An Interior Designer’s View: Meet Rebecca from Rebecca Hepburn Design

December 02, 2021By Somn Home

During our tour of Rebecca Hepburn's recently renovated home in East Van, we learned of her appreciation for restoration over teardown. Rebecca spoke of a time her father visited from Ontario to spend time with the kids and the story of him removing carpet staples from her staircase with his bare fingers that led to cuts and blisters. The hand-finished stairway looks charming today and has become an integral part of this quaint victorian heritage home that holds so much love and fond memories.

Her home (in pictures) was designed in phases while the entire family lived in it. For us, the space felt loved, treasured, and calm. And if anyone were to ask us about our favourite part of Rebecca's home, it will have to be the wrap-around shower curtain that is hugging her stand-alone bathtub in the first-floor bathroom. In this bathroom, there is a matching roman blind in the same fabric, covering a small window that overlooks the backyard where her studio lives—talk about dreamy.

Rebecca found her passion in materials and patterns in her twenties. After finishing her undergrad she pivoted her interests to the arts and completed a program in textile surface design and returned to school for Interior Design before she started her own interior design practice, Rebecca Hepburn Design, from that point she never looked back.

We had so much fun touring her home, can't wait to share this interview with you.

Rebecca, how would you describe your design approach?

"It’s a combination of really good listening and an abundance of creativity and visualization with a backbone of technical work to support the intention. I focus largely on how homes and spaces make people feel in them. It’s not that complex to make something look nice but I try to focus on the longevity of feeling in homes and natural materials play a large part in this. Texture and dimension are also what I think makes spaces stand out as layered and thoughtful."

What are your go-to design inspiration this year?

"There has been a resurgence of colour this year and willingness from Clients to explore with it. I’ve really enjoyed this. And for the projects that are more driven by neutrals, a shift to warmer neutrals has provided this beautiful sense of comfort."

What do you love the most about living in East Vancouver?

"Community and the history of the homes here."

Tell us about one of your favourite projects this year?

"That’s a hard question. They are all quite different for their own reasons. We have a very thoughtful craftsman style home restoration project in the works, two new builds for really lovely Clients, a ranch style home in Santa Barbara and a number of smaller scale renovations interspersed between the larger ones."

We see that you have incorporated some elements of Scandinavian design in your own home, can you share a bit more about the inspiration behind this project?

"Yes, I love the aesthetic and palette of Scandinavian design. Our home and the design work behind it has largely been based on honouring the age of the home (1906 build) while refreshing it with contemporary elements."

What is your advice on choosing a good set of bedding?

"Choose a natural material and be willing to mix and match colour and palette. There are a lot of great local businesses that I like to support. They are smaller scale with a niche approach to their product offerings. I find this results in higher quality and a really apparent intention to their work and products."

What do you love about Sömn bedding and why?

"I love Sömn bedding. It’s fabricated to last and gets softer and better over time."

If you weren't an interior designer today, what other career paths do you think you would have taken?

"Working with kids. In my early twenties, I volunteered at an orphanage in Nepal. When I was there I fell in love with fabric and helping children. It was never a path that I pursued professionally but helping kids remains a key interest of mine."

One random interesting fact that we don't know about you?

"I love to cook and host family meals in our home."

Want to see more of Rebecca Hepburn's home, make sure to stay in touch @somn_home instagram for extended features!