Robert Bailey Solo Artist - Robert Bailey Interiors

DESIGNERS OF THE YEAR 2013INTERIOR DESIGNBy MICHAEL HARRISPortrait by MARTIN TESSLERRobert BaileySolo ArtistRobert Bailey’s elegant, richlylayered interiors reflect the designer’snatural optimism and love of warm,coastal modernism.Rebirth of Warm“The thing aboutbeing a designerthat really gets methe most excited isconstantly workingto do better,” saysRobert Bailey. “It’sa never-endingpursuit.”Certainly not, no,” say Robert Bailey. “No doubts. Zero.”I’ve just asked Bailey whether he ever wanted to be anything other than adesigner. From his perch on the 26th floor of the Hudson tower in downtownVancouver, this year’s Interior Designer of the Year (designer-dashing in thicktortoiseshell glasses and a tight sweep of silver hair) runs his two-man studiowith the confidence of someone who’s been in this game a long while, and theenergy of someone relatively new. In fact, Robert Bailey is both.Bailey grew up in a mid-century home in the secluded woods of NorthVancouver’s Deep Cove, where he often took it upon himself to fix his mother’sdécor—rearranging it on a regular basis. “My mother would come in, see that it66 | WESTERNLIVING.CA SEPTEMBER 2013WESTERNLIVING.CA SEPTEMBER 2013 | 67

DESIGNERS OF THE YEAR 2013INTERIOR DESIGNwas better and leave it that way,” says Bailey. “I guess I wasa bossy child, in fact. My mother seemed to look to me forapproval and direction on matters of interior design.”When an aunt, a fashion editor at The Province, hired aninterior designer to do her Kerrisdale apartment, six-yearoldBailey realized there was a potential career in all this.“It was über chic, with gilded lamps, purple velvet diningchairs, gold silk sofa,” he says. “The kind of thing a little boycould get excited about.” When he graduated from DouglasCollege’s Interior Design program in 1979, however, few Vancouveriteswere getting pro help with their interiors. “Theresimply wasn’t as much wealth, there wasn’t a large class ofpeople hiring interior designers,” says Bailey. “You basicallyhad Robert Ledingham, who blazed the trail for moderninteriors in Vancouver, and that was it.”Bailey was emotionally tied to his hometown, though, andeschewed the chance to move to a larger centre in order towork. For almost three decades he worked on commercialinteriors at Architectura, a large, 140-person firm, instead. “Alot of retail work, a lot of airport work.”Then, eight years ago, Bailey felt he had a chance to pursuehis original dream (“my original, naive dream,” he calls it).When he left Architectura, he had a multi-residential projectto work on but that job fell through just two days after heopened his new office. “It was a bigger risk than I realized.”Working on the interiors of Vancouver’s finer homesappears to have been his fate, though. In the years sinceBailey jumped ship, he’s developed a strong following andan impressive portfolio. There’s a compelling breadth tothe work itself, but there is a through-line: Bailey is alwaysinvested in quality and refinement. Judge Sandrine Lejeuneof Ledingham Design Consultants noted his “flawless detail-High Design Fora residence in theFairmont Pacific Rimin Vancouver (aboveand left) Baileycreated a space thatmanages to feelintimate, despite itssize. “It’s a spacethat you would feelcomfortable in aloneor as a group,” heexplains. “Ratherthan create isolatedseparate groupings—which you coulddo in a room thatsize—we wantedone conversationspace with sumptuousmaterials.”Inspired EleganceA home in DeepCove, B.C., (right, farright, and previouspage) was designedto be both modernand family friendly—indoor/outdoor,dog- and kidfriendly,but with arefined palette. Thedining room (right)is one of the fewclosed-off rooms.“It’s meant to reallycelebrate dinner as aseparate occasion,”says Bailey.”Thefeel was that of aprivate room in arestaurant.”Photographs by Josh DunfordQ&AWhat was yourfirst design?A Lego bungalow.What’s the greatestmisconceptionabout your job?That it’s a job. Beinga designer is allencompassing—it’sa life.Name a perfectlydesigned object.The Verner Pantonchair. A single materialdesign thatperfectly expressesand performs itspurpose (to be aseat).What everydayobject needs aredesign?Media remotes (Ican’t believe thatthey are designed).What current objectis destined tobecome iconic?The SteelwoodChair by Magis. Itembodies all thehistory of classicbentwood chairs,in a new but familiarway.Name a designerwho deservesmore attention.Ward Bennett. Hewas a master ofmodern elegance,and his refinedpoetic furniture isboth rich and spare.What’s your favouritecity?New York. It’s theoriginal moderncity: a mecca for art,design and fashion.I love how authenticallyurban andalive it is.68 | WESTERNLIVING.CA SEPTEMBER 2013 WESTERNLIVING.CA SEPTEMBER 2013 | 69