape, exploring generation, connection, permanence and impermanence. He works primarily with wood and light to create sculptural pieces that invite viewers to reimagine their relationship with the natural world.
Mischa Couvrette honed his design and making skills in a garage, experimenting with metal and wood to create the first Hollis and Morris products. Hollis and Morris now relies on a large team of people to produce products with the same design ethos and care that was born out of the humble garage.
Nam Dang-Mitchell was named House & Home’s designer of the year in 2019, and creates spaces that effortlessly balance disparate styles. Through the use of neutral-toned palettes and layered patterns and textures, she expertly combines furniture and accessories from different eras into seamlessly chic, livable environments.
Heather Dubbeldam is a fourth-generation architect and principal of Torontobased Dubbeldam Architecture and Design. Recognized for innovative, sustainable projects, her firm has received over 100 awards including the 2024 Architectural Practice Award from RAIC, establishing her as a leading Canadian architect of her generation.
Irina Flore is a multidisciplinary designer and founder of Studio Flore, dedicated to design research, functional art objects and innovative products. After working at Studio Sebastian Herkner, she founded her studio; she has also held the role of lead materials designer at Nike.
David Keeler ’s wanderlust took him from Alberta to Montreal, San Francisco, New York (attending Parsons) and, finally, Vancouver. He applied his refined aesthetic to advertising and design before co-founding the home accessories and furniture store Provide, supporting the local design community and building relationships with designers worldwide.
Carla Sorrell is founding director of Design Victoria, a four-day festival celebrating the city’s design and creative industries. After 15 years as a writer and coach in London’s creative sector, she returned to Victoria determined to ignite a spark around the city’s design scene.
Craig Stanghetta founded Ste Marie in 2010, establishing the studio’s reputation for singular vision and inventive, bespoke work. He also co-founded hospitality brand Banda Volpi, with his hands-on involvement infusing Ste Marie’s work with an entrepreneurial sensibility that blends creative passion with business acumen.
Natasha Lebel is founding partner of award-winning Lebel and Bouliane, known for inventive, human-centred architecture. A pioneer in social design, she bridges design thinking with organizational innovation, leading complex cultural, institutional and corporate projects while teaching at OCAD University and University of Waterloo.
Matt McLeod is principal at McLeod Bovell, an award-winning Vancouver studio established in 2008 with Lisa Bovell. He specializes in complete residential design that embraces social, spatial and environmental opportunities while creating work with specific feeling and local character.
Simone Vingerhoets-Ziesmann joined Roset USA in 2017 as executive vicepresident for the Americas. She is also a committed founding member at Artek of Be Original Americas, a nonprofit organization dedicated to investing in the future of design.
Christian Woo was born in Madrid and raised in B.C., and is a self-taught designer inspired by Pacific Northwest forests. Rooted in a deep respect for material integrity and traditional craftsmanship, his practice, established in 2006, embraces Brutalist design principles, resulting in furniture with refined geometry and simplicity.
Mitchell Freedland of Mitchell Freedland Design is internationally known for his architectural approach to interiors, creating warm, comfortable and livable spaces. For three decades, his firm has crafted timeless, classic and tailored interiors across condominiums, hotels, spas, corporate offices and private residences.
Caine Heintzman , co-founder of A-N-D, applies rigorous material research and a comprehensive understanding of lighting technology to an artful practice, developing a meticulous approach exploring function, art and space. Lukas Peet , also a cofounder, is a Design Academy Eindhoven alumnus and Canada’s Emerging Designer Award winner, and brings curiosity about objects, processes and materials to A-N-D.
Wade and Danielle Papin are founders of Pyrrha, transforming instinct, history and imperfection into meaningful jewellery for over 30 years. Known for symbolic talismans, Pyrrha is one of the most sustainable jewellery brands in the world, operating from their certified zero-carbon Vancouver studio.
Jordan Rice joined Omar Gandhi Architects as associate in 2018 after working with award-winning firms from around the world, including Lina Ghotmeh Architecture and MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple. He’s led awardwinning projects including Peggy’s Cove, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and Riverbend Library and across institutional, commercial, residential and civic sectors.
Fiete Schlüter is president of Vitra North America, and is a design-driven leader with a global outlook. Since joining Vitra in 2012, he’s cultivated a deep understanding of the company’s design ethos shaped by cultural relevance, sustainability and enduring quality, bridging strategic thinking with design appreciation.
Sumer Singh is a multidisciplinary artist, designer and fabricator working at the intersection of art, engineering, architecture and computation. With engineering and architecture degrees, he founded Mtharu in 2013 and co-founded Mercedes and Singh in 2017, specializing in complex architectural fabrication and public art.
IN MEMORIAM: RON RULE
We were saddened to hear of the passing of landscape architect Ron Rule in late 2024. He was a past judge of our Designers of the Year awards, but also a legend in these pages: for 50 years, Ron’s landscape firm was the go-to for modern architects, to the tune of nearly 2,000 projects over the span of his career. In a tribute to him from colleague and friend Daniel Roehr, Daniel said, “Ron not only felt at home designing gardens but also excelled in the craft, often creating masterpieces without fully realizing it due to his modest nature. He worked quietly for prominent and famous clients, allowing his work to speak for itself.” If you’re curious to see more, search “Ron Rule” on westernliving.ca to discover garden after garden, each offering a masterclass in design and a celebration of the West Coast Modern landscape.
GETTING COMFORTABLE
If summers are all salads and lighter fare, then the colder months simply demand that we slip into something more comfortable—vegetable-hearty soups, stews and hybrid comfort foods that exude warmth. From a favourite cocktail-inspired update to a classic soup to a soul-awakening, zingy mustard fish curry, these dishes are set to warm you from the inside out, kind of like your favourite sweater.
Recipes and food styling by Lawren Moneta / Photography by Mark Gibbon
see page 82 for recipe.
Bloody Mary Minestrone
Roasted Sweet Potato Bisque with Kale Salsa
Yield: 6 servings
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 1½ hours
This recipe is comfort food with a touch of polish—perfect for entertaining. There’s something about a bisque that feels a bit more luxurious than your everyday soup. While soup often has a thinner, brothy base with chunks of meat or vegetables, a bisque is all about silky texture and rich, creamy flavour. Don’t skip the kale salsa: it adds a crisp, bright contrast that cuts through the richness and makes every spoonful feel balanced and satisfying.
3 large sweet potatoes (about 2½ lb total)
½ medium shallot finely diced
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 small bunch kale, stems removed (about 2 packed cups total of leaves)
3 to 4 large radishes
2 medium apples, divided (Pink Lady or Honeycrisp are both great options)
Kosher salt, to taste
1 tbsp grapeseed oil or coconut oil
1 medium white onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
¼ tsp ground cumin
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
3½ cups homemade or low-sodium vegetable broth
1 cup full fat coconut milk or whipping cream, plus extra for garnish
¼ tsp fennel seed
2 green bird’s eye chilies, sliced down the middle but not fully in half
Cilantro leaves and tender stems, for garnish
Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.
Scrub sweet potatoes well and poke a few times through their skin with a fork to prevent them from exploding in the oven. Place potatoes on prepared baking tray and transfer to oven. Roast until easily pierced to their centre with a knife (about 1 hour, give or take, depending on the size of your potatoes).
While sweet potatoes roast, make the kale salsa. In a medium bowl, stir together shallots, lemon zest and lemon juice. Finely chop kale leaves, by hand or pulsed in a food processor. Finely chop radishes and one apple. Stir kale, radish and apple into shallot mixture. Season lightly with a pinch of salt. Set salsa aside while finishing preparing soup, giving it at least 30 minutes for the flavours to mellow and mingle before serving.
When sweet potatoes are done roasting, set aside at room temperature until cool enough to handle.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring often, until onion is softened and translucent (about 6 to 8 minutes).
While onion is cooking, chop remaining apple and cut roasted sweet potatoes in half. Using a spoon, scoop roasted sweet potato flesh out of the skins and add to onions
along with apple, garlic, ginger and cumin. Stir in apple cider vinegar and broth, then bring mixture to a simmer, cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until apples are tender (about 15 minutes).
Using an immersion blender or by transferring soup to a blender in batches, blend soup until smooth. Once blended and back in the pot, stir in the cream. Season to taste with additional salt. If desired, adjust the consistency to your liking by stirring in some additional broth or water.
When ready to serve, taste and season kale salsa with salt as desired. Divide soup among serving bowls and top with a swirl of cream, if desired. Spoon some kale salsa over soup and serve.
CHEF’S TIP
If you made this soup ahead of time and you notice that it thickened after cooling, simply stir in a little water while you’re reheating it to bring back a smooth, creamy consistency.
Green Ricotta
Gnudi al Forno
Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Looking for something comforting but a little out of the ordinary? This recipe puts a fresh twist on a rustic Italian classic and is perfectly cozy, simple and satisfying. The star of the show, pillowy ricotta dumplings—or gnudi, meaning “naked” in Italian—are like ravioli without the pasta.
Baked in a velvety bacon mushroom sauce, it’s the kind of soul-warming, stick-to-yourribs comfort food that brings everyone to the table.
1 lb Swiss chard
1½ cups whole-milk ricotta cheese
½ cup finely shredded parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
1 large egg
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
¼ tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tbsp grapeseed oil
1 large shallot, finely diced
2 or 3 strips of bacon, diced
½ lb mixed mushrooms, chopped or sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp tomato paste
½ cup dry white wine
1½ cups vegetable broth or chicken stock
2 tbsp cream cheese
Kosher salt, to taste
Preheat oven to 375°F. Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil over high heat. Remove leaves from stems of Swiss chard, reserving stems for later. Add chard leaves to saucepan and cook until wilted (about 2 minutes). Remove chard with tongs and transfer to a clean kitchen towel. Once cool enough to handle, squeeze chard leaves dry in towel before transferring them to a cutting board. Finely chop chard leaves.
In a large bowl, add chopped chard, ricotta cheese, shredded parmesan cheese, egg, lemon zest and black pepper before mixing until well combined. Add flour and stir until just combined. Refrigerate while making sauce.
Preheat oil in an oven-safe, 10-inch sauté pan over medium heat. Add diced bacon and cook, stirring often, until lightly browned (about 4 minutes). Dice reserved chard stems and add to pan along with shallots, then cook until just softened (about 2 minutes). Stir in sliced mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until starting to brown (about another 8 minutes). Add in garlic, tomato paste, white wine and broth. Stir until sauce is well combined, then bring to a slow simmer, adjusting the heat as necessary, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Stir in cream cheese until melted
and fully incorporated. Remove sauté pan from heat and taste, adjusting seasoning with salt as desired.
Using two spoons, form ricotta mixture into golf ball-sized rounds and gently nestle into hot sauce in pan. Transfer pan to oven and bake until sauce is bubbling and gnudi are puffed and starting to turn golden brown on top (about 20 to 30 minutes). Garnish with extra grated parmesan cheese while hot and serve straight from pan.
Mustard Fish Curry
Yield: 2 to 4 servings
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
This mustard fish curry is bold, comforting and just the thing when it’s chilly outside and you’re craving something to warm you from the inside out. Inspired by a classic from Bengali cuisine—where mustard and fish are a beloved pairing—this version brings aromatic depth and just the right touch of chili heat to wake up the palate. It’s hearty without being heavy, and perfect served over a mound of steamed rice to soak up every last drop.
1 lb halibut fillet, cut into roughly 4 or 6 equal pieces
¾ tsp ground turmeric, divided Kosher salt, to taste
2 medium sized tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
½ cup water
1 tbsp mustard powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper powder
2 tbsp vegetable oil
¼ tsp brown mustard seed
¼ tsp cumin seed
¼ tsp fennel seed
2 green bird’s eye chilies, sliced down the middle but not fully in half
Cilantro leaves and tender stems, for garnish
Place halibut pieces in a medium bowl and sprinkle with ½ tsp ground turmeric and a good pinch of salt. Toss to coat and set aside. (You can marinate the fish, covered and refrigerated, for up to eight hours.)
Place chopped tomatoes, garlic, water, mustard powder, cayenne pepper powder, remaining ¼ tsp ground turmeric and a pinch of salt in a blender. Blend until smooth and set aside.
Warm oil in a large frying pan over mediumhigh heat. Add mustard seed and allow to sizzle for a few seconds. As soon as the seeds start to pop, add cumin and fennel seeds. Stir seeds for 4 seconds before adding blended mustard sauce, taking care as it may sputter. Reduce heat to medium-low and add chilies.
Place fish pieces in simmering sauce in a single layer. Simmer gently, turning fish over once and spooning sauce over fish pieces frequently, until just cooked through (about 5 to 8 minutes). Add some additional water if needed to ensure fish is at least a quarter covered in sauce while cooking. Remove from heat and garnish with cilantro. Serve warm alongside steamed rice, if desired.
The Soft Option
The era of light, crunchy wines is firmly upon us, but has anyone noticed that it’s coincided with a serious downturn in wine consumption? We’re sure it’s just a coincidence, but we’re just as sure there’s a large cadre of people who like their wine to be bigger, warmer and altogether more welcoming than challenging—and we’re okay with that. So, to go with these comfort recipes, we’ve sourced out some comforting wines that want nothing more than to embrace you with their deliciousness.
Rosé isn’t normally a comfort wine regardless of what all those throw pillows from Winners say. But in this odd year of imported grapes, winemaker Michael Bartier is experimenting with an entire spectrum of rosés—this one, made with atypical cabernet, is nothing like those ethereal offerings from Provence. It’s muscular, structured and lip-smackingly friendly (and comes in at a very comforting $20).
SpearHead Dual Citizen Sauvignon Blanc 2024 $29
Winemaker Grant Stanley is celebrated for his deft touch with pinot noir, but the Washington grapes that make this wine lend themselves to a much riper, rounder profile than found in his award-winning reds. This SB is more Bordeaux than New Zealand, with a warm melon profile and nary a hint of cat pee—and enough body to embrace the fish curry.
Poplar Grove Merlot 2020 $30
Poplar has always specialized in elevated crowd-pleasing wines, and their merlot could easily be the poster child for what a well-made comforting wine should be. It starts with an ample dose of ripe fruit— plums, dark cherries—married to some cozy vanilla courtesy of the oak barrels and then the entire package is aged for much longer than almost any other winery would do (this 2020 is the current vintage). The result is mellow and fantastically smooth but with enough natural acidity to never veer into overbearing territory.
Bloody Mary Minestrone
Yield: 8 servings
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
This minestrone, inspired by the classic brunch cocktail, is far from typical. Packed with beans, pasta, vegetables and just the right kick from horseradish and a generous splash of vodka, it’s a one-pot, soulwarming wonder that’s bound to become a seasonal staple at your table.
2 tbsp grapeseed oil or vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 poblano pepper, seeded and finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
7 cups homemade or low-sodium vegetable broth
1 796-ml can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
1 680-ml jar tomato passata
½ cup vodka
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp granulated sugar
1 cup ditalini pasta, shells or elbow noodles
2 cups roughly chopped collard greens or kale leaves
2 398-ml cans cannellini beans
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp prepared horseradish
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Fresh celery leaves and lemon wedges, for garnish
In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat. Add chopped onion, celery and poblano pepper. Cook, stirring often, until onions start to become translucent (about 6 minutes). Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Stir in stock, diced tomatoes and passata. Bring mixture just to a boil, stirring often, before reducing heat to maintain a slow simmer. Cover and let soup simmer for 15 minutes. Lift lid occasionally to stir soup and to make sure it’s still simmering nicely.
After 15 minutes, uncover soup and stir in vodka, Worcestershire and sugar. Return soup to a simmer and stir in pasta. Continue simmering, uncovered, until pasta is al dente and veggies are tender (about 8 to 12 minutes).
Stir collard greens, beans, lemon juice and horseradish into soup and let cook another minute or two longer, until greens have wilted and beans are warmed through. Remove from heat and season soup to taste with salt and black pepper.
To serve, divide soup among serving bowls, sprinkle with celery leaves and serve with a lemon wedge to squeeze over soup, if desired. Enjoy while warm.
CHEF’S TIP
If you plan to store the soup for a few days before enjoying, follow the recipe but omit the pasta. Soup will store nicely for up to 4 days in the refrigerator. Cook the pasta separately according to package directions and add it to the warmed-up soup just before serving.
Adventuring with Whole Foods
Food, at its core, is beautifully simple. Good quality, whole ingredients can be transformed into something wild and magical when flavours collide. It awakens the senses, transports us through space and time, and turns the ordinary into the extraordinary. It taps into our deepest emotions and reminds us of who we are and how we love.
Choosing whole foods doesn’t mean going without. It means leaning in and getting curious. It means trading the processed and predictable for naturally delicious and playful. A chance to explore colour, texture, and flavour at their peak, alive with the taste of season and story.
A cut of meat you’ve never tried, a fruit rind you thought was trash, or a homemade sauce so good, it becomes your new signature. Cooking this way invites play and discovery, and it keeps your mind wildly aware and your connection to the natural world beautifully intact.
300 + PAGES I HARDCOVER I LARGE FORMAT
120 STUNNING WHOLE FOOD RECIPES
If you don’t look after your health, who will ?
Accurate information can change people’s lives for the better, and illumi.health is the place to find it. The content is engaging, easy to understand, and relevant to Canadians of all ages and backgrounds. Best of all, there’s no cost to join, and no personal information is collected. Let’s all work together so that we can have a long, happy, and healthy life.
Guided Tour Through Ex Nihilo Vineyards
Your 2025 Kelowna Fall Winery Picks for Every Occasion
There are nearly 40 wineries nestled into the region's rolling hills, so we've curated a list for every type of grape lover. Whether you want beautiful views, perfectly paired bites or a bright bottle of bubbly—we’ve got you covered.
1. Your Tasting Experiences Pick: 50th Parallel Estate –Lake Country
Tastings are an excellent way to sample a variety of wines before committing to a bottle—and 50th Parallel Estate’s “transparent tasting room” overlooks the vineyards and Okanagan Lake so you can sample with a view. The winery also runs tours of its unique wine caves, a Grape to Glass tour through the vineyards or bespoke experiences where groups can learn how to be a winemaker.
2. Your Historic Pick: Ancient Hill Estate Winery –Lake Country
This boutique winery has a long history as a vineyard in the 1940s and 1950s before it was temporarily converted to an orchard and then a vineyard again. The winery building at Ancient Hill was designed by Penticton architect Robert Mackenzie, and has an old-world feel, as though you’ve been transported in time. For classic ambience and a land with rich history (and good wine, of course), Ancient Hill is your pick.
3. Your Food Pairing Pick: Arrowleaf Cellars –Lake Country
Most wineries offer food pairings options with their wine samples. But Arrowleaf Cellars’ Cream Puff Weekends are worth a visit alone,
with the cream puffs (which rotate flavours weekly) made fresh inhouse on weekends from March to December. Guests can also sample Arrowleaf’s charcuterie picnic box on the patio with their wine flights or enjoy a glass with tapas from their food trucks on select days. Be sure to take in that view, too!
4. Your White Wines Pick: CedarCreek Estate Winery – Kelowna
Produced with organic and natural craftsmanship, you can’t go wrong
with any of CedarCreek’s wines. But the whites—across all the collections—are a standout. From the award-winning rieslings to the estate chardonnays, if you’re looking to sample some crisp whites in the Okanagan, CedarCreek is a must-stop.
5. Your Girls’ Trip Pick: Ex Nihilo Vineyards –Lake Country
Booking a getaway with friends? Make Ex Nihilo a stop on your tour of Kelowna wine country. Translating from Latin to “out of nothing,” Ex Nihilo has a little bit of everything to keep a group happy—good views, great wine, tasty snacks, excellent tours and tastings—making it the ideal stop for a girls’ trip.
6. Your Wine Gift Pick: Gray Monk Estate Winery –Lake Country
As a legacy winemaker in the region, Gray Monk Estate Winery’s bottles aren’t just great to take home—they make excellent gifts too. Choose from limited edition bottles, the Estate Collection, the Odyssey Collection and more for a gift that anybody who appreciates wine will enjoy.
7. Your Ice Wine Pick: Grizzli Winery – West Kelowna
Keen for an all-round good bottle of ice wine? Grizzli Winery has a great selection for the ice wine lover, from gewürztraminer to cabernet franc to sauvignon blanc. To satisfy a sweet tooth, Grizzli also has sweet raspberry and blueberry fruit wines that are perfect for mixing cocktails and sangrias.
8. Your Unique Wine Pick: Meadow Vista Honey Wines – Kelowna
In the mood for something different? These fruity, floral honey wines from Meadow Vista are equally unique as they are delicious. With an array of award-winning honey wines (a.k.a., mead) to sample, prepared to *bee* wowed by the different series. Don’t miss the bee tour and experience the farm while you’re there.
9. Your Wine Connoisseur Pick: Mission Hill Family Estate – Kelowna
Recently named Winery of the Year for the sixth year by the WineAlign Awards, Mission Hill Family Estate is a must-visit legacy winery in the Okanagan. From stunning
CedarCreek Estate Winery Vineyards in Fall
architecture to beautiful views to all-round excellent wines, if you’re a wine aficionado (or travelling with one), Mission Hill is perfect for you.
10. Your Wine Club Pick: Priest Creek Family Estate Winery – Kelowna
A family-owned and operated winery, Priest Creek has our pick if you’re looking to join a wine club and support local Okanagan makers. With discounts, complimentary tastings, special events and more, the wine club membership at Priest Creek also has multiple tiers to accommodate your preferences.
Looking to set aside a few bottles for the future? Quails’ Gate has our ageable wine pick. Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, Quails’ Gate has great options for those wanting Okanagan chardonnays and pinots that ages beautifully.
12. Your Urban Winery Pick: Sandhill Wines – Kelowna
Located in the heart of downtown Kelowna, Sandhill Wines is a quick stop for those already touring the city. The estate at Sandhill was also once the home of Calona, B.C.’s oldest winery. Be sure to try Sandhill’s Small Lot program, which allows notable wines to shine, whether they’re from grapes grown with innovative techniques or barrels that simply stand out.
13. Your Pinot Noir Pick: SpearHead Winery – Kelowna SpearHead Winery is the go-to for pinot lovers. This powerhouse is perfect for those looking for a quality bottle of pinot—with several to peruse from. While you’re there, sample the unique White Pinot Noir or Pinot Noir Rosé to get outside of the traditional pinot-shaped box.
14. Your Sparkling Wine Pick: Summerhill Pyramid Winery – Kelowna
Not only does Summerhill produce a wide range of organic wines, but there is also a great lineup of
bubbles to match. Whether it’s organic sparkling wines aged in the pyramid (yes, the building is a pyramid), member-exclusive bottles or a Pinot Noir Rosé Brut, Summerhill is the place for a beautiful bottle of well-made bubbly.
15. Your Riesling Pick: Tantalus Vineyards – Kelowna Tantalus Vineyards is quickly building a reputation as one of the world’s elite crafters of riesling. Recently, the 2022 Old Vines Riesling was awarded 93 points at the WineAlign Awards. Try a bottle of the 2024 Riesling Lab that pays homage to this winery’s iconic varietal and playful experimentation.
16. Your Legacy Pick: The View Winery & Vineyards – Kelowna
The property that’s home to the View Winery has been in the family for five generations—and that experience of working on the land is reflected in the quality of their award-winning wines. Find this history in the wine shop too, which is located in a 1920s-era vintage building.
17. Your Fun Winery Pick: The Vibrant Vine Winery – Kelowna
Probably the most colourful winery in the Okanagan, the Vibrant Vine is exactly what we’d describe as a “fun” winery (even if that’s not a typical adjective one might use for a winery). From colourful labels to equally flavourful wines, the Vibrant Vine is your winery pick if you want to have a good time.
18. Your Celebratory Pick: Volcanic Hills Estate Winery –West Kelowna
The Sabering Bubbles in the Vineyard tasting at Volcanic Hills, where guests can use a sabre to pop a bottle of bubbles, is just the unique experience to celebrate an occasion, whether it’s an engagement or milestone birthday. Situated on the southeastern slopes of Mount Boucherie, Volcanic Hills gets its name from calling the land on this 60-millionyear-old dormant volcano home.
Talbot Photography and Ken Hagen
Quails Gate Winery Grapes on Vines
Mission Hill Family Estate Underground Barrel Cellar
Gray Monk Winery Vineyards and Building
A Foodie’s Fall Favourites in Kelowna N
1. 19 Okanagan
othing says extending summer into fall like fresh, local food harvested right down the road—paired with refreshing sips to match. Here are our top 12 dining picks in Kelowna for every type of foodie.
Known for: Patio views and casual fine dining
Overlooking Okanagan Lake and the scenic Two Eagles Golf Course, 19 Okanagan blends casual dishes and shareable plates with fine dining for a meal to re-energize after a day golfing or touring Kelowna.
2. Bliss Bakery – Peachland
Known for: Lunch and fresh baked goods
Selling more than just muffins and pastries, Bliss Bakery’s Peachland location is great for a lunch looking out at the lake eating one of its
HIDDEN GEM SIPS
sandwiches, soups, lasagnas or shepherd's pie.
3. Broken Anchor
Known for: Sustainably sourced seafood and great gluten-free options
With 100 percent sustainably sourced seafood, the Broken Anchor’s menu includes items from classic fish and chips to tacos, sandwiches, chowders and stews. Celiac and gluten-free folks can also rest easy knowing the restaurant only uses gluten-free ingredients in its fryers.
Ready to switch glasses up from wine to spirits? Here are 5 spots to sip that (mostly) aren’t wineries
Copper Brewing – For Craft Beer
This craft beer and kitchen is your go-to spot for local brew. With 20 house-made beers on tap, a creative cocktail list and a unique menu of quality pub fare (think gourmet hot dogs, a poutine bar and variations on Southern fried chicken sandwiches), Copper Brewing is the place to be any day of the week. Dogs will love it too on the petfriendly patio.
Luckhurst Farm & Distillery – For Vodka, Gin and Limoncello
For stronger spirits, head to Luckhurst Farm & Distillery. Crafting vodka, gin, limoncello and whiskey, there are a few options to sip the spirits, whether it’s straight up, to cocktail samples or purchasing a full-sized cocktail on the outdoor picnic area. Don’t miss the family farm either (also a bookable venue), home to chickens, mini
fainting goats, ducks, honeybees, giant rabbits and miniature horses.
Meadow Vista Honey Wines – For Honey Wines (Mead)
While technically Meadow Vista is a winery, it also isn’t in the traditional sense—and that’s what makes this crafter a great place to sample its award-winning mead. Aside from honey wine tastings, check out the Meadow Vista Bistro for some light bites to accompany the honey wine or go on a bee tour to learn about beekeeping and the farm.
Okanagan Spirits (Kelowna and Vernon) –For Liqueur, Whiskey, Absinthe and More Okanagan Spirits started by distilling premium vodka and gin that reflect the local terroir. The company has since grown, with locations in
Kelowna and Vernon, and even started making Canada’s first genuine absinthe in 2007. From drop-in tastings to curated tours (for whiskey lovers, gin aficionados and more), there’s a long list of staff picks, new releases and award-winning spirits to sample and shop.
Wards Hard Cider – For Cider
With apple orchards in the Okanagan Valley, Wards’ Cider in Southeast Kelowna crafts gluten-free, organic, local ciders. Head to the tasting room to try the local ciders on offer, or shop online from the traditional craft ciders, cocktail ciders and low-calorie tea-infused ciders. This local cidery has been growing for over a century, with original trees planted in the early 1900s still giving fruit today.
Picnic Wine Cider Tasting in the Apple Tree Orchard at The View Winery
4. Bouchon’s Bistro
Known for: French fine dining
Whether it’s the tasting menu or dining à la carte, enjoy authentic French cuisine in the heart of Kelowna for an upscale dinner or to commemorate a special moment.
5. Derrick’s Steakhouse
Known for: The steaks (of course!) and sides made with local produce
You can’t knock the steaks and protein entrées at Derrick’s Steakhouse, but don’t sleep on the long menu of sides prepared with local ingredients. Also try the thoughtfully curated cocktail menu to raise a glass over dinner.
6. The Galley
Known for: Lakeside marina views and refreshing coffee drinks
Stop at The Galley at the Kelowna Yacht Club on your lakeside stroll to refuel on the dog-friendly patio,
whether it’s with a classic coffee, smoothie (or something stronger like beer or wine), and enjoy salads, sandwiches or house-made gelato.
7. Home Block at CedarCreek Estate Winery
Known for: Wine-inspired dishes with locally sourced ingredients
With ingredients sourced from local farms, ranchers and the restaurant’s own gardens, the Home Block Restaurant’s “terroir to table dining” menu takes inspiration from the region’s quintessential export (and the restaurant’s home base): wine.
8. Maestro’s at Manteo
Known for: Mediterranean cuisine with a lakeside patio
Seafood-inspired, locally sourced and generously flavoured, menu items like focaccia, gyros and pasta at Maestro’s bring a taste of the Mediterranean to Okanagan Lake’s shores.
9. Sunny’s Modern Diner
Known for: Brunch (near the beach)
From renowned B.C. chef Rod Butters, Sunny’s breakfast and brunch menu features some excellent dishes playing with chicken and eggs. And with this spot named after the owner’s golden retriever, it’s sure to be a joy to eat brunch by the beach.
10. Terrace Restaurant at Mission Hill Winery
Known for: Seasonal tasting menus and local ingredients
As the seasons change, so do the tasting menus at Terrace Restaurant at Mission Hill Estate Winery. This means the meals always stay fresh and inspired by the local ingredients ripe that time of year.
11. The Bread Company
Known for: Bread, baked goods and brunch
It’s in the name: the Bread Company’s baked goods and bread are this bakery and cafe’s specialties. Baking has been a family profession with the owners for five generations, too. Don’t underestimate the breakfast and lunch menus at this restaurant’s three locations either.
12. Waterfront Wines Restaurant
Known for: Being one of Kelowna’s original farm-to-table restaurants
For an adults-only dining experience (guests must be 19+), head to Waterfront Wines Restaurant, where the premium wine and cocktail list pairs with local and organic produce to create flavourful, seasonal plates.
Learn more about all of Kelowna’s Must-Visit Spots: www.tourismkelowna.com/spots
3 FARM MARKETS FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
Harvest season is in full swing, and these three farm-to-market spots around Kelowna are perfect to find local fruit and groceries for a fall family picnic
Gatzke Orchard – Lake Country
Run by the third generation, Gatzke Orchard sustainably grows over 50 varieties of tree fruits and a range of vegetable crops. Enjoy food grown just 100 metres from you at the farm market cafe, including wood-fired pizza at Pane Vino Pizzeria (have some ice cream too). Be sure to shop for fresh fruits, produce and goods at the farm market open from May to mid-September.
KLO Farm Market – Kelowna
Open seven days a week, KLO Farm Market sells fruits and vegetables grown right on the farm. The store also stocks almost anything local that you can think of, including dairy products, honey, canned goods, hot sauce, jams, dressings, spices and seasonings, farm-raised chicken, homemade pies and much more. Check out the U-pick flower fields for a giftable bouquet you know will last.
Paynter’s Farm Market – West Kelowna
Paynter’s has been a family farm since 1919 and the market stocks everything from B.C. (including 1000 local B.C. products from over 100 different B.C.-based companies) or grown on their own 40-acre farm. Paynter’s also offers farm tours as well as U-pick experiences perfect for the whole family—no need to book ahead.
Paynters Fruit Market
GETAWAYS TOFINO
MIDDLE GROUNDED T
Middle Beach Lodge offers the rare (and sweet) seclusion to truly get away from it all.
By Matt O’Grady
ofino —the remote community on Vancouver Island’s western coast—has long been famous for its abundant natural attractions, drawing surfers, hikers and bird and whale watchers from around the world. For many, it’s also a treasured getaway full of long beach walks, capped with some impressive meals and unforgettable sunsets. It is all that, of course—but for me, Tofino has also become my home for rites of passage. Whether it follows the loss of a job or the loss of a parent, the sound of the crashing waves has always offered respite from the
Island Solitude
This remote, tech-free getaway allows visitors to keep their eyes on the rocky shoreline and listen to the waves.
noises crowding my head. Some come west to ride the waves; others come to let the waves wash over them.
For 15 years I’ve anchored myself at Middle Beach Lodge—an understated property, less than 10 minutes from Tofino, where the focus is the rugged natural setting. What started as one very rustic lodge in 1993 has since expanded to two lodges and 20 self-contained cabins spread over 40 acres. Chris Le Fevre—Middle Beach’s Victoria-based, English-born developer—has imbued the property with an authentic sense of place, with recycled Island wood used in the flooring, ceiling beams, tables, lamps and beds. The impressive river rock fireplace in the main living room is constructed from rock hauled up from the nearby Kennedy River. To put visitors in the mood, that room is also adorned with anchors, canoes, fishing rods and books with titles such as Against Wind and Weather: The History of Towboating in British Columbia
Part of the appeal of Middle Beach is its seclusion. The access road to the lodge was always a bit hard to find, with a pothole-filled dirt path taking you the first kilometre or so from the highway. The original lodge doesn’t have any mod cons—no TV or phone, and barely any internet—so you spend a lot of time on the decks, in the Adirondack chairs, staring out at the craggy shoreline and listening to the waves. You do this in the morning—with your morning coffee and one of the fresh cinnamon buns baked at the lodge. You do this at night—after one of the fish-themed dinners, cradling a glass of wine and watching the sun set over Wickaninnish Island.
Six years ago, in the wake of my mother’s death, I decided to fly my 84-year-old father out to B.C. to take his mind (our minds) off this loss. We’d putter around Vancouver, visit relatives in Victoria and then drive out to spend a couple of days at Middle Beach. Dad quickly took to all my rituals— including solitary walks along the beach and afternoons sunk into an overstuffed sofa reading in the living room. We were alone, together, and it suited us just fine.
This May, my father passed away. Once again, I drove myself to Tofino—to the end of the road and the sound of waves crashing off the headlands at Middle Beach. They’ve now paved the road leading to the lodge—but it in every other respect, things are just as we left them.
Together, Alone
The main lodge at Middle Beach has no mod cons, but it does boast overstuffed sofas that are perfect for an afternoon reading session alongside your travel mate.
TOFINO TO-DOS
Eventually (maybe?) you’ll want to leave your lodging. When you do, a few recommendations:
Raising the Bar
If there is a “local” in Tofino, Tofino Brewing Company is it. A place for the after-work crowd, with a smattering of in-the-know tourists, to grab one of a baker’s dozen of beers on tap: 10 regulars (we recommend the Spruce Tree Ale) and three seasonal beers. tofinobrewingco.com
Room with a View
Shelter Restaurant has been a Tofino institution for nearly a quarter century. A fire in December 2022 gutted the original casual fine dining establishment, but it reopened the following spring in the former 1909 Kitchen and Bar—arguably the best spot on the coast to catch a legendary Tofino sunset, sip a wine from Paula Stoyanoff’s curated list and slurp one of the delectable oysters from nearby Barkley Sound. shelterrestaurant.com
Gallery Going
If you’re keen to capture a Tofino sunset in an inimitable West Coast style, you can’t do much better than the gallery of printmaker/ painter/carver Roy Henry Vickers, whose signature look—clean lines and vivid colours—captures coastal scenes. The gallery (free to enter) is up for sale, with Vickers now in his 80th year and eyeing retirement. So get there while you can. royhenryvickers.com
Trail Mix
While many think of outdoor pursuits in Tofino–Ucluelet as meditative beach walks at Long Beach, surfing at Chesterman or hiking through the rainforest along the Wild Pacific Trail in Ucluelet, you can now (since 2024) consider a protected walk, bike or blade along the continuous 44-kilometre multi-use path between Tofino and Ucluelet that stretches from the Tofino town centre through Pacific Rim National Park and into Ucluelet. If you’re inclined to take a coffee break en route, we recommend the Tofitian Café and Bakery at the Outside Break mall, where you’ll also find the original Tacofino food truck. tourismtofino.com
Shelter: Kyler
Vos
POINT PERFECT
Yellow Point Lodge is abundant in charm and value—making it all the more precious to score a reservation.
By Susan Juby
My friend Mary and I started visiting Yellow Point Lodge the year we turned 30, just over a quarter century ago now. I remember gazing upon the other guests—most of them in late middle age or well into their golden years—and smiling condescendingly. So nice to see old people having fun in such a lovely setting. We wore our relative youth with the smug confidence of new professionals for whom aging was merely a theory.
Eventually, responsibilities interfered and we had to give up our spot. I tried to book again over the years, but guests tend to cling
to their annual dates and I couldn’t find my way in. I eventually moved on.
Then came the post-pandemic period and a deep yearning for stability, which I found back at Yellow Point Lodge.
The lodge—near Ladysmith, about a half an hour south of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island—is wonderfully, even subversively, untrendy. Since its founding in the 1930s, it has stubbornly resisted change—and been rewarded with some of the most loyal guests in Canada. Apparently it offered something of a party scene until the late ’60s, but the contemporary Yellow Point experience is decidedly mellow. It’s about simple, wellprepared food and lots of it. Think full roast
Time(less) Travel
Yellow Point Lodge has remained largely unchanged since its 1930s opening date, but that’s what keeps its calendar full.
Top:
Sandi Hill
beef dinner with Yorkshire pudding on Saturdays, turkey dinner with all the sides on Sundays, fluffy scrambled eggs on a homemade biscuit with cheese for breakfast and lunch features—spanakopita!—that will make you weak at the knees. It’s also about reading, taking naps, playing board games and doing nothing at all from the confines of a comfortable chair.
Since wiggling my way back in, I have managed to score three annual visits. I go alone each spring and fall, and with friends in the winter. Now that I’m considerably older, I appreciate even more the abundant charm, the tremendous value (each guest pays a flat fee for accommodation and food), and the fact that Yellow Point Lodge doesn’t embrace every little trend, such as the internet. (Guests are asked to refrain from using devices in the main lodge and the dining room and there’s no wifi.)
Guests stay in cabins offering various levels of rusticity or in the lodge. Some of the cabins are tiny and contain only a bed, a chair and a mini woodstove. The adventurers who stay in them walk across a lawn to the washrooms and outdoor showers. Waterfront bunks have fronts that open to the ocean, while other cabins range from large to modest. Rebuilt in the ’80s after a fire, the lodge has a great room where guests gather to socialize or gaze into the massive fireplace, and a basement stuffed with games, including darts and ping pong as well as memorabilia.
The grounds are nothing short of spectacular. Slabs of rock extend into water that is sometimes grey and sometimes crystalline. There are small white beaches and acres of rainforest trails, an outdoor hot tub and a fitness centre, sauna and, most gloriously, an in-ground saltwater pool made of natural rock and cement.
Now, as when I first began going to Yellow Point Lodge, the guests skew older. I imagine newcomers looking at me with my grey hair and thinking, Oh, look at that lady of a certain age enjoying herself. Isn’t that lovely for her? And you know what? It is lovely. For me, and for everyone else who gets to spend precious time here.
HELLO, MY LADYSMITH
By Anjini Snape
At Yellow Point Lodge, the motto is simple: “Eat, Read, Sleep.” But the town of Ladysmith itself is where you’ll find delicious food, local art and a laidback town that’s waiting to be explored. Here’s the best way to spend your next city-detox in this coastal getaway.
SHOP
First Avenue is a street so charming it was voted Canada’s Best Street in 2017 by the Canadian Institute of Planners. Visit the three-storey Post Office Antique Mall, located just off First Avenue, in a 1908 building that was, yes, formerly a post office. Once an outlet for Ladysmith locals to send their handiwork
internationally, the antique mall now brings in items from across the world. After that, if you’re up for a little car exploring, drive around the coastal backroads north of town to find tons of local artisans (quite literally) off the beaten track and stock up on everything from jars of spicy dip from Yellow Point Cranberries to a charcuterie board carved out of local trees from Yonder Wood (seriously, bring a big suitcase).
crispy potatoes) or the longtimefavourite porcupine prawns (covered in shredded phyllo pastry and served on wasabi mayonnaise).
EAT
Old Town Bakery is a must-visit for a dreamy cinnamon bun (you can’t miss it: just keep an eye out for the queue that often spills out the door and down the street). Adventurous eaters can opt for a “bun of the month” but the OG cream cheese and sliced almond is a classic for a (very delicious) reason. Then, lunch at Fox and Hounds, Ladysmith’s traditional English pub. The Tudor-style wooden beams are plastered with coasters from pubs across the world, brought in by locals and tourists alike. Though fish and chips with a pint makes for a classic English lunch, the housemade seafood pie really takes the biscuit. Later, dine at the Mahle House, a beautifully renovated 1904 heritage building that been operating for over 40 years. Try the albacore tuna niçoise (served with smoked egg yolk jam, olive tapenade aioli and
BROWSE ART
Wander over to Ladysmith Gallery, where you’ll find art from across Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. If you don’t have the space in your suitcase for a new work of art, you can grab a hand-painted greeting card to remember your visit. JoVic Pottery, a gallery and studio, has been up and running for 30 years. If you get chatting to potter Vic, he might give you a tour and a demonstration of how he makes his vases on the wheel. Further afield, you’ll find glass artist Ted Jolda’s gallery: his signature glass pear ornament was featured on Oprah’s O List back in 2001. (You get a pear! You get a pear!)
Old Town Bakery: Ashley Marston; Mahle House: Lindsey Whiteford
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1 My Kids
I love seeing what inspires and interests them, how they interpret the world around them. One of my daughters was playing with wood blocks, and I took one of her stacks and turned that into a collection of work, which became the source for my series for Zanotta. From very simple beginnings, it’s become a cornerstone of my work in studio.
4
Caulfeild Rocks with Buff Buff’s been my dog for 14 years now, and going to the Rocks has been the one constant thing since he was a puppy. It’s an inspiring place to be: the shoreline is made of massive granite rocks that heat up in the sun, and when the tide comes in, it’s a clear and warm spot to swim.
Furniture Designer Christian Woo the 5 Things That Inspire Him
2 Our House
We’d walked by this place for years and always loved it—but we didn’t know it was an early collaboration between architects Barry Downs and Fred Hollingsworth until it went up for sale. There’s an amazing room at the top of the stairs where we listen to our records, with an incredible view of the mountains—I go every morning with my coffee and just sit there.
3 Vintage Stories on Vinyl
We have an automatic record player in that top room of the house, and my daughters—they’re 5 and 7—love operating it and listening to old stories: Hans Christian Andersen, Dr. Seuss, folk records for kids. It’s a relaxing ritual for all of us.
5
My Studio
When inspiration strikes, it often happens here. It’s an industrial area, but you can see the masts of the sailboats on the water in front of us, and we look out on the Ironworkers bridge—it’s a pretty unique part of the city. Plus, one of our fellow artists here, Bobbie Burgers, has these incredible vegetable gardens in planters from Green Theory that define our space—we even get hummingbirds and chickadees. It’s a really peaceful spot.
PURVEYORS OF HANDCRAFTED FRENCH RANGES SINCE 1908
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