Interior designer Susan Bilbey first saw Dinesen flooring in an art gallery in Europe and knew she had to have it for her own house back home. €œI fell in love with the warmth and serenity their long planks afforded€”like bringing the forest into the house.€ 

Credit: Ema Peter

Bilbey worked closely with custom home designer Alex Glegg and Meister Construction to build a four-bed, four-bath home for her young family and made sure to order extra Dinesen fir flooring to create a series of feature walls: one in the master bedroom, another in the powder room and the third belongs in a seating nook next to the living room fireplace. €œUsing the same distinct material throughout the house acts as an anchor and ties the spaces together,€ she says.

Credit: Ema Peter

The Vancouver home's palette is very West Coast with mist-like tones of white and grey, but Bilbey wasn€™t afraid to inject some bold colour. In the dining room, Bilbey selected a large green and blue piece in polymer resin, “Achilles Bank and Parsinana” by Tom Burrows. €œThe depth of colour in these pieces is amazing,€ says Bilbey. €œI often think: water and mountains.€

The chairs are Maruni Hiroshima. The table, a RIVA 1920, isn€™t sealed but has an oiled finish, explains the designer. The surface can be sanded down to remove any stains (€œor, marks made by say, a seven-year-old€) and then the oak can be re-oiled. €œWe've had the table and chairs now for seven years and they look as good now as the day we got them.€

Credit: Ema Peter

Credit: Ema Peter

In the playful and bright kids€™ rooms, the mounted artwork are either originals or hand-selected picks from son Charlie and daughter Eva.

Credit: Ema Peter

One of Bilbey's favourite parts of her home is that the living room doesn't have a TV. €œThe living room is for games, entertaining, conversation and reading,€ she says. €œIt feels unplugged.€

Credit: Ema Peter

The living room art is a chromogenic print from Michael Wolf called “Paris Rooftops” and It's such a conversation starter: there is one animal and one person in it, so it acts like a Magic Eye meets Where's Waldo.

Credit: Ema Peter

Credit: Ema Peter

€œI'm not a huge fan of ornamentation for the sake of filling space on shelves, I€™d rather those pieces be useful and purposeful. If I place a vase in a space, It's because I use it for flowers. If there are extra pillows, It's because they are used for extra seating.€

Julia Dilworth

Julia Dilworth