April 29, 2012

Luxury Home Canada

Featured in the spring issue of Luxury Home Canada is a Designer Showcase profiling the work of our firm (pages 113-119).   I'm very grateful for the publication's interest in our creations and for the reflective text by Isabel Eva Bohrer.    All photographs are by Josh Dunford.
Admittedly I am an extremely lucky man, able to practice in the field of my interest, everyday.  Being an interior designer is not so much what I do, as it is who I am.  
'I am hauted by a passion to build.' Jean Pouvre.
Luxury Home Canada takes its readers into residences large and small, showcasing the people, projects, designs and products that make up the custom home industry.




Text by Isabel Eva Bohrer


"The story of Robert Bailey Interiors must begin with the story of Robert Bailey," reads the opening of a strategic storyline that documents the trajectory of the interior design firm (http://robertbaileyinteriors.ca/). So let us turn first to Robert Bailey. Upon being asked why he became a designer, Bailey responds: “I was born this way.” Many of his earliest memories involve “arranging things to appeal to a personal sense of rightness” and in particular, he credits his mother “for her unending support and encouragement, which gave [him] permission to follow this passion.”

One thing followed the next, Bailey’s passion at the same time became his vocation, and eventually led him to found his company, Robert Bailey Interiors. “My designer instincts began as primarily about style,” he explains, “but over time have evolved to prioritize the people who inhabit our work.”

Robert Bailey Interiors focuses on highly customized, client and site-specific design. “The work of our office is primarily residential, with a lesser percentage of hospitality, retail and commercial work,” Bailey notes. “We work in a contemporary manner for lifestyles of today.” However, he also highlights that his company does not work exclusively in a modern style; on the contrary, “most of our work is a blend of styles, resulting in a very personal portrait of our clients and their desires,” he adds.

According to Bailey, it is this fact that makes his company particularly unique and successful. “We offer very personal service to our clients. And work very much in a collaborative style,” he explains. “We also 'own' our clients program and always put ourselves in their place, never designing without their needs being addressed.” Although each project is different, it is the norm that Bailey’s clients are involved throughout the design process in varying degrees.

In fact, Bailey’s inspiration frequently stems from his clients. “Inspiration comes in many forms, but usually the jumping off point is our client(s),” he observes. “As projects proceed they take on a life of their own, and the project itself becomes the inspiration.”

Both the Fairmont Penthouse and the Deep Cove, North Vancouver, BC, could be considered such projects that took on a life of their own. With regards to the former, Bailey explains that the clients “are an international couple, whose global business bring them to Vancouver several times per year.” In terms of the objective for the project, he adds that with the penthouse, he and his team sought “to create a refined, peaceful interior, that reflected our clients goals for a visually quiet space that is at once luxurious and comfortable.”

At Deep Cove, in turn, Bailey explains that the goal “was to create a contemporary pacific home to be lived in, by an active family and their guests.” (Specifically, the clients are a young family with two pre-school children and two dogs). “The house was built ground up, and every aspect of the design was considered as part of the whole,” Bailey affirms.

As is the case with the Fairmont Penthouse, almost all of the furniture was designed especially for Deep Cove North Vancouver, including custom soft and case pieces.

All in all, Bailey considers all of his projects rewarding on different levels. The “satisfaction for me is not comparable, as each experience is unique,” he explains. There is, however, a common denominator throughout: “The most rewarding principle of our design, is longevity,” Bailey affirms.

It is the longevity that has enabled Bailey to remain in the design business for over 30 years, and it appears that his company will last well into the future, too. As for his own plans for the next years, Bailey says that, “Hospitality is an area of design that perhaps allows for the most lateral thinking so this work is always exciting to produce.” All in all, however, he enjoys both private as well as public work. “We love working with clients to make their dreams concrete, and create livable spaces that are functional and unique to the user,” he concludes. 
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