T H E C I T Y E DI T
EASY LIKE SUNDAY
For Barbora Samieian, co-founder of furniture and décor company Sundays, Vancouver has options galore for coffee/cookie breaks and creative cues. By Jeremy Freed
W
hen Barbora Samieian was a child in Slovakia, Sundays were reserved for culture, food and family. “On Sunday afternoons, you go for coffee and cake and an art gallery visit with your grandma,” she says. Now a mother living in Vancouver with her husband, Moe Samieian Jr., and their four young children, Samieian still dedicates her Sundays to quality time with family. “After everybody’s up and has a bite to eat, we hit the Seawall, walk down to Granville Island and then over to Kitsilano…. We do it rain or shine. A lot of our ideas and next steps for the business come on those walks.” The elements of her perfect Sunday — family time, food, culture and a stroll — have been a source of inspiration for Sundays, the furniture and home décor company she co-founded. After living in New York, where a number of direct-toconsumer furniture brands successfully fill the void between Ikea and high-end designers, Samieian believed there was room for a similar business to thrive in Canada. “We saw an opportunity to hone in on a specific look and a specific price point that was married [to] good quality,” she says. Fortunately, Barbora married into a family that knows furniture. Moe grew up working at the Samieians’ furniture business, as had her sister-in-law, Sara Samieian. An old friend of Barbora’s, Noah Morse, brought a background in furniture design to the team (Morse is also a co-founder alongside the three Samieians). With Barbora’s knack for branding and strategy (honed at Field & Social, the popular Vancouver chain of salad restaurants she’d co-founded, in 2016, with Moe), the foursome had everything they needed to create a new category of Canadian furniture. Sundays launched in the summer of 2019 with a small selection of couches, chairs, coffee tables and rugs; a dining room collection was added the following year. Designed in Vancouver and crafted by suppliers in Asia and Europe, the carefully curated pieces are defined by sturdy
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Family vibe: Barbora Samieian (shown with son Hudson) co-founded furniture maker Sundays, which evokes the ambience of a relaxing Sunday at home. Photo: Britney Gill
construction, the use of natural materials, and an elegant, modern style. This is furniture intended to be lived with — which the Samieians do, literally. They test each piece in their own homes with their families before approving it for production. And Sundays is growing. Riding the wave of homeowners opting for houseinterior upgrades, triggered by the pandemic’s lockdowns, it now offers a full suite of home furnishings, from beds to
credenzas to woven-cane room dividers, as well as rugs and cushions. The store has also expanded its brick-and-mortar presence with pop-up showrooms in Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary, giving customers the opportunity to experience the products in person. It’s all part of Barbora and her co-founders’ mission to share the relaxing, warm vibe of a perfect Sunday at home with family — one stylish furniture piece at a time.
