Western Living Design Icon 2026: Robert Bailey

Architect Katie Hlynsky was working on a home with designer Robert Bailey when she showed him a new material she’d recently started working with as an exterior option for another project.

“I lobbed it over to Robert to think about for the interiors,” she recalls.

Bailey didn’t just think about it. He reconceived the potential in the perforated metal material entirely. He took Hlynsky’s sample and brought back mock-ups for a striking feature wall for the home’s staircase that incorporated the metal with wood.

“It was just, wow,” says Hlynsky. “He’d taken it and run with it and brought this soft bronze colour to it. It’s so beautiful and unique.”

That’s the magic of a Robert Bailey design, and it’s what makes him a Western Living Design Icon: detail, thoughtfulness and the ability to take a moment or material that could be considered merely functional and elevate it beyond expectations.

All the while, he creates spaces that feel entirely specific to the way each individual homeowner dreams of living. Bailey has a knack for transforming simplicity into an art form: an elegant mix of layers, textures, materials and tone-on-tone colour palettes.

For these reasons, Bailey tends to have clients for life. He leads conversations so holistic that homeowners can’t help but want to experience them again when they move on to their next project. His vision has been translated to vacation properties, new homes, renovations and even, in one family’s case, a private plane.

While residential design remains his central practice, he’s ventured into commercial and hospitality spaces as well. He made a big splash in his home city of Vancouver in 2001 when he designed the Opus Hotel, a space that has remained remarkably current, true to Bailey’s timeless design standards.

When Denise Ashmore of Project 22 Design was launching her own design business many years ago, she often turned to Bailey for advice.

“He’d always freely offer me pearls of wisdom,” she says.

To this day, Ashmore is consistently impressed by the complete nature of a Bailey design. “The throughline of the whole project always carries from start to finish,” she says. “You may not photograph every corner of a Robert Bailey project, but I bet you, it would all be perfect. There’s no corner left untouched.”

Designer Chad Falkenberg worked with Bailey for many years before launching Falken Reynolds with his partner, Kelly Reynolds.

“One lesson from Robert has stayed with me: design is ultimately an optimistic pursuit,” he says. “He embodies that belief in both his relationships with clients and the homes he creates. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had a front-row seat, watching that philosophy in action over five years.”

Ask Bailey himself if there’s one part of his practice that he likes best, and that positivity rings out.

“Well, I’m a very optimistic person,” he says with a smile. “So I’ve enjoyed all of it.”

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Celebrate the 2026 Western Living Design Icons

Join us at the 2026 Western Living Designers of the Year Awards on September 10 at Inform in Vancouver. Get event details and tickets.