Heidi Hopkins of Hopkins Interior Design recently completed an interior re-design of the residential living spaces inside a Second Street East building. Revelstoke Mountaineer Magazine contributor Melissa Jameson sat down with Hopkins to talk about the design and how elements of the new owner’s business and personality play a role in the overall process.
Melissa Jameson/Revelstoke Mountaineer: You recently did the interior design for the residential space? How did that come about?
Heidi Hopkins: Someone recommended me to the client. He’s a young guy, he had just purchased the space and wanted to completely re-do it because it’s quite dark and dated. He gave me a lot of creative freedom and we worked together a lot initially just for me to get to know him and his personality and his esthetic. He gave me total trust to do what I wanted in there. It was fantastic.
RM: The building is a bit split up with commercial space on the main floor and living space on the upper and lower floors. Did you find it challenging to decorate two space that seem disconnected because of the commercial space in the middle?
HH: You know I didn’t. The way that I tried to create consistency is with some of the materials and the textures and some of the lighting. One thing we did is in all the stairwells leading from the upstairs to the basement we did all the same wall sconces. So, you do feel like you’re changing as you go down, and we started to increase the vibrancy and the fun as you descend into the basement. In some regards it feels like two different homes, but when you look closely there’s these small aspects that are tied throughout the space.
The upstairs [I wanted the palette] to be sophisticated and timeless and quite natural. And then the downstairs is just a fun party space where he really likes to play music and so do a lot of his friends. He’s always hosting guests and they like to have a good time and I wanted the space to reflect that.
RM: During the design you worked with several local trades, including Birch Lodge Wood Works who helped with the kitchen and beds for the basement.
HH: The cabinets in the kitchen were in really good condition and the layout was strong so it didn’t feel necessary to replace it because there’s such a cost associated with that. What we ended up doing is just redesigning the kitchen island. We reused all the cabinets that we could and then we extended it and added additional cabinetry and some paneling around to create some interest of that space and just changed all the counter tops. Birch Lodge helped with that. They also did custom bunkbeds in the basement that I had designed.
RM: You also added some personal touches to the space as well.
HH: The client owns a cider company, so they had spent a lot of money on branding, and I wanted to use that because it’s really cool. We turned that branding into artwork for the basement. That’s something that’s important for [interior design]. It’s important to include some of those personal touches where it shows you understand their personality, or you care. It feels like their home when they come in.
RM: There’s a lot of old brickwork in the building how did that factor into the design?
HH: The brick inside made it vey clear to me I didn’t want the space inside to feel ultra modern. I wanted it to feel somewhat storied and textured, so that was a big part of why the original wood trim and casing that’s in there is a dark wood, where very modern white you would just paint over but I chose to keep it because I wanted to have some history and warmth to it. It also factored into some of the colours that I selected.
RM: Are there any pieces of the design that stand out to you as central in bringing the theme together?
HH: There were so many things that I really loved about this project. I think the lighting was something that I really enjoyed — not only the artificial lighting or the lighting fixtures that we purchased, but also the natural light that came into the space — because I felt that set the tone for how we designed. It was very soothing and warm in the afternoon so that informed some of our selections. Another one was there was beautiful rug in the living room. The whole living room was great for me.
Note: This story has been updated to clarify ownership of the building.